Jul 15, 2012 - Old steam train trip from Paimpoi to Pontrieux and Picnic

Day 10: Old steam train trip from Paimpol to Pontrieux - Picnic on the Bréhat island (Monday, July 16) Breakfast: Breakfast at hotel Morning: Departure by coach for an all day field trip to Paimpol, on the “Goëlo coast”.Lecture (on bus): “Celtic heritage in the Breton culture: Language, traditional costume, music, legends…”Field trip by train between Paimpol and Pontrieux: Go on a journey back time exploring the Trieux Valley on board of a famous Pacific-class steam locomotive, listed as a Historical Monument. 20-minute stop at La Maison...

Jun 20, 2012 - In Brittany, a Celtic region....

Hi Readers, Brittany is a Celtic region in the west of France and has it's own language, Breton. Being Celtic it is linked with Scotland and Ireland, I need to ask Granny about the celts because she's one ( not the cutthroat celts!...) most rocks were pink granite only found in 3 other world (can't remember them now!). We went looking for Puffins with mum's binoculars but we didn't see any. The people that ran the gite that we stayed in we're Pauline and Simon with their 2 dogs Tea and Billow. They took me and my brothers on a big dog walk...

Aug 30, 2011 - South Brittany - l'Ile de Houat

30 Aug – Woke to find a French yacht rafted alongside us and no-one aboard, so we had to manhandle it off our boat and onto the pontoon before we could set off. Still managed to get away from Lorient by 8:30am. We had hoped to get to Le Croisic but the wind dropped in the afternoon so we anchored off a beautiful sandy beach on the south of l’Ile de Houat – 38 nautical miles in 6 hours 20 minutes. We kayaked ashore and went for a walk on the island which reminded us of the Scilly Isles. Not much here apart from lovely wild flowers, a busy...

Aug 28, 2011 - South Brittany - the Glenan Isles & Lorient

28 Aug – Sailed to l’Ile de S. Nicolas in the uninhabited Glenan Isles and anchored for lunch. Francis went for a snorkel and came back after 20 minutes tinged blue and shivering. I chilled out on the boat and enjoyed the view of the islands – they are compared to the Caribbean because of the clear water and sandy beaches and are certainly popular at lunchtime on a Sunday. Not so much wind today, so had to motor for a while in order to arrive at Lorient before dark (44 nautical miles in 8.5 hours). In the morning it turned out we were...

Aug 27, 2011 - Dolphins at Dusk

27 Aug: Set off from Camaret-sur-Mer at 13:00 and had a lovely sail in sunshine along the coast and through the Raz de Sein (another tidal race). We are now officially in Southern Brittany where, according to the tourist blurb, the sun always shines and so far it is holding true. Made such good progress that we decided to press on further than intended and cruising along at dusk a pod of about 10 common dolphins joined us and accompanied us for 50 mins - riding our bow waves and frolicking around the boat. We sat on the front of the boat...

Aug 24, 2011 - West Brittany

24 Aug – Left l'Aber Wrac’h and had a lovely sail in sunshine round the western tip of Brittany, through the Chenal du Four which can be tricky because of a tidal race, but we were near to slack water so it was fine. The coastline is spectacular with steep cliffs and sandy bays. We berthed at Camaret-sur-Mer at 5pm (51 nautical miles in 8.5 hours). Next day we had a great walk along the cliffs on the coastal path which is carpeted with heather and miniature gorse. Stayed a second night and took the kayak out the next day across the bay –...

Aug 22, 2011 - Northwest Brittany - Finisterre

22 Aug: Good wind today so we decided to press on as far as possible. Left at 11am intending to sail through the night and get round the point of Brittany. It was good sailing but quite a swell so hard to keep on course, especially in the dark! By about 2:30am neither of us had managed to get any sleep and we were exhausted, so we decided to stop at l’Aber Wrac’h – got there at about 5am to find there was no space in the marina so we had to pick up a mooring buoy outside in the dark (98 nautical miles in 17.5hrs - our longest sail yet)....

Aug 20, 2011 - North Brittany

Had a really enjoyable sail from Guernsey to the north coast of Brittany - 54 nautical miles in 9 hours. We had sunshine all the way and a lovely beam/broad reach with the genneker up. We raised the French flag and the yellow 'Q' customs flag 12 miles from France. Our first port of call in France was Lezardrieux, a pretty village on the River Trieux, between St Malo and Roscoff, with a great boulangerie. There wasn't a customs officer in sight - it turned out that the French weren't interested in us clearing customs - apparently unless you...

Aug 4, 2011 - Concarneau, France

Concarneau, France This is the last thing you want to hear if you are in the middle of a 30 day heat wave in Dallas, but in the spirit of “fair and balanced reporting”… our stop today was canceled because of bad weather! It was raining with temperatures in the high 50’s when we woke up this morning and the seas were too choppy for the small tender boats to take us ashore… so the captain canceled our stop. We are enjoying a sea day. It has continued to rain all day. Since we have had a port every day, this is a nice break… even though it was...

Aug 3, 2011 - St. Malo, France

St. Malo, France We remembered this place fondly from a visit here in ’09… it’s an ancient walled city that is one of the prettiest places we’ve seen, when approaching from the sea. It was just as we remembered it, with one exception… it was full of people this time vs. pretty empty last time! The difference is August vs. September. Like most places, it’s better to visit when the kids are in school. The weather was perfect, 70 degrees and sunny. We strolled the old city, had lunch at an outdoor café… cold beer, croque monsier and chocolate...

May 30, 2011 - Rennes vers Paris et Montréal

Bonjour ! Toute bonne chose a une fin ! Et quelle belle fin. J’avais hésité, quand j’ai fait ma planification initiale, à savoir passer mes 2 dernières semaines en Écosse où sur la côte ouest de la France, n’ayant pas encore été en Normandie et en Bretagne. Je suis heureux de mon choix : de Bordeaux à St Malo en passant par La Rochelle, .Nantes et Rennes. Tous ces endroits sont super bien. Un repos quoi, avant le retour. Un contraste avec la Géorgie. Ça m’a remis en contact avec une réalité : le coût de la vie. Rien à voir avec les pays de...

May 8, 2011 - Our last day in the countryside

Our last day in Cancale started with a couples massage at the spa, followed by a facial for Sarah. Blissful! The weather was on and off raining, and by the time we were ready to get rolling, the rain had stopped. We made our way towards the beach and did a short hike and then...picked up our mille feuille!! And let me tell you, it was worth the wait. Amazing! After that we decided to play roulette with the weather and walk out to Point du Grouin, which is the most northern tip of Cancale. We had hoped to rent bikes to ride out, but we...