Brittany - Where Did We Stay Last Night?

We are moving so fast I can't remember where we stayed last night, the night after we left the hotel near Arradon where we took the 8 km. walk on the Gulf of Morbihan. Found the bill - we stayed near Larmor-Barden at Le Parc Er Grec (the Bretons have their own language and it produces names which do not look French.) We stayed there because we wanted to see Pointe De Raz, one of the famous end-of-land promontories which abound on the coast of Brittany. Actually "Raz" was a little too organized for us with a pay parking lot, elaborate facilities and a shuttle to take you the mile to the point if you don't want to walk. Impressive but too touristy. Yesterday's Pointe De Pen Hir was more primitive and better. As was the Menez Hom, a panoramic viewing point on the way.

After Pen Hir we drove a long way northwest to finish the day in a converted manor house right on the tip of the Cote De Granit Rose in the town of Perros-Guirec. Here our room looks out at a wild sea and the wind howls.

Yesterday was perfectly sunny and approximately 78 to 80 degrees. And the good weather is predicted to stay for four more days. I wouldn't want to be here in bad weather or in the winter - although natives say the winter can be mild. By the way, most buildings in Brittany are made of stone, no doubt because of the abundance of that material.

To fuel ourselves for the rigors of the day we had a shellfish platter for lunch, featuring the bounty of the region.

Photos are not necessarily in sequence.

Good news! We will stay 2 nights in St. Malo after today's stupendous hike near Perros-Guirec. The photos today will show in the next post. Imagine! Two whole nights in the same place!

My guide points to the U.S. at the Pointe De Raz

The other direction

I don't remember what restaurant put this puzzler on the bathroom doors. I guessed correctly the left was a pre-revolutionary fop, representing MEN.

The bar/restaurant in the port of Doelan where we stopped for a snack of Breton oysters and a glass of rose. The local patrons who entered went around shaking everyone's hand, including mine.

In that place the man on the right had the look of a typical Breton.

A view from that 8 km. walk on the Gulf of Morbihan

Another view from that walk

The bay in Arragon at the end of the walk

On the way back to the hotel - a boat waiting for a painter

Entrance of the Hotel Le Parc Er Grec

On our day trip to Ile aux Moines at low tide island women dig for mussels and scallops

On the island a worker has to haul equipment to his truck because the streets are too narrow

My guide leads the way around Ile aux Moine at low tide, showing me the oyster beds.

All I can think of is the bed in my hotel

Lunch restored my spirits

The ferry going back

Locals of all ages store dinghies with which to go back and forth to their boats

View in the Pointe de Raz area - very rocky

View from hotel in Audierne where we stayed a night

View across the harbor from our window

Demonstrating the proper way to look at a panorama at Menez-Hom

Shellfish Platter

Remains of Shellfish Platter

Sunset from bathroom window of the Manoir du Sphinx in Perros-Guirec on the north coast of Brittany, the end of a long day of seeing rocky capes and panoramas.

Our rented Volvo entering a parking spot alongside the Manoir du Sphinx

View from our room

Out of order: Serious rocks at Pointe du Raz

My guide considers climbing down for a swim.

Rennes and Vannes (I Think They Rhyme)

After two nights in Chartres we left for Rennes. That day featured two amazing bewilderments. First, on the way to Renne we somehow got 50 kilometers north of where we wanted to be. We can't figure out how that happened. Maybe it has something to do with the French penchant for naming towns after saints. So if there was a saint named Gibaud there will ten towns of that name in France.

Anyway, a helpful Breton cafe owner put us back on the right track.
The supreme bewilderment came later, after the secondary stress of finding our way into the old town center in Rennes. It had to do with finding our hotel in Rennes. Somehow, in my state of jet-lag, overcome with tiredness and natural stupidity I had got it into my head that our hotel had 150 rooms. So, when the GPS said we had arrived and I saw the big backside of a white apartment building, I thought it was the hotel, except, due to the complications of the streets we couldn't get in front of it. After a half hour of confused and maniacal conversations with the hotel I finally realized it was not the hotel. The hotel was a 26-room converted manor house, Lecoq-Gadby, located one block before the apartment building.

A short rest and a really outstanding meal in La Coquerie, the one-star restaurant in the hotel somewhat restored our equilibrium. I will review that restaurant in Trip Advisor when I have time. The chef, Julien Marie, really blew us away.

On the next day we walked around the old section of Rennes before leaving for Vannes. Not bad. Big renovations are going on in Renne and it is not as consistently medieval as Vennes. But worth seeing.

Vannes is a lovely port town, with a fine old section right off the marina/center, graced by a lovely moated chateau in the center. beautifully adorned with flower gardens and a great Saturday-morning food market, which we were lucky enough to see the day we left. We added a good cantaloupe and fresh figs from France and Spain to our emergency car supplies. Occasionally such things take the place of a meal when the timing is not right for a food stop.

Emergency food stop after realizing we were 50 kilometers away from where we thought we were. Cantaloupe, plums and a good cheese.

Rennes street. It wasn't easy clearing all the pedestrians out for this shot.

Rennes chateaux. WRONG! This was the town of Vitre where we stopped before Rennes.

Medieval houses now feature ethnic restaurants

Military memorial ceremony in Rennes

Facades in Rennes

Street named after former mayor

View from our garret room facing the marina. Crudely lightened with Photoshop - that explains the lines.

View towards our hotel from the opposite direction. We got lucky with on-the-street free overnight parking near the hotel.

Vannes houses

Cantaloupe selection in the Saturday food market in Vannes. It extended for many blocks.

Fish Market in Vannes featuring the famous Shellfish Twins behind the counter

Cleaning the Squid by turning it inside out and removing a membrane.

Six Types of Garlic

Château de l'Hermine in Vannes - an old fort

Another view of Château de l'Hermine's  moat and a street

Chartres

We hit the ground running after our arrival at Orly on an overnight flight from JFK. The frustration of a long wait at Hertz (because they couldn't find the medium-size Peugot we ordered) ended with an upgrade to a big, fancy Volvo, full of bells and whistles. It was a mixed blessing but made for a very comfortable ride. The roads and parking places of France are not made for big cars, particularly in old town centers.

Anyway, within three hours after landing we arrived at our hotel in Chartres, notwithstanding some rain and intermittent doubts about whether we were really following the right roads out of Orly. This was our first attempt to use a GPS. We had brought one along and are gradually getting used to it. The Volvo also had one but we did not want to take the time to master it.

Chartres has two sights which are extraordinary. They are at opposite ends of the spectrum of human achievement. The cathedral is the work of countless people over centuries and is certainly worth seeing. We were lucky to be able to join a tour by Malcolm Miller, a man who has devoted his life to study of the cathedral and to leading English-language tours for more than fifty years. The stained-glass windows are very interesting, particularly when viewed through binoculars. I think there are 176 of them and at least 174 are worthy of close study. One doesn't realize that each segment of the window is quite large, about four feet square. Miller emphasized the "reading" of the windows in the manner of books (which the illiterate people of the Middle Ages did not have) mostly starting at the bottom left panel and reading to the right and then up to the next row. Also, the windows and the fine sculptures which adorn the exterior are heavily focused on relating the story of Jesus to the Old Testament, to point out  the ways in which the life of Jesus was prefigured in the Old Testament.

For me however, the Maison Picassiette was more of a thrill than the Cathedral.  The Maison Picassiette is a private home and garden a few kilometers outside Chartres which was entirely covered by Raymond Isidore over a period of thirty years, inside and out, with mosaic of broken plates. He was a municipal employee who died in the 60s. In my opinion it is one of the world's great works of individual art.

Our stay in the Grand Monarque Hotel was embellished by good food. First a stunningly good and simple meal in the hotel restaurant  and then a first-class treat in its one-star Michelin restaurant, Les Georges.

Chartres town does a light show at the cathedral and on buildings throughout the old town.

These days it's not easy to find an old Frenchman with a cane walking down a narrow street.

Did you know that Abraham's near sacrifice of Isaac and substitution of a ram prefigured the sacrifice of Jesus? One wonders who Jesus prefigures.

Malcolm Miller gave a very interesting tour of the Chartres Cathedral

I think this series of interesting windows shows Old Testament biggies carrying New Testament biggies on their back - a rather direct illustration of how they laid the foundation, so to speak.

Detail from Maison Picassiette.

Exterior wall

Upper part of wall showing Chartres Cathedral and the town.

Interior Walkway

Patio

House interior

Decorated pipe.

House exterior

Wall

Another wall

This type of half-timbered medieval house is seen in Chartres. But nothing compares with Maison Picassiette.