Men in tights

Tuesday 31^st May

We decided we’d visit the castle in Fougeres this morning rather than do the 200k back to catch it later. The weather was very ordinary today – overcast and a cold wind, and threatening rain. The rain held off long enough for us to do the tour. It was fabulous and they have presented it so well with a good audio guide. This castle is regarded as one of the best preserved castles in Europe. We are glad we didn’t miss this one and it was interesting to hear a bit of the history – seems like in medieval times they were always at war with each other. There was always someone looking to bump someone else off the top perch.

This is the imposing entrance to the castle. There was a moat inside the first entrance, as well as the one outside.

This water race was alongside the moat inside the castle walls and is still in operation.

A few shots of the towers of the castle. There are 11 towers in this castle. 

Walking the ramparts.

We thought they were waiting for the castle to open, but there are 'no dogs allowed' on this tour.

We are glad we found this castle - we only happened to come here because it was about half way between where we were and where we need to be to go to Guernsey. Until we came here we'd never heard of Fougeres and had no idea there was a castle here. 

After the castle we just hit the highway to try and cover the 200k so we could get to the Guernsey ferry departure place while it was early enough to work out what the go is tomorrow. We stopped at a fuel/food stop on the highway for lunch. We’ve had a couple of these and they are usually pretty good and reasonably priced. We learn something new each time though – this time we figured out there was a microwave if you want to heat your meal up a bit, and they do have free water.

The ferry departs from a little town called Dielette, almost to the tip of France, near Cherbourg. Hope it’s not so windy tomorrow or it could be a rough crossing. It’s only 1 hour so hopefully I will be OK with the seasick tablets.

The rain arrived just before lunch today and continued most of the way here. We saw on the news at breakfast this morning that they have had lots of rain and flooding north of Paris. I don’t think it is anywhere we plan to go.

Lock, lock, lock, lock, castle!

Monday 30^th May

Today it was time to say goodbye to our very comfortable accommodation for the past week. We were on the road by 9.30 with the destination for today being Fougeres – about half way to Cherbourg where we will be for 2 nights for the ferry trip to Guernsey.

We took to the back roads again driving through crop and dairy lands. Traffic on these back roads is so quiet that you can slow down to take pictures or look at the interesting villages along the way. We stopped near the village of Hede-Bazouges where there is a series of 11 locks on the Rance canal over a distance of around 2 kilometres. No boats to be seen through the locks when we were there but it would be interesting to see one traverse all the locks.

Looking downriver at the lock system. There were a few boats tied up here and they looked to be permanent accommodations.

It was hard to get photos that clearly showed all the locks.

From here we decided it was lunchtime so we headed further on in search of a relais. Dora was no help and led us up the garden path once, and 2 little villages that we passed through had nothing – not even a bakery. We had given up in disgust and decided just to head for Fougeres on the main road, and there it was; lunch stop for the day. Service was pretty lousy, probably because we arrived late (around 1.30) but we had our 4 courses and coffee for the grand sum of 24euro.

Driving in to Fougeres and we could see a pretty impressive fortress, so after checking in to our (familiar) accommodation we headed off in search of the tourism office to see what there was to see in Fougeres. We only picked this town because it was about the right distance for a day’s travel, but there is a fabulous chateau here to see. We didn’t do the tour because we arrived too late in the day to get the most out of our tour, so we plan to come back here after we have been to Guernsey.

The belltower in the town of Fougeres.

Looking down on the chateau from the church in the centre of town.

Looking back up at the belltower from the chateau.

The medieval part of Fougeres from the XIV and XV century. 

And a nice 2CV.

Inside the church of St Sulpice which dates to the XIV century. There was a granite carving like this on either side of the church and lots of timber throughout the church. Another beautiful church.

The chateau at Fourgeres. XIth century and was the military stronghold of the area. There are 11 towers and the fortress encloses 2 hectares. 

And it had a real moat.

Not sure if they were catching any fish in the moat.

We are back in familiar type hotels from our last visit to France – this one is called Beausejour and has very much the look and feel of a FastHotel or Premiere Classe that we stayed in 2 years ago. It’s only a bed and we are off in the morning so glamour would be wasted. We are both feeling pretty tired tonight so we just shared a baguette for dinner and a cup of tea and will be headed for bed early.

They didn't rock my world...

Sunday 29^th May

Today we headed south to the village of Quiberon which is on the end of a narrow peninsula. We just passed through the village and headed to the scenic coastal road. They call it the Cote Sauvage – I guess that is the savage coast but the water didn’t look too savage today. It was another foggy day so some of our photos were just too clouded to be worth keeping. There were some pretty interesting rocky formations along the coast.

A lovely chateau at Quiberon. I never get sick of seeing these incredible 'homes'. Imagine living in one - they would be impossible to heat and keep warm without the wall sized tapestries.

Next stop was the megaliths at Carnac. It really just looks like a bunch of huge rocks in a paddock but carbon dating puts them back to around 4000BC (Neolithic) and they have been somehow carted here and lined up in rows. They are not 100% sure of what these rows of rocks really mean but believe they surrounded village compounds, and some were burial tombs. I was a bit unimpressed with this lot of rocks, probably because there was no useful information at this site.

We haven't seen too many birds though probably seen and heard more than we did last trip to France. As I sit here typing I can hear birds twittering.

Some of the megaliths at Carnac - these stand in long rows though we couldn't find a spot for photos that showed the rows to good effect.

This truck is doing a trip around the world. Not sure where he started from and where he has already been but what an adventure.

More of the megaliths at Carnac - these are a burial tomb.

Lunch stop today was in the town of Trinitie sur la Mer. This is a real yachties paradise – real yachts with masts and sails. There were hundreds of yachts here from little baby ones to the huge ocean going trimarans. One group of yachts had just returned from a week’s racing and were busy unpacking and cleaning up. It was not a weekday so no relais lunch for us; just a quiche in a café on the beachfront.

Dad would have loved this trimaran - and could probably have spent hours looking at all the yachts here.

Your dog of the day - is a teddy. This was one of the yachts cleaning up after their race.

The promenade where we had lunch at Trinitie sur las Mer.

Cottage and blockhouse on the point just out of Trinitie sur la Mer.

How's this for a few yachts - hope they don't all want to leave at the same time.

These yachts had just returned from a week long race.

The megaliths at Locmariaquer were more interesting. There were 3 different lots of ‘stones’. One stone was originally standing and was around 21metres high but they believe it broke and fell during an earthquake and is now 4 pieces. This type of rock is not found in the immediate area and they believe it was somehow hauled here from a site about 10k away. One The second rock formation was once a burial tomb – it originally consisted of a huge stone slab perched on other upright stones. The final formation is another large slab on a burial tomb but for 100m or so north and south there is a large formation of rocks. We saw a video here – in English – so were able to get a better understanding of what we were seeing.

A burial tomb - the slab on the top of the door is huge and goes all the way back into the cave. 

This is inside the cave and one of the rocks supporting the ceiling slab.

These 4 pieces of stone were once the stone known as the Great Menhir which stood 21 metres high.

We called an early finish to the day as tonight we need to pack ready to head on tomorrow. I will be sorry to leave here as it has been very comfortable for us and we have had a great time exploring Brittany. But, more of France awaits us. 

It's iris time here in France - this one is just outside the gate to our gite. Beautiful!

A dog in the fog

Saturday 28^th May

Ho hum. We spent the day at the hillclimb. (Sorry - lots of car photos)

Not as bad as all that actually. It was interesting to see how they do it here in France. 

The hillclimb was near the village of Saint-Goueno which was about an hour from where we are staying. The course is 3.2km long which Rob says is unheard of in Australia.

Another foggy start to the day - but the fog lifted by lunchtime and it turned out to be a beautiful day. I think we are both sun and wind burnt.

Long drop dunnies - as Rob says I guess when the event is over they just lift the  boxes and fill in the hole.

This weekend is a round of the French hillclimb championship, with an invitation group of what they call ‘masters’ from the UK (England, Ireland, Guernsey and Jersey). The day started off interesting when I heard them talking about an Aussie who had bought a car to run the course. So we tracked him down – Tom Hackett from Coffs and his wife Marguerite. They are over in England and France for 10 months – bought an RV, and a competition car with trailer. He did a couple of events in England and hopes to pick up another couple in France. Good to be the only Aussie competing as he got a bit of air time on the PA.

This is Tom Hackett from Coffs Harbour. With his car and motorhome. The car is road registered so they can use it to get around when they park the motor home in a caravan park.

 

Car 240 - Tom the Aussie.

 

The tent on the left is the food and beer/wine tent.

The other funny thing that happened – Tom introduced us to an English fellow from Guernsey and it turned out that his surname is LeMaitre which is the family name (Rob’s Mums side) that we are going to track down in Guernsey. Going back eons they are probably 3^rd or 4^th cousins 27 times removed.

Lunch at the event is like events at home – sausages wrapped in a galette (which is a buckwheat crepe), not my favourite, and fries. The event stops for 2 hours for lunch – this is the French way, they always have a long lunch. It is interesting that the competition does not stop drivers and everyone else from having a wine or beer at lunchtime.

Lots of dogs at the event - thankfully most were on leads. 

The spectator point was well set up with PA system (French of course) and a big screen which showed the cars approaching and leaving the spectator point. Funniest thing we heard though was if a car got very twitchy through the hairpin the announcer was heard to say ‘Ooh la la!’.

Approaching the hairpin

A car

Another car

And another 

And another 

And another 

And some minis for someone we know

After a long day out dinner tonight was take away pizza. 

As we had no fixed plan from here we decided to stay on an extra 2 nights and we leave here on Monday. Tomorrow hopefully will be a shorter day and we might head to the south. We’d like to pick up a crab tomorrow to try before we leave Brittany.