Brittany 2

Yesterday's photos were all from walking (not very far) northward up the coast. All these ones were taken when we walked south towards the town of Arradon. We joined the coast at a little tidal estuary, where there was an old disused water mill. It was hard to get a decent photo of it, as it was built along a wall across the estuary, but that's where the barred window is.
We saw a LOT of egrets on this holiday, and never tired of them.
We didn't tire of the beautiful wheat field either, and of course seeing it under sunshine and blue skies made it even better.

Let him who throws litter on this beach be eaten by crabs

Brittany

For the first stage of our holiday we stayed in Brittany, outside a small town not far from Vannes. It was less than a ten minute walk from the campsite to the coast, and there were well organised and maintained paths along the coast in both directions. These first few pictures are all very local, taken within walking distance of the campsite.

These pictures are from the longest trip we took while in Brittany, to the Parc naturel régional de Brière. We found part of it to be very poorly signposted and wasted enough time that we never made it to Guérande afterwards, which we had hoped to. But we got to see a very interesting documentary about life in the area at the time when all the men worked in the big ship-building yard at St Nazaire.
And we did, eventually find the Réserve Ornithologique Pierre Constant, where we had a lovely walk; most of the following photos are from there. We got to see some black spoonbills, as well as a lot of different birds of prey.

on the îsle de Fedrun

view over the marshland from one of the hides

harvested reeds, outside the interprative centre at Pierre Constant

Black Spoonbill

drifting seed from some tree

France - finis

Just a few of the birds from the bird park. I can't actually remember what this first one was called - and I thought I'd taken photos of most of the signs for reference. The flash of green was just beautiful. I feel it was perhaps some type of teal.

Goose

 I did see a Night Heron perched in the hedgerow when we were having our boat trip. This one, however, was in the bird park - in the same enclosure as the storks.

We've always just driven past Morlaix on the main road, but as we were early for the ferry we decided to leave the main road at Morlaix and drive up the coast to the tip of the peninsula, and then cut across to Roscoff. We stopped along the quay in Morlaix for a walk. It was a very picturesque town - we'd definitely make a detour and spend more time there again. We missed France's tallest lighthouse, somehow.

We drove on up to Carantec, a tiny village on the north coast, and had another short walk along the cliffs.

Lighthouses reminds me that I never posted this photo from La Rochelle - it was strange to see a lighthouse that far inland. Perhaps it was to guide boats towards the lock gate into the basin, I don't know...

Quiberon

The last of our outings in Brittany was to the Presqu’île de Quiberon (presqu’île means *almost an island*). It's somewhere I can remember visiting the first time I went to France - we cycled out to the peninsula from the Perrut's house in Carnac. I remember the long sandy beaches; having grown up swimming in the Atlantic and the Irish sea it was a novel experience to swim somewhere where it was warm enough to just lie on a towel and get dry. I remember too the fact that even then there was still some barbed wire here and there in the back of the dunes, left from WW2.
It was mixed weather that day - it was quite cloudy when we were in Quiberon, at least by the time we'd had lunch. But after we were almost back to the car after a long walk it turned beautifully sunny, so we went and sat on a beach for a while. Lunch was some very nice crêpes in the Duchesse Anne - savoury buckwheat crêpes for starters, and some lovely sweet ones with apples flambéed at the table with Calvados.

Fish shop

Bakery

 A few hardy souls sunbathing before the sun actually came out. When it did, people seemed to come out of the woodwork. In this picture and the following one you can see little changing rooms (I guess) built under the esplanade.

We got to see some cirl bunting, male and female

 

Some rather fine graffiti on one of the old WW2 blockhouses

Hitching a ride

 All along our seafront walk there was a spicy smell, a bit like cloves. We never did identify which plant or bushes it was coming from, but it was certainly lovely.

C sitting on one of the beaches further back towards the mainland. We were watching some would-be kite surfers, but in all the time that we were there they never really got going. And it wasn't quite warm enough to tempt me in for a swim - paddling was enough.

Beyond Vannes

Geographically Vannes is set in the centre of the Gulf of Morbihan, more or less, so there is an arm of land out above and below it. After we left the town we drove along the southern peninsula right out to the end.
First stop was a cider museum, with tastings afterwards. There was a film, and then a self-guided tour round the old machinery, all well signed with plenty of information. There was even a bee hive, because of the importance of bees for pollination. I haven't smelled that smell since we used to have a hive in the garden when I was growing up. At the end there was a little orchard with a collection of different types of cider apples.
The photos are of two cider presses and a mobile still.
The first cider press is a central screwed one - there was also one with a long transverse beam running across the top. I'm afraid I don't know how to translate the technical terms into English.
The granite one is the only one of its type that the museum was aware of - it dates from 1929 and is cut from one piece of granite. Easy to clean was the advantage, apparently, and there was no need to take it apart each year for maintenance.

We got to taste four different ciders. The one we liked best was what they called an aperitif cider - crisp, sweet, slightly acidic. That was the one we bought a couple of bottles to take away. We also had a sweet, a brut and a semi. Me, I love the Breton cider. It's low alcohol, often only 2% or 3% abv, and it really tastes like fresh pressed apples. I wish we could get cider that good here. Traditionally in the restaurants it's served in little jugs (a pichet), and drunk from pottery (or if you're upscale, china) bowls. But when we had some down near La Rochelle, it was served in pottery beakers.

Along the way after that we stopped and went for a walk along some estuary land. We saw some egrets and plovers as well as herons and swans.

Port Navalo is the little town - if you can call it that -  at the tip of the peninsula. We had another walk here around the end of the headland...