Vannes part 2

C is a sucker for boats and marinas, so I think his first view of Vannes after we'd driven through it and found a (free) car-park and he could relax, already endeared the town to him. A canal leads from the town out to the Gulf of Morbihan.

 

Vannes is an old town, and there are many timbered houses in the centre.

There's also an old castle and the old city walls and ramparts...

If I recollect the sign on the walls, the covered arcade in front of this building was where people used to do their washing in the river.

...and a small cathedral:

Vannes - part 1

I think of all the places that we visited, Vannes was C's favourite. He says he'd love to find a camp site near there and go back for longer. I remember visiting there one evening when I was about thirteen or fourteen - I can still remember the smell of the chocolate crepes we had in the car on the way home. It was less romantic in daylight, but still a wonderful place to wander around.

These photos are mostly just shop signs...Sadly the paper shop (2nd photo) was closed for their annual holiday - it would have been a lovely shop to go into and browse around.
The 6th photo is typical Quimper faïence style. I must take a photo of the little lollipops I bought for my brother's kids - their wrapping is a similar style.
The 7th photo, the little money bag, was a sign on the Crédit Agricole bank. It has a rather mediaeval feel to it, I think.

By the lake

A couple of times we visited Lac de Guerlédan, an artificial lake created in the 1920s for hydroelectric power. Being late in the season it was quiet, but there were still some watersports going on, and we saw a cruise boat going up the lake. C was impressed with the quality of the sand on the beach we stopped off at - certainly more sandy than many beaches here.

At one end of the lake is the Abbaye de bon-Repos, an old (founded in the 12th century) Cistercian abbey which had fallen into total repair, but in the '80s the local community started work on restoring it. The church is still a ruin, but the abbey building is well restored. There was an exhibition on monastic food and cooking, which was interesting to me. In the cloisters they had planted beds of wild-flowers - beautiful.

 

Model of the abbey as it appeared in the 18th century

Old pigeon loft / dovecote

By the lake

A couple of times we visited Lac de Guerlédan, an artificial lake created in the 1920s for hydroelectric power. Being late in the season it was quiet, but there were still some watersports going on, and we saw a cruise boat going up the lake. C was impressed with the quality of the sand on the beach we stopped off at - certainly more sandy than many beaches here.

At one end of the lake is the Abbaye de bon-Repos, an old (founded in the 12th century) Cistercian abbey which had fallen into total repair, but in the '80s the local community started work on restoring it. The church is still a ruin, but the abbey building is well restored. There was an exhibition on monastic food and cooking, which was interesting to me. In the cloisters they had planted beds of wild-flowers - beautiful.

 

Model of the abbey as it appeared in the 18th century

Old pigeon loft / dovecote

First stop...

...was our friend's house in Brittany - fairly central. The first time we stayed there, C fell in love with the house, but we can see Pierre's point that it's cold in winter and quite isolated. These photos were taken on a damp morning when we took a lazy day and didn't do much at all. I did walk down to the main road (about 1.5 km) to drop the rubbish back into the bins for collection. It was the only day I needed to wear shoes and socks. We did the same walk together in the evening when we went to visit somebody, after I'd assured C that it wasn't nearly as far as he thought it was. Thank goodness we both had torches - just one might have been a bit inadequate.
It's an old house -  it's been in the family for several generations. Originally it would just have been one room deep - along the front you can see the barns to the left, and the house to the right - downstairs is a kitchen (two French doors), sitting room (French door and window, and a small sitting room area to the right of the front door. Upstairs are 4 bedrooms and the bathroom, opening off a  corridor running along the back of the house. I've been in Irish farmhouses with a very similar construction. At some stage a (relatively) modern extension was built, so along the back of the house there is a boiler room, another dining room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.

In the barn/garage you can see a Breton flag hanging on the wall.