Wednesday, June 29, 2011

From Vannes to Quimper

It was another busy and fascinating day in France. We ate breakfast at our B&B, set off at around 9:30 AM, drove back roads along the coast through some stunning countryside, took a short hike to an abbey gate (we didn’t go in because it seemed too expensive for what we’d see), looked at a castle where Rasputin lived for a while (we decided not to tour it because it didn’t seem worth the 12 Euro it would have cost to enter the gates), ate lunch and shopped around in a seaside town called Concarneau (the old city was surrounded by ramparts and I was amazed by the advanced architecture that kept the sea at bay),  got takeout from small pizzeria (there wasn’t even seating inside and the man gave us a free pizza because the people hadn’t arrived to pick it up, so it was going to waste), and relaxed in our room. 

Outside of Vannes

As I recently posted on Facebook, I’m all cuted out. In my travels, I’ve never been to a place as adorable, cute, and just durn beautiful as France. Accuse the French of whatever you want, but you can’t label them as being uninterested in aesthetics. As you travel though France, you realize that to the people living here, beauty is life. You sense that appreciation of quality in everything you see, smell, or taste and that care is causing me to fall in love with this country.


In our adventures today, we passed though breathtaking countryside filled with forests, wheat, corn, or rolled bales of hay; wandered though villages composed of houses with plastered white walls, roofs painted black, and brightly painted shutters of dark blues, reds, or other bold colors; and strolled along beaches of fine, blisteringly white sand. When we arrived at our B&B this evening, my senses were over stimulated by all the beautiful things we had seen today and I’m not sure I can take much more adorable, though I’m sure there’s more on the horizon. 

Though we had vowed to take it easier today, we still managed to pack in a number of activities. We drove through a number of seaside villages (Carnac, Quiberon, Plouhamel, St-Pierre-Quiberon, Étel, Gavre, Belz, and Erdeven), saw the amazing megliths at Carnac and walked along the beach there, ate lunch at a créperie, explored an old fort, took a short break from our travels to eat some sorbet and drink a Perrier at a small boulangerie/patisserie, tracked down some freshly made goat cheese, and ate a lengthy dinner at our B&B with another guest. I was thrilled because I was able to understand almost all the conversation, though I had a difficult time speaking in French.


Tomorrow it’s on to Quimper!