Another glorious morning of bright blue skies, though heavy with autumn dew.
We cooked ourselves breakfast this morning instead of munching our way through pain au raisins and croissants – we treated ourselves to a bacon sandwich and scrambled egg on toast followed by cups of Yorkshire tea.
I went for a shower, noting that this was the best so far for hanging your stuff whilst showering. A bit alarmed to find a man in his underpants wandering around (must stop being so British), but good facilities. Later, it was my turn to do the washing up, only to find the sinks were in the same room as the showers, loos and washbasin – luckily it wasn’t busy, but a guy came in and went into one of the toilet cubicles behind me. So weird.
So we packed up and headed out towards Bendodet. Hubby went there when he was nowt but a nipper and wanted to go back and reminisce. We dropped down onto the front, looking across the Bay of Biscay twinkling in the sunshine, a wide sandy beach swooping around in a graceful arc. We parked up on the street, in bays where a sign declared “no vehicles more than 3.5t”. We were heavy, but not that heavy, so we jumped out and walked along the wide promenade lined with trees. It was very beautiful, clean and tidy. Benodet had an air of wealth about it and the people strolling around reflected that. It also felt it was a place where retired people came to live. It was very quiet as if it was taking a deep breath after a frenetic summer which was nice. We wandered the length of the bay and curved around into the mouth of the river l’Odet where sailing boats raced or gently bobbed in the current. We got to a point where it looked like it was becoming more like a port area and a little more industrial, so we turned back, looking for a cafe and a coffee. There was one place overlooking the sea that was busy, but had room when we first passed – by the time we came back, it was heaving. We looked the menu, we only wanted coffee and cake, but it was a full lunch menu. We carried on, but only found a couple more which were closed. So we went back to the Van, past these little doors under the promenade – the French version of our beach huts, but all concrete and metal doors. Very utilitarian and no romance whatsoever.
https://www.benodet.fr/en/discover-benodet
We had a think about what to do next and we began to Google (awful that we rely so much on technology, but it’s so easy and convenient). We found the Pointe du Moustenil, a view point further along the coast so we drove to that – we would have onboard cheese and biscuits and no doubt, a cuppa when we arrived. There was no coastal road, so we had to drive inland before heading down the next headland. There were a lot of Grand Design styled housing – the angular box with big windows – dotted around here, mixed in with traditional housing. We’ve seen quite a few spectacular ones since starting our trip.
We were back on the coast, with another sprawling beach and after a bit of messing around, we parked up on the road again and looked out over the waters. We made ourselves a cuppa and broke into the cheesy biscuits, sitting on the side door of the van with our binoculars, scanning the view. The coastline swept around down towards L’Orient and out in the distance was a cluster of islands. It was a beautiful day and very warm. Just perfect.
https://www.tourisme-fouesnant.fr/en/discover/the-destination/the-three-points/mousterlin
We decided to head to our next campsite, Les Sables Blanc in Concarneau and have a quiet afternoon. We had a lovely corner pitch under the trees with nobody around us. We sat for a while before deciding to head into town.
https://www.brittanytourism.com/destinations/the-10-destinations/quimper-cornouaille/concarneau
We walked through a wooded area and then onto another pathway which could have been a disused railway – it just had that feel. Anyway it did the job as it popped us out by the busy port and round the corner from the town centre. So we had a stroll through town, a few shops still open at 6:30, before dropping down onto the sea front and walking back towards our campsite. It was still quite warm with clear blue skies – you couldn’t get better weather. A few people were in the sea, having a late evening swim. We found a little restaurant at the bottom of the road – we sat outside and ordered beers and a seafood platter which was huge and delicious. Just what we wanted. We sauntered back up to the campsite and the Van just as it got dark.
We have been noticing on French roads that instead of embarking on multi million pound widening schemes for cycle paths, the French just get a pot of paint out, paint lines down either side of the road and designate it cycle/pedestrian. In some places, cars are reduced to one lane, but they can enter the cycle lane to let oncoming cars past. It is so simple, but the French (and other countries) give priority to cyclists and pedestrians – we’ve seen a lot more people just cycling around, getting shopping or whatever rather than our lycra clad club cyclists – it helps that their roads are not so congested than ours and the different attitudes to other road users.
On our little tour of the town, we discovered that there’s a market on tomorrow. So an early start, grab a parking space in town and see what the market has to offer!
