A Term Break Trip to Bretagne, France, Part 3 - The Coast

The rest of our time in France was spent on the coast. We were fairly close to the border with Normandy while in Dinan, so we decided to take a drive on our last full day in France and venture just across the border to Mont St. Michel. This place is such a French icon that we were excited to see it in the distance  as we neared the Baie du Mont St. Michel. Here it is from the car window at the beginning of the causeway that attaches the Mont to the mainland.

This is one of those places that can be recognized just by its profile. Here it is from the causeway parking lot leading to the Porte du Roi, the gateway to the island.

But here is the real view - the parking lot! This is an incredibly touristy place and was overrun with people even in April on a weekday morning. I would not want to go there in August!

We did our best to avoid the crowds by walking up the Mont toward the abbey on staircases

and narrow alleyways, thereby avoiding the Grande Rue and all of the tacky tourist shops.

Our goal was to get to the abbey, a close-up pictured here,

so that we could explore its grounds. We read in The Rough Guide to Brittany and Normandy that less than a third of the island's three million visitors visits the abbey. This is amazing to me, because if you don't visit the abbey, then you have nothing else to visit but souvenir shops selling the same things or overpriced cafes. By avoiding the Grande Rue, we were also afforded some nice views of the tidal mud flats surrounding the island.  Here's a view to the southwest

and to the southeast.

And here is the island's flag. There are lots of lions on emblems, flags, and shields in France, England, and Scotland. How did that happen?

The abbey is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it is well worth this designatin. We were able to tour much of the site, including a service with music that was taking place in the main church. There were beautiful views of the Baie du Mont St. Michel, of course, and the cloisters within the abbey itself were also quite picturesque.

I thought that the arrangement of the columns was unique - here they are.

We didn't take many pictures of the inside of the buildings of the abbey, but we did get a picture of the girls in the large fireplace in the great hall. It's probably the biggest fireplace that we've seen yet.

There was an interesting "elevator" leading up to the higher reaches of the abbey that we had noticed as we made our way up the its entrance.

When we got to this part of the tour inside the abbey, we realized that it was, indeed, a primitive cargo elevator. This is the view from its terminus. The previous picture was taken from the round tower in the picture below. Notice the sled hanging from the chain. Cargo would be strapped to a sled like this and it would be hauled up the nearly vertical slope. If there was a lot of material to haul up to the abbey, they would attache an additional sled to the contraption.

A large wheel, rather like a wheel that you'd see in a gerbil cage, was the mechanism that would enable the sled to be pulled up the track. Prisoners of the abbey (yes, prisoners!) would be forced to walk on this wheel in order to supply the abbey.

That was the end of our tour of the abbey at Mont St. Michel. We returned to the causeway by way of the Grande Rue. The road was so crowded with tourists that it took us forever to get back down. We thought that perhaps we would get some lunch, or at least a snack, on the way down, but there was nothing appealing or reasonable priced, so we waited. In fact, our guide book said that the restaurants of Mont St. Michel are "consistently worse than almost anywhere in France." We would have to agree. We returned to our car and headed back to Brittany.

We took some back roads along the Baie du Mont St. Michel and headed west. Our destination was Cancale, the oyster capital of the world. We had some nice views of Mont St. Michel through the flat landscape. Its distinct shape remained visible, albeit smaller and smaller, the whole way around the bay, a distance of about 30 km.

As we drove along, we also saw many Dutch-styled windmills, evidence of Dutch influence in the region centuries ago. Many of the old core buildings of the windmills were being renovated for housing. We had a nice ride, stopping at a small grocery for some snacks before proceeding the rest of the way to Cancale. We had a nice time in Cancale. It was a beautiful day and there were many people out and about. Here is a view of the port part of town, La Houle. The town center lies up the hill about half of a kilometer.

Our first order of business was to get some coffee. We found a nice cafe, Chez Victor,

and had a tasty cup of French coffee. One of the nice things about getting coffee at a cafe is that it usually comes with a cookie.

After taking care of that priority, most of our time was spent exploring the quayside. The quay extended a good distance out into the bay, giving us great views and an excellent setting for a picture of the girls

and one last shot of Mont St. Michel, in the center of the picture and very small, with a traditional sailboat passing by.

There was even a small lighthouse.

The main reason that people go to Cancale, though, is for oysters. It is known as the oyster capital of the world.

Something unique to Cancale are the oyster "allotments." Allotments are common in England, but they are for gardening. For example, if you live in a city, you may hold title to, or rent, a small piece of land for your garden because you lack sufficient land where you live. Some people erect small garden shacks at their allotment for storage, etc., and may go there on weekends to spend time. You see similar types of shacks at beaches in England. In Cancale, residents may have an allotment, or parc, in the bay below the high tide line for farming oysters. The oysters are accessible at low tide, and may be reached by truck. The "farmers" sell many of these oysters right at the quayside. There were at least ten stands set up the day that we were there. In the next picture,

the parcs are visible as white just to the right of my shoulder. At low tide, all of the cages that they grow the oysters in would be visible. We were keen to try some oysters, and found a cafe called Au Pied d'Cheval - La Maison de l'Huitre that seemed to be a fairly typical oyster cafe.

The oyster cafes of Cancale seem to be a fairly easy operation to run. The oysters are stored in baskets right out front - they only need occasional watering.

When a customer orders, the "cook" grabs a dozen of the appropriate size, cuts them open, adds a slice of lemon and some seaweed, and voila, there's your meal.

Rebecca loved them.

We spent our last night in Brittany in Dinan once again, and then we had a last day to explore the coast before we had to board the ferry for the 11:00 pm crossing. We had all day and only 150 km or so to travel, so we decided to explore two sections of the north Breton coast: La Cote d'Emeraude (The Emerald Coast) and La Cote du Granit Rose (The Pink Granite Coast).

It was cold in the morning as we drove along the Emerald Coast. This is a less developed region than its neighbor, the Pink Granite Coast, and we were rewarded with views of cliffs and pocket beaches. We did a short walk out to the headland of Cap Frehel, pausing for a photo of the girls,

and a chance for Gwendolyn to build a cairn with Christine,

before actually reaching the furthest point on the cape.

This is also a big hatchery for shore birds and falcons and they were taking advantage of cliffs like these to nest.

We were quite cold, and the wind was biting, so we proceeded on to the village of Ploumanac'h and the Pink Granite Coast. The 'h in the village name is not a typo, but is part of the Breton-language name for the town. The coast in this part of Brittany was truly spectacular, if not a bit touristy. On the eastern side of the peninsula, the town of Perros-Guirec is a large collection of time-shares and hotels. The village of Ploumanac'h, in contrast, still has a bit of charm to it, from the small beach in the center of town, which is surrounded by large granite boulders, to the lovely trail along the coast, the Sentier des Douaniers. We had a great time walking on this trail, and spent about three hours on it. Not only did the trail give us access to the coast,

and great views, including this granite lighthouse,

but it also enabled us to climb on the boulders, which Rebecca loved,

look at some small tide pools,

and explore nooks and crannies between the boulders.

Gwendolyn even found a seat to enjoy her ice cream cone.

I also found a shoreline that it just itching for some research.

Here are a couple more views of the Pink Granite Coast,

including this interesting balancing rock.

Well, that was about it for our time in France. We still had about three hours until our ferry boarding time, so we opted for a nice meal in the strangely named Mao restaurant. In addition to its strange name, it also had Polynesian decor, which was totally out of place in Ploumanac'h. We ended up having some delicious local seafood. Rebecca tried mussels for the first time,

Christine and Gwendolyn had grilled sardines (not your tin variety!),

and I had some more oysters (which, of course, I had to share with Rebecca!).

We easily made it to the ferry port in time to get on early. We settled straight into our cabin and the girls fell right asleep. Fortunately, they slept the whole way because it was a fairly rough crossing. It was a great trip, but we were happy to return to our familiar Cornwall.