Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Pont Croix to Plage d'Aber


I've finally got the blog-headspace to spend time catching up with our travels ... starting from 9 months ago!

All, or most of, the tourists went home at the end of August so it become our time to travel. We've decided to take shortish trips for a week or so at a time, to enable us to really get to know Brittany, and were very curious to see what was on the peninsula we look across Douarnenez Bay to.

Here's the map of the there-and-back trip we did.


Our nearest town of Pont Croix

There's an interesting corner of Pont Croix, our nearest shopping town, with ruins which look either Roman or just plain very old, and there's never been a time for us to stop, on our various shopping-trips-with-a-purpose. It turns out they are just plain very old ruins, and centred around the usual laundry bath (lavoir) which you find in most rural towns in Brittany.

It was a peaceful stop for an hour or so in Pont Croix while we soaked up the sun and took photographs of the lavoir. I'll let the pictures tell the story:

Leaving our car on the hill of the main road leading into Pont Croix
we wandered towards the ruins which had piqued our curiosity.

This is the small park area above the intriguing bits, which we can see from
the road every time we pass on our way in to do our shopping.


An ancient iron loop in the wall for tethering horses, which
we passed as we walked up the hill in Pont Croix

If you can read the text on these images (above and below)
it'll give you an idea of the history of these ruins.



Reflections on a warm autumn day

Alan took this pic from a patch of park a few steps up from the lavoir.
This is the closest that I like my photograph being taken!
You can see me at the furthest right hand corner of the lavoir.

Looking towards the main road which enters Pont Croix from the north

How many feet, through the years, have contributed to the wearing
of these stone steps? Probably more female feet, seeing as it's the
laundry area ... I was listening for the chatter and laughter of their lives.
Didn't hear it of course ... but it was fun to imagine.

Himself with his trusty white hat protecting his fair skin from sun ravages.

When you see how often lions come up in history (eating the Romans
for example) and how often sculptures are dedicated to them probably worldwide,
you tend to wonder if there were millions more of them around in times past.

Ha! I bet you thought those lion sculptures were bigger! Thanks to
my lovely long camera lens I can do lovely detail shots :-)

We're all intrigued by gates and doorways - especially old ones with
stories to tell. Here, more than the gate, I enjoyed the rocks which
form the archway.

It's likely the taller, more solid, arched building is fairly modern, built
to suit the style of the older one and to house more modern plumbing.
But, it's beneath the more modern structure that those lions are sitting,
so maybe they're not as old as I would like to believe!

Someone had fun with this sign!

... and on towards Pont l'Abbe and Brest

We take side roads along our meanderings quite often. That is, if they promise to be wide enough for our motorhome! In this way you come across "real" folk and their lifestyle, including animals and activities, which we love.

On this trip we spotted a bee keeper tending his hives, paragliders (what a stunning day for it!), cyclists and farmers herding their cows.

The bee keeper looking very alien

Miss Daisy. She came running straight towards us, beautiful lady ...
and this was her countryside ....


Paragliders like dragon flies in the sky


Another perk of taking the side roads and farm roads are
the gardens and quaint houses you pass. The road often passes
through farms, cutting through and separating the main farm house and barns,
many of which are now gites and holiday cottages.
There was just enough space to pass through slowly here ...



Just after meeting Miss Daisy the cow, we stopped by the side of the
Tregarvan River which looks like a lake but it's just wide as it almost reaches the sea.
This is the view before we found the road down to the river harbourside
where all the leisure boats are moored.

We took Bridie for a bit of a walk up alongside the boat moorings and
spotted this attractive modern bridge through a gap in the trees.

Alan and his trademark hat with Bridie collecting a history of sniffs.

How are these for lovely clouds!

Above and below the leisure boat moorings on the Tregarvan River


That's enough for today ... it's ending up as a long post with all the images I want to keep! Next post I'll chat about the bay, and our relaxing week, at Plage d'Aber.


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