Part 3

Notes on our Trip 3

Click on photos to see a slide show of the area

Monday June 11 to Lancieux
Pedometer: 18.5 km (20.5 km on Gmaps Pedometer)

"Pick up your hike at the coastguard’s trail and follow it toSaint Lunaire and thePointe du Decollé. From here, the entire Emerald Coast is before your eyes."

Lost twice today! Once at Le Nick where the path was badly marked and the winter barriers were still in place. The path was a little narrow and unused. There were spots where it was falling away. We asked a lady who showed us the correct path but I think she said right instead of left. So we walked down the D786 to get into St. Lunaire. Took a while with all the back and forth and looking at the map. Of course as usual, the road had no number on it until we already knew where we were.

At Lancieux we made another error - we took the second slipway since the instructions mentioned walking along the beach - it should have been the first one. Cold mist got up in Lancieux when we arrived, so we were cold and lost! We had to ask some pedestrians. When we phoned the hotel and told them where we were, they could not tell us how to get to the hotel!

Got upgraded to their three star hotel (annex) next door. It is a vintage seaside hotel that has been totally renovated. Very nice!

Very good cooking tonight. Both started with pink shrimp flambéed with whisky. Delicious - served with a beurre blanc type of sauce with mustard. F followed with bass and R monk fish Amorique. Apple pie to finish. It always amazes me that such good cooking appears in such a small town.

Tuesday June 12 to Le Guildo
Pedometer: 17.5 km (19 km on Gmaps Pedometer)

"You will walk to the long beach of St Sieuc and continue along the coast path to the beach of Briantais and to the bottom of the Lancieux bay, strange world made of hardened sludge covered by sea vegetation. "

The view from Pointe du Chevet was worth the walk. Lots of little islands, beaches everywhere, blue water with sand bars - looks Mediterranean or perhaps, the Thousand Islands in Ontario. I always used to think the Great Lakes looked like the sea - now the sea looks like the lakes. You walk beside a field or woods and the sea is sloshing against the rocks blow.

The ruined Château de Gilles de Bretagne are surprising as you come across it on the path beside the sea.

Had mussels as a starter (hotel said they were now in season). They were good. R had skate (good) and F salmon. Tarte tatin and chocolate/banana mouse for dessert.

Wednesday June 13 to St Cast de Guildo
Pedometer: 11 km (10 km on Gmaps Pedometer)

"Pointe du Bay where thousands of wooden stakes (bouchots) are planted into the sand for the cultivation of mussels."

Poured with rain around noon. Rain wasn't bad so we didn’t bother with our rain pants. But our feet and legs got soaked from the underbrush. Cut short our journey when we reached our hotel. The walk was meant to go around the headland but we were too wet and the views would have been non-existent.

This is bad for our waist lines - we had tea with pastries as well as a bottle of cider before dinner. Did laundry and the tourist bureau across the street from the laundromat had public internet access.

F had fish soup and R shrimp. F had a fish/shellfish taster and R scallops.

Thursday June 14 to Pléhérel-Plage
Pedometer: 22 km (22 km on Gmaps Pedometer)

"From here, you walk hinterland by some small hamlets to reach the sea at the other side of this peninsula named the 'Pays de Frehel'."

Got lost at Port St Jean. Took path up the first brook instead of the next brook. Ended up on D13 at Les Rochettes. Started to walk back to St Cast because a workman said the sea was that way! Knew it was wrong but didn't know where we were. Very discouraging to see a sign advertising the hotel we had left a couple of hours before! Asked again and found our location. Walked back down to where we came out of the woods and on to St. Jean and the Moulin de la Mer. Joined GR34 again - the GR markings are bad around here. Rather discouraging but we found our way.

A long walk especially in the rain when it is warm and we are wearing our water proofs.

Stopped for coffee at hotel in Petit Trécelin.

The food was good here although the scribe seems to have forgotten to mark down any details! First hotel room with and electric toilet.

Friday June 15 Circuit Fort la Latte and Cap Fréhel
Pedometer: 12 km F says it was longer - looked on Gmaps Pedometer and it shows 17.5 km.

"You will follow the coastguard path to one of the most beautiful sites in Brittany : Le Cap Fréhel. But you first come upon the Pointe de la Latte from which rises Fort La Latte, a castle built in the 14th century, renovated in the 17th century and restored again only recently. It looms 60 meters above the sea. "

When through Pleveron and bought lunch. A bakery made us ham sandwiches - a whole baguette cut in half for each of us! We also got some of their fig bread (according to the sign in the bakery, it was only available 1 day a week, so of course we had to have it! Took side roads all the way to the east shore where we picked up the GR34. The "C" road was more minor than the "D" road - not sure how the road numbering works in France.

The access path to the GR34 was very muddy. R put his foot in up to the shin, F had more luck.

The GR to Fort la Latte was up and down and took quite a while. We arrived at 11:30 after leaving the hotel at 8:40, buying lunch perhaps took 10 minutes. Rained a little.

Visited the fort - not a lot to see but great views all around. Very windy even though it was not a windy day. After visit we had lunch sitting beside the GR overlooking the sea and the fort.

The path from the fort to Cap Fréhel is very different from the path to the fort - it is over moors beside the cliff - quite flat with gorse and heath type plants. Lots of yellow and purple.

Had coffee/chocolate + Perrier in the Falconier cafe on the cape near the lighthouse - good view of the birds beside the sea. Saw lots of cormorants today.

The old GR path back to Pléhérel is in bad shape - a lot of cliff is falling away so the GR path took the road a lot. At a huge municipal campground near the hotel, the heavy rain started so we just walked through to the main road where we had come in yesterday. Got quite wet but not nearly as bad as the first day of our walk.

Sitting down to a bottle of cider - I think we have grown to like this stuff. Still, no report on the food - perhaps it was the cider to blame. It was quite good though!

Saturday June 16 to Erquy
Pedometer: 7 km (11 km on Gmaps Pedometer)
Took a shortcut just after the old rail bridge to go directly to Erquy since the rain had set in.

Good food at the hotel. R had terrine of skate, and gourmand F had that plus smoked salmon plus foie gras! F had choucroute de mer and R bass in beurre blanc. Very good. Apple pie and tarte tatin to finish. Good last walking meal.

Sunday June 17 Train from Lamballe to Rennes
Taxi took us to Lamballe where we took the train to Rennes. The ticket office was closed at the station and only opened 15 minutes before the train left. There were not many people taking the train. The station is small enough that you have to cross the line to get to the other platform (there are tunnels for the lines where the TGV runs). One last chance to see Rennes - the art gallery (some good stuff). We stayed at the Ibis hotel at the train station.

Monday June 18 TGV to CDG, Fly back to Toronto
Long day today. Took the 6 a.m. TGV to CDG and then the flight stopped in Quebec City. Finally arrived home at 7 p.m.

PS Both of us are on antibiotics! Richard’s cough which plagued him for the whole trip has turned into walking pneumonia. But we did it!

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