Visit with Jeannie and Colin

  Bel Air, France
Monday, May 12, 2008

We planned to take the long route around to Colin and Jeannnie's place in Bel Air so set off at just after eight o'clock and plotted route through Guingamp, Carhaix, Chateau Neuf-du Faou and thence into Quimper which struck us as being a very pleasant place to explore with its medieval centre. On into the inland area of Bretagne for a time before making a loop along the Atlantic coastline past beaches which reminded us very much of Australia.

Bel Air

After bypassing Lorient we made beeline to Redon (the little Venice of Brittany)
 where we stopped for a short while to admire the cathedral - yet another one! - and the medieval town with its narrow lanes. The holiday caused a bit of trouble getting fuel as most of the stations took only cards, and not credit cards, so we asked a couple of young chaps to put some in for us on theirs and gave them the cash.  Don't let anyone tell you that the French are arrogant and unhelpful! We found later in the trip that you can't use Mastercard or Visa on many of the toll (peage) roads either.
 
We finally arrived at Bel Air (one of the many Bel Air's in France by the way) and were greeted warmly by Jeannie and Colin with a cuppa in their beautiful back garden sprouting pink rhododendrons, purple clematis,

Clematis

various coloured tulips and a magnificent old oak tree, among other plants. (Their next door neighbour has a nursery)

Colin & Jeannie at home in Bel Air

The house is one of only a few in this particular area and is very quiet. It was initially two farm cottages which were later joined together and it has the sloping ceilings upstairs so common in houses of this vintage. It is in a delightful rural part of France with only a couple of other houses within a short walk through country fields planted with wheat and lined with an extensive array of wildflowers, and a short drive from the delightful town of Blain with its 12th century castle on the canal and yellow or red roses sprouting from many of the stone walled houses, and even a quaint museum. We were lucky enough to be there on a market day and were pleased to see locals greeting both Jeannie and Colin warmly as accepted ex-pats.  In fact Colin had been made mayor of the small community that year and showed us the "mayoral headquarters" where he was installed (a neighbours barn) after a congenial evening involving some particularly good bottles of French wine.
Nearby is the beautiful La Magdalaine Church where the Benedictine priors fed the lepers of a local colony across the stream. The area has a woodland called the Foret du Gavre where they still hunt deer and boar.
Not far away are the salt marshes of La Grande Briere where the land is divided by grass hummocks and the pools are individually utilised to create rough salt which is sold locally and presented in special salt cellars on the table from which pinches are taken between the fingers. 

La Bretesche

Eventually we reached Piriac-sur-Mer,

Piriac sur Mer

a seaside harbour town which was very quiet today but which is apparently bedlam during the school summer holidays. Colin treated us to a delicious seafood meal at the La Vigie restaurant looking out over the yachts moored in the harbour, and after lunch drove us back via the coastline via Guerande, a walled city where we stopped to have a wander in the clean medieval laneways and ogle the many delights in the rather touristy shops there,

La Guerande

then carried on through La Baule and on to St.Nazaire which according to Colin has the longest man-made beach in the world. It is obviously a very upmarket holiday beachside resort judging by the unit accommodation built along the seafront! He took us to the old U-boat base at St.-Nazaire harbour which was built to withstand Allied bombing with a corrugated cement roof some ten feet thick and space for four submarines in each docking bay of which there were many. The Germans apparently made a mess of the town during the war and it was heavily bombed by the Allies. This is the sort of place that we would never have visited had it not been for today's excursion and we are very grateful for the efforts Jeannie and Colin took to make us feel at home, including introducing us to some the famous Breton food.

Jeannie

On our last day there we had a lovely walk through the country lanes with Colin and Jeannie before setting off in the rain to Nantes where we parked the car and had a wander through the cathedral which has the highest ceiling we have yet come across.