Un Petit Village Breton

 

Several locals had told us that we have to go to Kerascoët, a picturesque Breton village from the 15th century. It's more of a hamlet than a village close to the Atlantic coast, surrounded by several equally small villages. We had to take narrow country roads to get there - our preferred roads anyway.

In the following pictures you will see how quickly the weather changed from one minute to the next and back again - supposedly this is quite typical for Bretagne. We had blue sky, gray sky a couple minutes later and sometimes it even looked like it was going to rain (it didn't).

The other remarkable thing was that we were the only people in this village. It seemed a bit deserted - no tourists, but also no locals. We were here on one of the last rather cool October days, so it might not be a big suprise that there wasn't much of village life here.

The stone cottages with their thatched roofs were beautiful though. Thatched roofs seem to be typical for these old Breton cottages, and some of you might have seen them in the British Isles as well. You can also find them in the North of Germany, including its islands. In the past, these roofs were made with rye straw, but are nowadays replaced by reed.

Thatched roofs are expensive to maintain - and insurance is also high because of the elevated fire danger. The roof in this following image doesn't look that good anymore and probably is in need of some repair or even replacement. 

Narrow alleys were winding through the village.

"Ker" is the Breton word for "village" and "Kerascoët" means "village of the so-called Hascoët".

There was still an old community bakehouse close to the main square of the village. I couldn't find any information whether it is still used (like some of the old ones in Germany still are).

 The same goes for the old well. 

We noticed a lot of hydrangea in the village which were still quite beautiful even though it was rather late in the season. It must be so lovely in the summer.

Windows - there were beautiful windows to photograph with colorful frames and shutters. I have always had a "thing" for windows...

... and doors as well. I'm not quite sure what was going on with this blue door though. I wonder whether the person who built/installed it had a little bit too much of cidre and calvados.

You certainly notice that the color blue is quite prevalent in this village. Fences, garden gates, doors, window frames, shutters are painted in blue. I learned that in old times people painted them with leftover paint from their fishing boats.

I'm not quite sure about the purpose of the ladder attached to the wall of the house. I saw those on several buildings and I guess they might be used to get up to the roof for repairs (no gutters to clean here). However, I don't think I would trust these ladders very much.

Some of the houses were covered with overgrown vines - they had turned into a beautiful deep red which looked quite stunning.

Another building I liked - look at the interesting gable.

I hope you enjoyed this stop in Kerascoët and soon I will take you to a small walled city. À bientôt!

Nestled in the Rocks

 

At the Côte des Légendes in the North of Brittany, facing the English Channel. the tiny village of Meneham is located. This quaint hamlet of thatched cottages used to be a fishermen village and today is a cultural site with various exhibitions. When we were there is was decorated for fall, so I will write more about it when we get into autumn again. Today I want to show you the guardhouse.

The guardhouse is the oldest part of the Meneham Site, strategically located to protect the coastline of Northern Bretagne. In order to get there, you have to walk up to and through the huge boulders and overcome any kind of claustrophobia you might have (however, there is also a much easier path, albeit not as interesting and exciting).

Suddenly you're standing right in front of the old guardhouse.

The view from the top of the boulders is even more impressive.

The inside of the guardhouse doesn't hold much interest, it's empty and a bit musty. It is dark and only has two small windows toward the sea. That view, though, is pretty amazing.

Descending from the guardhouse you can see a couple cottages of the village. I like the blue color of the door and window, it is so cheerful.

We walked around the boulders to get to the other side, the seaside. The boulders are enourmous - this area is popular for bouldering. I was quite surprised that Kaefer didn't do some bouldering there since she loves it, as well as "real" climbing.

Eventually, the guardhouse was peeking out of the boulders. You can see the different quality of light on this side of the huge rocks.

The sky was fascinating and painted the landscape in a very atmospheric light.

Of course being the person that I am I was drawn to the beyond-their-prime plants and an empty snail shell.

We walked along the sea for a while. It's a very rugged coast here, certainly not for sun worshippers, but wonderful for long walks with a continuously changing scenery.

A Dark History Amidst Rough Beauty

 

After our protest march, let's go back to Brittany - and part of this post will kind of pick up on my last post. You will make the connection.

Here we are on the Crozon peninsula, South of Brest. We first visited this circle of menhirs, the Alignements de Lagatjar. Just like all the other menhirs we had seen so far, they were close to the road, on open land. Most of them are aligned into three lines, but there are also some "solitary" ones.

There are about 60 to 70 stones still standing here and they are thought to date to 2,500 BC. No wonder there was a lot of lichen to be found on them.

The menhirs sit atop the Plage de Pen Hat which is surrounded by rather rough cliffs. This area is called Pen Hir.

The weather was pretty miserable, chilly and foggy and there was a constant drizzle. Nevertheless, we decided to walk along the cliffs for a bit. In good weather the view is said to be fantastic from here.

Very soon we came upon disturbing buildings that were telling of a very dark history.

These are fortifications originally built by the French navy in 1889. After the German invasion in 1940, the area was taken over by the German navy and in 1942 they started the construction of a gun battery to defend the Southern entrance to the U-boat base in Brest.

 These bunkers and batteries were part of the Atlantikwall (Atlantic Wall) - a massive system of coastal fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the European coastline from Norway to Spain. Its primary purpose was to deter an Allied invasion from the West, particularly from Great Britain. However, the Atlantikwall was never fully completed by the time the Allied invasion of Normandy (D-Day) began in 1944.

The remains of the fortifications are open to the public and you can freely walk around here. Seeing these hideous bunkers made me extremely uncomfortable; I walked around with a big knot in my stomach. As a German who is aware of her native country's history this just makes me sick. The grey day reinforced these feelings. We were at this place a week before the US elections and I bet that the anxiety before that contributed to my uneasiness as well. (Since then, my uneasiness has grown a lot, but also my anger and frustration).

But even at this dire place some beauty could be found:

We continued walking along the rough path along the cliffs, up to the "cross" in the distance.

I noticed a lot of snails by the side of the trail.

Finally we had reached the "cross", the Monument to the Bretons of Free France. The inscription translates to

"To the Bretons of Free France - MCMXL-MCMXLV - France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war. In the free world immense forces have not yet given up. One day these forces will crash the enemy."

Looking around, there was so much rough beauty.

And of course so close to the ocean there were gulls. They weren't shy at all. Does this sweet face count for Nicole's Friday Face Off?

That day we drove to Pont Aven, an idyllic town known for its artists colony, no doubt the most famous among them Paul Gauguin.

We stayed for the night in a beautiful little appartment and went to a crêperie for dinner. As usual, the food was delicious. A good ending to a day of very mixed emotions.