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!

Knock Knock!

The picturesque villages and small towns in England's beautiful Cotswold Hills have a lot to offer for photographers. One of the places I went to often during my frequent visits to the Cotswolds is Chipping Campden. It was a rather sleepy village in the 70's when I walked along its sidewalks for the first time. When I returned in the late 80's and early as well as late 90's it wasn't as sleepy anymore but still a pleasant place where you could easily spend several hours wandering the streets and stopping in the afternoon for cream tea served in a gorgeous garden. However, when I brought my family to Chipping Campden in 2014 it had turned into a crowded and bustling tourist destination.

Still, we could take our time and take lots of photos. Since I had been there so often I skipped the usual sights and concentrated on other objects - like doors and windows. I noticed all the gorgeous and sometimes unusual knobs and knockers on many doors - some of them embellished and quite ornate, its own little piece of art.

The Dragon House's door knocker featured a dragon, of course - quite appropriate.

Others were more subtle but just as beautiful.

I really liked this one - elegant but not showy. Quite fitting for British understatement.

And it's always good to know where to put the letters.

Discovering an Old Neighborhood

Istanbul is an ancient city, and while we were there we also explored some of the oldest neighborhoods. Sure, it is a must to see the important landmarks, but it's while walking along those narrow streets and alleys that we tasted the flavor of this magical city.

The Küçük Ayasofya - Little Hagia Sophia - neighborhood is one of the oldest neighborhoods, making up what was once known as Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire. Everywhere you look there are old walls and narrow paths, little alleys and steep stairs.

The Little Hagia Sophia looks a bit like her big and famous sister. However, it is so much quieter and calmer, almost no one is here and it lacks all the glamour and beautiful art. The courtyard is an oasis of silence; I don't know about the interior of the mosque since I only had one scarf with me to cover my head, but not to cover my legs. My dress barely fell to my knees and thus was too short for visiting a mosque. Good thing the Geek was wearing long pants and therefore was allowed to peek inside.

Wandering along those streets, alleys and paths it seems we saw something interesting or "exotic" every few meters. It was hard not to stop and take pictures.

Oh the doors - so many old and beautiful or just interesting doors! I seldom took so many photos of doors like I did during those two weeks in Turkey. I could actually write an entire post just about doors. Here are a few of them that we saw in this neighborhood:

The old wooden buildings were fascinating. Old Istanbul used to consist of these wooden houses, but many of them were demolished and new buildings were built in their place. However, quite a few are still left, and while some are still inhabited others are falling down and are in a state of deterioration.

But there are also old brick buildings that are falling completely apart. It seems that no one cares about them - there aren't even "for sale" signs. I'm pretty sure it would be interesting real estate for investors, but probably also not quite cheap to fix everything up. As you can see, some buildings are lovely on the ground floor with restaurants and street cafés, but when you look up you see a building that is slowly falling down. You might wonder about building codes... and it does remind me of images of bombed cities.

As it is so typical for Mediterranean countries people hang their laundry just outside their window or across the street. Always a sight that I love and enjoy. No one is ashamed to show their underwear!

After all this walking up and down this neighborhood we deserved a delicious meal of köfte, kebab and eggplant with some refreshing Ayran on the roof terrace of a small restaurant, enjoying a great view of one of the many mosques and the Sea of Marmara in the background.