Back to the sea (so more bunkers!)

 Having seen Cancale yesterday we drove around the coast. It wasn't particularly motorhome friendly, with parking a little tricky but we found some close to the beach at Plage des Chevrets and went for a stroll. It was lovely so we stayed a while. (Because we can!) Of course a beach in France isn't complete without German defences so it was just a matter of time before I spotted the first.

As you can see the sun has come out again, so we soaked it in for a while before heading up the road to Dinard, via St Malo. I had wanted to drop in to Fort de la pointe de la Varde on the way as I had spotted a bunker from the beach, but there was no apparent place to park Reggie so I had to drive on. I missed quite a large complex, built around an old Vauban fort. Ah well, what's another Atlantikwall strongpoint when you've seen so many? We passed through St Malo without stopping as we plan to cross back to look it over for a full day. 

When we got to our camping site the office wasn't open so we wandered around to the supermarket and picked up some stuff. We missed a signpost so walked twice the distance but still got back in time to have lunch (or most of it) before the office opened. Our spot isn't too bad (except for a pronounced slope). We had a bit of laundry to do, so got that out of the way before going for another walk.

Well wouldn't you know it - another bay, another bunker or two, or more.

An OP on the Dinard side of the Rance. You can see St Malo at rear.

Just another Tobruk

Rocky coasts always make for interesting walks..

But the best views were back at camp.

Flanery

 We were woken by vehicles parking up all around us. Of course we had to find out where everyone was going, and it turned out there was a car-boot sale nearby. There was much tat and some interesting stuff for people who have houses, one model for me, and some tomatoes I guess for us both.

Pretty good mask wearing. We'll look back at this blog in a few years' time and  go "Oh, yeah remember the Covid year? That was crazy!"

Ah, the classic 1969 Revell Stuka. Whatever, it was only 5€ so has at least gone to someone who cares, even if I don't usually do aircraft. (And at 1/32 this will be a big one.) Don't tell J but I've already spent another £20 on it, and I'll probably need paint...

We headed away from the excitement, north to the coast. We hit it back near Mont St Michel then headed west. The bay has more endless beach, this time with sand-yachting going on. Turns out we passed some stuff, but we only did our homework retrospectively (remind anyone of school? No? Just me then?) One thing we commented on was Uluru or as the French call theirs La Rocher du Mont Dol. It was a large lump of rock in the middle of the polder so stood out like, well, Uluru. (It turns out) it was a granite and dolorite corneal outcrop formed around 325 million years ago. Do you remember it Mum? You can see it for miles above the flat, and it would have had a great view as well if we'd bothered to stop.

Racing land-yachts. These were clearly not beginners as they were fair hoofing it.

Or target was a park-up in a supermarket but we found barriers over the entrance so were rather confused. We also found the shop was closing for the day, so that made it useless for anything! We worked out that the parks were around the other side but since by then we had a decent spot we just had lunch then headed in to town. I don't know what was up with my compass but it was 90 out so it'a  good thing J had her head on.

Cancale is a very popular spot even now at the end of a Covid-days holiday, and reminded me a lot of St Ives. Motorhomes aren't allowed to stop anywhere near the middle so it gave us some amusement to see a few trying it on. Still, it could have been us if J hadn't read the warnings. We looked over the oyster farms and saw the end produce that were being sucked down by the dozen all around us.

The tide has a huge range in these here parts. I hope the yacht at right goes with the tide rather than sitting on its side underwater.

There's an 18th C fort (at rear) to keep the Brits from stealing the oysters or otherwise troubling the port. No sign of German bunkers yet, but surely they're not far away?

The oyster farms. I really don't know how they work and there seem to be more modern ones down the coast. They look as if steel reinforcing for some massive building work has been left out. They are still worked though, but I suspect not as busily as some past time.

People seem to like the slimy little things.

They are in these bags in these racks, but what happens between tides? Do they just seal themselves up? I guess so.

There were seven competing stalls side by side which is an awful lot of oysters! I hope they last longer than a day.

And here they are, taken only with lemon.

The seagulls get to pick over anything left by the seafood slurpers, but it's mostly shell. Lots and lots of shell. (Why do I feel something useful used to be made from shells? I'm thinking they were burnt to make something... cement? gunpowder? fertiliser? what was it?

The seafront was wall to wall fruites-du-mer restaurants of course. The sun decided to revisit in the early afternoon and it got quite hot again, which was great frustrating since we had full rainy gear on. We flaneried for a few hours then headed back, and moved Reggie to an overnight stay with pizza van included (well, parked in the same carpark to be more precise). Not a bad pizza for vegetarian either.

(Click pic for full panorama)

J had too much speculoos biscuit, she claimed. This is the bit she couldn't eat. Pathetic. 😕

This is not a town: it is a street

 Well, it has got a little colder and the rain continues. IT cleared enough that we ventured out on the bikes, riding up the Rance et Iles canal a few kms. We didn't get too wet, though there was a lot of dirt splashed up from our wheels. IO also discovered my brand new rear wheel has been slightly buckled by the recent near disaster, so that'll have to be seen to. There were artworks all along the stretch of canal.

How d'ya do, m'lady?

After washing down the bikes, and to a certain extent us, we pootled off in a general northerly direction. We ended up in Dol-de-Bretagne which Victor Hugo described in the manner given in the title. (Or near enough - I can't remember the exact wording but that was the intent.) IT has some very old buildings throughout the town, and even plaques in English to describe them. J would try the French side and I could correct from the other, though she now has a MS app that translates text from a photo. Way cool!

The claim to fame of Dol-de-Bretagne, other than its one street, is the well that has one shaft outside the church and another inside, the two joined by an underground gallery. (Gasp.) Actually it was an interesting curiosity. They think the church expanded over the current interior well so the new exterior well had to be dug and they decided to join them together for some reason. No photos - it's just two holes in the ground. Well, well.

Victor Hugo's one street. For a while it was called Stuart street as the Scottish/English Stuart dynasty came from this town. Apparently Fitzalan is from Fitz-Alain and that posse came from Britagne. Rule Britagne!  

Apparently one of the oldest buildings in France. 12th C. Way before even the Maori got to NZ and still being used.

The Cathedral. Not bad, though currently a bit leaky.

Orignal painted walls, and other decorative elements.

Lovely wooden wardrobes. 

All that flanery (yes it's a word - look it up) can make one hungry...

We're working on a cunning plan. We figure the French might not take to the UK claiming Normandy and Brittany back due to some treaty signed (under duress I would suggest) several hundred years ago, so they should go for a stealth annexation. (Poorly timed given Brexit, but...) There's so much more room here, it's close enough it would be easier to get to than Wales or Scotland, and the weather's generally better. The Brit govt should just make it easier for people to move here: help buying property; pay for resettlement including any or all family (There's precedent: consider the £10 Poms!); free French lessons for all, and compulsory French in schools (maybe even some Breton to smooth the waters with the locals); sneakily extend TV range to western France. Of course it would have been so much easier if they hadn't decided to do exactly the opposite a couple years back.

Quietly productive

 Today was a quietly productive day.

We woke to find that our internet was still connected. When I investigated it appears that the reset date has been set to the billing date which means this month at least we didn't run out. We still have the French data to use at the end of the next month too. 

J was wondering when we would get the refund for our unused ferry cabin and when she checked her email there was a message about it. Spooky!

We've had a broken latch for a while so we visited a camper-van shop (or three in the end!) and got a replacement. We also got a fitting to enable us to attach a French regulator to our gas pipework.

We visited a booktown called Becherel which could have been nice but it rained heavily when we got there and most of the shops were closed for lunch. I think we saw three natives and 4 tourists. It did have a wonderful view over the surrounding countryside - you could see the rain coming for miles. We sat and had lunch to an accompaniment of thunder.

Then we visited a hypermarche to buy a French gas bottle. What a kerfuffle. We did eventually end up with a bottle and the appropriate regulator, but it took some to-ing and fro-ing to get the message across that we needed a new bottle, not just a swap.

Then when I had a look at it it appeared that the regulator would not fit on the bottle in our locker. Quelle horreure! So we drove to our third dealer of the day who showed this idiot that there was a protective collar screwed on to protect the valve. (Blushes.) OK, embarrassment aside we now have renewable gas for as long as we want to stay in France, though we also now have 2 empty gas bottles, one at least of which will have to stay in here!

We stopped in Tinteniac which has little claim to fame other than being adjacent to a canal. It does have a church with some quirks though.

A byzantine style facade, with coloured glass blocks for windows.

You may remember we bought an oven a few days back. Well, on this day of quiet achievement I installed it in place of the microwave which we very seldom used. We can only use it when plugged-in, but that's around a third of the time anyway. Yay, now I could have roasts, or bake a cake. (Yeah, right!)

So all in all, quite a satisfying day. Just the radiator hose to fix now...

Here comes the rain again

 Did I use that one already? Anyway, it was a nice morning so we took the bus in to town. We got in a bit of culcha in the Museum of Fine Arts. 

This was cool. A cat's mummy was scanned, digitised, 3-D printed then encased in resin. All the bones are visible, though the poor thing's skull is somewhere else.

I'm really getting involved in my art

As is J. Her eyes follow you around a room apparently.

Of course we did a bit of wandering before we sat down for lunch.

Municipal baths which were in Art Deco style. Apparently the inside is quite worth a look, but they are closed until 1st Sept.

Just chillin'

More Art Deco

Lunch for me was roast chicken, mashed sweet potato, red cabbage and a creamy thyme sauce. J had something else.

By the time lunch was over the rain had come. We did wander further but Rennes rang with cries of Far Canal! as my jandals slipped on the cobblestones like they were ice. I had to revert to bare feet for a spell which is always classy. Rather that than a broken bone though!

Opera House

There's some pretty shonky building going on here. Maybe they all sat in the cafe for a few hours after the first floor was finished then got started on the upper floors? I'd love to know who got it wrong first.

Just a bit of rain

The cathedral ceiling. Very ornate in a baroque style.

Whole sections of Rennes have been declared as obligatory mask wearing zones, and it was pretty well followed. Enough to be noticeable anyway.

Tonight our Vodafone internet will run out - a week before the reset date. However, we are prepared! We bought 20Gb of French internet so we'll flick over to that tomorrow and everything should be fine. Famous last words? Watch this blog...