Rochefort en Terre and some more to come in the next post.

With the spackling and paint from yesterdays work day still damp, there was little we could do at the apartment, so we decided to have a day out. NZ friend Lesley Piper had suggested we visit Rochefort en Terre, as she and Brent had been there two years ago, and loved it. What a great recommendation! Thanks Lesley! It was well worth the visit.

Per usual, we set off about 9am, knowing that we might be the first or second car in the parking lot of our destination. Not quite, this time, but we were one of the few, and had to purchase a parking ticket this time. 1.5euros, to keep the town looking beautiful, is a small donation, we think.

To get there, we had to go down many winding and skinny roads, per usual. We are rather isolated out here at Le Mur, and the main roads are not nearby, so we have to go through many little Hamlets and villages in order to get to the wider roads. This isn't really a hardship, as we tend to go a different way each time we leave home, and think we have probably just about exhausted our supply of country roads by now:)
This road is about a car and a half wide. There is no shoulder, as you can see, so oncoming traffic, which tends to go fast, squishes us over onto the grass...if there is any! This is typical of the roads around us.

As you can see there is no room to pass, so we just had to sit behind this tanker for a few kms until it turned off onto another skinny road. 30kph through most small towns, and 50 through others. This town had a windy road through the middle, and we couldn't see up the hill, let alone around the corner.

 

We stopped on the way at St Martin-sur-Ouest, got out and stretched our legs and took a closer look at a hire boat that was docked there for the night. This is looking back UP the river, to the left of the docks. The sun wasn't yet out and it was very cold. We remembered our jackets and scarves this morning.

 

The sign on a rock wall, as we enter the environs of Rochefort en Terre, Flower Village. The Chateau  is 12th and 17th Centuries, The Church is 16th Century, Houses 16th and 17th century, and the Cavalry from the 16th Century,is what the sign says.

Houses of all shapes and sizes...Pretty as a picture.

Being a hillside town, it was hard to get a lot of houses into one photo.
We were rather amused to see someone's laundry out on a line in their back yard, but still visible to the general public.

This map does a good job of showing the village, for the most part. Of course there are also houses part way up the hill, and again at the bottom of the hill that aren't shown here. The Chateau is shown at the top of the diagram.

With so few visitors in the village so early in the morning, we were privy to the under workings of this tourist village. We couldn't imagine why people would want to live in such a public place.Townsfolk were getting their bread from the Boulangerie, making deliveries and starting their working days. Most of the restaurants wouldn't open until noon, and some of the shop also.
RET is advertised as THE Most Beautiful Town in Brittany. It is certainly very pretty and has more flowers than you can poke a stick at...
We love that  the road signs are in French at the top and then either Breton or Celtic underneath. I must take a photo and show you.

This ornament was in one of the shop windows. Lots of Faerie stuff there!

Waz and I couldn't figure out if this date is 1366 or 156. We think the former. This is over the door on one of the old houses. Some of the figuring on the houses and buildings is so degraded, you just know it is ancient. Amazing to think that knights of old used to live in these parts. You know, of course that Merlin, and King Arthur feature in these parts...it is part of local lore.

 The town well doesn't deliver any more water, but it sure looks pretty!

We climbed the hill to the highest point on the rock, the Chateau Rochefort-en-Terre. It is or has been owned by American artists, and there is modern art all over the place, in sculpture form. Not our style, so I didn't take too many photos of it, and I wont show there here, sorry.  It is a small chateau, from what one would normally think of as a Chateau...but then so is the Chateau we are stationed at. Smaller still than this one.
It was very tempting tp try these grapes, but I reasoned, perhaps rightly, that if everyone tried them, there would be none left and they wouldn't be as decorative!

I believe this is a Mock Grapevine, and it is very colorful and was climbing all over the buildings in town.

Decoration on someone's window ledge.

The Gate to the Chateau.

 On our left as we went about 50 yards up the driveway. It sits on the highest point of the village, of course, and the view over the countryside below was lovely. Plenty of rocks, though, so no wonder the houses and most everything else is made of this grey and pink granite.

 The building on the right is now an Artist's Studio. We peeked inside, and I was green with envy. I have photos later.

This portal takes you to a promontory where you look down on the minions (not the yellow things on TV and movie right now!). You can see the pink granite rocks in the distance.

We find that there aren't all the idiot signs in public places, that you find in the USA. Perhaps Europeans have more common sense? We find that they have excellent manners and are friendly and  courteous.

The Chateau...well, the left side of it.

 The gargoyles all looked like they were laughing:)

 An original piece of door hardware?

 The Well and the Studio. Such a pretty scene. Poor looking Rose garden in front.

The Chapel was at the bottom of the property, quite a long way from the Chateau. The roof was in dreadful repair, but the hand hewn slate is fascinating!

As always, it is the details that are attractive to me...an if there happens to be a rose in the way, well, so much the better, in my opinion:)

 The morning's view out over the road approaching the Village and the rocky surrounds.

As I promised, this is the Artist's Studio...now you can see why I have envy! Look at that light, and the vie, and oh my! How I wish I was in there right now! I doubt that I would get much work done, frankly.

And this time I have the whole of the Chateau in the photo...well, almost. All the important parts, anyway.

All this was a prelude to going to La Roche Bernard, but there is nothing quite like getting waylaid in a beautiful place, is there?

The church was wonderful and old...of course. These ancient sarcophagi were actually inscribed. I couldn't read them, but I did photograph them.

 The original flooring inside the church. Wonderful!

 We peeked through a hole in a door to see some of the real church treasures. This is one of them

 This plaster portal is rather lovely, but it is coming to bits, a bit like most old things.

The Stained Glass windows were lovely. What gorgeous colors.

And that my friends, is that, for tonight. I need to tell you about the rest of the day...well, tomorrow. Time for bed, or a cuppa and then bed. Tired tonight after a full day of seeing the sights. Au Revoir.

A Day out in Vannes

Leaving home around 10.30am, we headed out to Vannes, on the south west coast of the Morbihan Department. Brittany, like all other 'states' is divided into 'Departments'. We are bound on the north west by Finistere Department which basically means...Land's End. Very Apt. It is THE most westerly point of the European Continent.
However...Vannes was our destination today. It is a Medieval city with a modern population of around 52,000 people, a Port and a the remains of a Walled City.

We took forever to get to the motorway, twisting in and out of little country Hamlets (always makes me think of what my sons call that...Little Pig...get it? Hamlet!) and towns where I have to change down from the normal 90kph to 70 for the Hamlets and 50 for the towns. I don't mind, as it means we can take our time checking places out. We usually go through the Centre Ville (Town Center), so we get to look, and sometimes stop there and find out what makes the place special. Usually there is a Catherdral or Eglise (Church) in the middle of town...typical in most of Europe...and they are usually built of stone. Their spires are long and skinny and many figured, with plenty of Gargoyles and places for pigeons to sit and poop...yes, that is a real problem, often addressed by netting on both roofs and special statues in and around the church. There is a wonderful movement to resurrect these lovely buildings and clean and renovate them in general. It is amazing to see what the centuries have wrought on the figurines...some of them are barely recognizable now. You will see this in some of the photos yet to come.


Most of the 'country' roads we travers are barely one lane wide.. but wherever you look, you see little settlements in between the pasture..Hamlets and Towns.

 

There are still plenty of fields of Maize out there. Lots of them are being cleared and new crops for winter are being planted.

Before getting to the autoroute, we went through the small town of Malestroit, which is noted as a Town of Particular Cultural Interest, in the guidebooks and also on the sign as you enter the town. All these towns have cultural significance in one way or other.  Malestroit is significant for its Medieval feudal beginnings in the 11th century. Parts of the town have buildings dating back to the 11/13/16th centuries, and of course most of them have been rebuilt at some stage or other. This is Living History!

This is the bridge into the town. It goes over the Nantes to Brest Canal (northbound). Yes, boats have to be low to get under these bridges!

This barge is apparently a Taxi for hire.

We went for a walk along the tow path, for a ways, and then turned in between the houses, back to the main road, which had no sidewalk, and motorists who were not good at giving us some space, walking tight up against the houses. This is common here, where the houses are right on the road in many places. You literally come out the front door onto the road!

Finally we hit the autoroute and were happy steaming along at 110kph, and finally exiting to Vannes. We passed through the industrial part of the city before entering the ancient part of town. Finding a parking space on this Friday was another matter. En France, it pays to be patient...something the French are not good at. Not only are they not patient, in general, but they are also tailgaters, or did I already tell you that.? They leave no room for indecision AT ALL, so we have made some motoring decisions that have necessitated some U turns as a result. Better that than being rear-ended! non?

We ended up driving along the Marina, therefore waterfront, in Vannes, and it was old eagle-eyes Waz who found our parking lot that was Gratuite...Free!yay! All the others were pay places and those create their own problems, as we have to then read the wretched meter! :) Our free parking lot was up a steep hill...good for walking down, fresh of limb, but not for walking up, after a few hours on our feet...more on that later.

We went around and around and finally spotted someone coming up the stairs and heading for their tiny car. We asked her...Vous Allez, Madame? (You are going?) Oui! Ahhh! Merci!! Tres Bien!

So we followed her to her car, giving her just enough room to back out so that the car behind us didn't sneak in in front of us, as they are want to do! We parked in a space wide enough, for once, and locked and went down the hill. Immediately we got to the Marina at the bottom of the hill, we regretted that we didn't have our jackets and scarves. The wind was FREEEZING!

Not far along the waterfront we spied a restaurant, this now being 11.30am..Lunch time. We know it costs more along the tourist route, but we fancied sitting in a restaurant eating and looking at boats..ha! I wonder why???:) We tent to gravitate to water, no matter where we are.
We decided on the Plat du Jour for 11euros each for Cannelloni Saumon et Poirons  (Salmon and Leeks), which was delicious and we decided on a Café Crème to follow, which was a treat. Lunch came to 26euros, which wasn't too bad, and we were full!

Now replete, we started towards the Medieval center of the town which is marked by a figured gate, and lots of people were pouring into and out of it's mouth. We stopped for post cards at the entry, .40centimes each. I guess you could say we have disobeyed all the rules of being a tourist, so far today.

As was typical, in Medieval times, a fortress or Chateau was built with a Ramparts surrounding it, and in time, villages grew within its confines for the safety of the citizens, but also because there was always a need for commerce within. As these were feudal times, safety within the walls was good for everyone, and many crafts were fostered by the Lord and master, and different areas became known for different crafts and products according to the countryside....fishing near the cost, blacksmith near the farming towns etc. This small city is on the Marle Estuary. In the center of the old town is the Cathedral of Saint Pierre which is undergoing much reconstruction and renovation of its exterior.

The Gate to the Medieval City of Vannes. YEs, that is a tourist train to the right, in the photo! It was full

 I took a photo of this post card to show the estuary of the river, and the old walled city of Vannes. You can see the Cathedral in the bottom of the photo. and to the left are the gardens, which I will show your shortly.

We entered the gate and immediately spied a culinary  shop...of course we had to enter therein and ooh and ahh over all the fantastic cookware:) and even buy something...which I cannot divulge because it is for my youngest son for his 24th birthday. He is a total foodie and excellent cook, and it is always fun finding interesting 'things' to add to his collection of cooking apparatus.
It appears that the whole of France is festooned with flowers, this summer. I know this is the end of the summer season, but they are all still in bloom and we are enjoying them all immensely. Love these bicycles!

 Yes, we did think it would be nice to eat one of these..yes, just one...well, maybe of each kind>>>:) but we just looked. It helped that we had full tummies from our lunch earlier. They are so pretty to look at, aren't they?

Ok, now for he good stuff. This Catherdral is being renovated, as you can see by the scaffolding. Thank goodness it is, too. It looks a million buck from this side, but the other side shows it's age!

 What a stunning building it is. and we stood for a long time looking at all the details...and photographing a lot of it.
Some of the figures were so badly aged that they were almost unrecognizable:(


Lots of Timbered houses, which is pretty common in most places in Europe. They are mostly from the 13th-18th century. Some of them were very rickety looking and definitely not square.

 The garden below the Ramparts was lovely. We didn't get down there, but enjoyed it from above. An interesting color mix in most of them. You can see the ramparts on the far left side if the photo.

 Like I said....not many of the really old houses are square!

This is the one remaining tower in the Ramparts. Parts of it date back to the 13th century. You can probably see which parts!

The wonderful doors on the Cathedral. I went inside, but it was too dark to see much and there was plenty to look at outside. The older man in the photo, with his back to us, was offering the younger man some wine. There were a few Gypsy beggars inside the old town, but we weren't inspired to give them any money.

We marveled that someone had to get up there and re-roof that dome! Don't you love the Frieze?

Such wonderful embellishments everywhere we looked.

Now these pastries are Breton specialties, so of course we had to try a couple. You can find the other pastries anywhere, but these are 'local'. We bought a Cointreau and another butter an caramel pastry. Very delicious, but very buttery, both of them. One was plenty.

This made me laugh. I really took this photo for my middle son who is a gun and knife fanatic...

This pretty garden had been planted in what looked like a dead end, in the Ramparts.

Look up and this is what you see, in the same garden space.

The Hotel de Ville is not an Hotel. It is the Town Hall, and this is it. Fancy huh!

You would laugh...we were walking along, minding our business, per usual..yes, really! and there in a shop window was an All Blacks jersey. We went into the shop whch was dedicated to all the Rugby World Cup clothing, and declared that the All Blacks would win the cup again! The shop assistant agreed with us, and all the French we have met so far are All Blacks fans. They don't think the French are great Rugby players at all! :) We have to agree of course, and we can always  make ourselves understood when it comes to talking Rugby, around here. They are fanatics, and the Cup is about to begin. We hope to watch the matches on one of the TV in the Manoir.

We drove home around 4.30pm...rush hour. I was a little frazzled and happy to get off the autoroute and onto the country roads again.
We got home in daylight and went to visit the animals before feeding them and putting them to bed for the night. Dinner was a simple affair, fortunately, as we had some Chipolatas..yes, they have them here...everywhere. They are good too, and ALL meat! no fillers.

Another day gone, and lots more to tell tomorrow. Au Revoir!