Now that the pace has slowed down a bit we can recap on our final days spent in Vannes. We have enjoyed our apartment in Vannes, a nice relaxing place to return to after all the sight seeing, sitting on our balcony watching the grey skies roll in.

We took Barney for another outing. We left home at 9;15. The first stop was St Brieuc on the Cotes-d’Armour with more timbered houses and apparently a gorgeous large, fortified Cathedral, however, it was completely under scaffolding and closed! The Town Hall was rather nice though with all the French flags flying.

Next stop was another cute Brittany village called Port Dahouet one of the first fishing harbours in Brittany. The shipowners houses and seaside villas dating back to the 1800’s made a pretty sight.

Then it was onto St Malo, an historic port walled city. The ramparts that surround the old town were built in the 12th century and form a 2km loop. The ramparts have 8 gates and 3 bastions. Unfortunately St Malo’s defence walls were unable to protect the city from bombardment during WW11 by both the Germans and the Allies and a large part of the Old City was reduced to rubble, but not the ramparts!

The rebuilding of old St Malo was one of the great heritage restoration projects in the aftermath of the war and was rebuilt in the same way and the same style. Remarkable!

The St Vincent Cathedral of St Malo was extensively damaged during the war but still retains some of its original beauty and is classified as an historical monument.

The National Fort was built in 1689 and protected the ramparts of the city. It is accessible by foot at low tide.

We did lunch in St Malo, however our “plate of fish” was lost in translation. We didn’t enjoy it so consequently we didn’t even take a photo, however the 14 euro glass of rose was rather nice.

Before we left we needed a coffee and stumbled across the rather weird “Cafe de Coin”. It has been a bistro since 1820 and is known as “one of the most beautiful cafes in the world” and is classified as an historical monument. Not sure if beautiful is the correct word though!!! It certainly kept us occupied whilst having our coffee.

We enjoyed wandering the cobbled streets and walking the ramparts even though St Malo is an extremely touristic destination. It was a big day and we didn’t return home till 7pm.

The following day was a rest day, well sort of, and in the arvo we did another self guided walk around Vannes. This one took us through all the old “portes” or gates of the town and along the rampart walls.

The Porte Prison Gate is the oldest access to the town and had a double drawbridge, one for the carts and one for the pedestrians.

The Tower was used as a prison during the French revolution.

Then we were outside the old town we saw the full extent of the ancient ramparts. Construction began in the 3rd Century by the Romans and extended through to the 14th Century when Louis X1V sold the stones of the wall to finance his war. As one does!

The final 2 gates to the old town were the Poterne Gate with its bridge access to the town and the Calmont Gate.

The tallest tower of the Ramparts. The Calmont or Constables Tower was both defensive and also residential.

The Chateau de L”Hermine , a fortified castle and enclosed in the city walls was built in the 14th century.

The Jardin de Ramparts made a picturesque scene, particularly when we had blue skies, which we have to say was not very often!

The Lavoirs , or washrooms, sit on the Marle River next to the ramparts. They were built around 1821 and was once the “washing machine centre” for the women of Vannes.

We have enjoyed some of the delicacies of Bretagne and in particular Greg has enjoyed sampling Kouign-Amann, basically all butter and sugar (really low cholesterol). It is not only the pastry itself but the packaging also makes it a rather special treat!

Another day out took us to the cute little village of Quimperle. The quay area on the River L’Isole was very pretty and of course we had more of those colombages to view. It was an important port and traded in wine, salt, spices and wood. The trading houses were built in the 16th and 19th Century.

Next stop was the quaint but touristy village of Pont Aven. It was very picturesque with its watermills along the river and it is also famous for its biscuits, which of course we purchased!

We then headed for Concarneau with its fortified old walled town and loads of tourists. Today it is one of the most visited monuments in Brittany.

We wanted to return to a Creperie that we had been to before. It is called Le Petite Chaperon Rouge, or Little Red Riding Hood.

Lunch was delicious even though we were sitting partly in the rain. Greg went dressed in costume!!!!!

We had Crepe Complet, ham cheese and egg, followed by a dessert crepe of beurre and sucre, butter and sugar!

Plus a pichet of cidre!

It was just as good as we remembered except last time it was a sunny day!

After walking in the rain for an hour and dodging tourists we decided to head home.

Our last day in Vannes was a rest day to pack Barney and clean. We did wander down to the Place Lices for a drink to farewell Vannes and we were nearly the only ones there. Bliss. As you can probably tell the weather was not very kind to us during our week in Vannes, quite a bit of rain and grey skies and temps around 20 degrees, however we still loved the town

We have spent the last week in Caen, but that is for another day, with lots of celebrations of the 80th Anniversary of WW11

So, it’s that time, time for a drink!!!

A Bientot

Lots of love

Greg and Rhonda

xxxxxx