We spent five nights in the tiny village of Pommel, Brittany, staying in a beautiful old cottage. The town was very quaint, the beautiful garden of the cottage we were staying in was lovely. We all enjoyed feeding the birds breadcrumbs and watching them from the table as we ate. Alastair and I ended up exploring many of the little towns in the surrounding communities as our village had no grocery story, only a pub and a bakery.
We enjoyed seeing markets in the different towns, as they rotate daily. We explored the town of Vannes with the kids, it is a beautiful mediaeval, walled town on the coast, with a large harbour. It is know for its beautiful churches and historical wooden and brick buildings, painted in bright colours. We laughed as we were clearly on the younger side of tourist in Brittany, and September is clearly retirees’ tourism time in France. We enjoyed seeing different harbours and checking out different sailboats. Alastair and I are both grateful that neither of us aspires to spend months living on a sailboat! With all of the seafood, we decided to indulge with fresh prawns from the fish market on our first night and last night. I cooked mussels for the first time, (although kids chose salmon pasta instead).
In Quiberon, a town on a small peninsula extending out into the ocean, we were able to see some wild coastal beaches, some brave kite surfers, and some very fancy sailboats.
Another highlight was visiting Carnac, a neolithic site with large stones, megaliths, in patterns. It is an extensive collection of megaliths, much larger that Stonehenge in number of stones, but the actual stones are smaller. The purpose of the stone patterns is not known, there are different theories and an interesting display about how theories have evolved over the years. We also found a great nature, trail and hiked to a church overlooking the town.
