Wednesday 6 August 2014

Potential stopping off points in western France

It seems a lifetime ago since I was last counting down the working days left before undertaking a wonderful adventure. In reality, not even a single year has passed. I am amazed to think back on everything that we have achieved in such a short space of time and, of course, how much our outlooks and dreams have changed in response to our travels.

Dave has been doing a fantastic job over the past few weeks of outlining our journey for the
Sunset rocks at Tregastel 
autumn and winter ahead. Obviously, our plans are still up in the air until we get definite confirmation on the house sale, but there has been much pencilling in going on nonetheless. We believe we will start in France this year, travelling down the west coast from St Malo to see the standing stones and dolmens around Carnac. We have planned before to visit this ancient site, having got close(ish) when we camped on the Pink Granite Coast around Perros-Guirec and Tregastel in 2010. I only recently discarded a pretty biscuit tin I purchased in a Regional Products shop in Tregastel – the biscuits, of course, having vanished far more quickly. I do love a Regional Products shop! However back then we only had a couple of weeks and liked the peninsula so much that we didn’t venture further afield. This year will be our chance. Our friends Steve & Frances kindly lent us their guidebooks which are crammed with information and evocative photographs. I can’t wait!

Other potential stopping-off points include the Ile de Re just off the coast by La Rochelle. Every review we have read of this island heavily sings its praises and hopefully the mass influx of summer tourism will have quietened down some by mid-September. Keep up with my blog to discover if we are as enamoured by the idyllic villages and harbour fronts! I’ve just remembered that I need to check out photos of the bridge ahead of the journey there. I have an illogical phobia of high bridges (and lower bridges and bridges with gaps between the planks and …). Do you remember the scene in GBH where Michael Palin’s character doesn’t drive over the bridge? Well, I’m not quite that bad, but images of a trio of panic-inducing moments from last winter are flashing though my thoughts as I type this now! The road to Sopalmo definitely takes the prize, but that’s because I didn’t drive to the Civil War guns situated high above the sea between Puerto de Mazarron and Cartagena. If Dave hadn’t had the wheel, we would not have got there! That is somewhere I wouldn’t mind returning to though and this time with a torch so we can actually walk around under the guns and see the firing mechanisms.

There’s so much world to see!

Thank goodness I've only twenty-one working days left – and, yes, I’ve already deducted the Bank Holiday!

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