On the way from the house to our next stop (a hotel) mum & dad decided to show us Dinan where they had visited before. We parked the other side of the river & then crossed under the beautiful viaduct
before walking up the hill (to where most of the town is at the top) I can honestly say we loved it, it had a really medieval but arty vibe.
On the hill there were loads of artisan shops and I managed to find a brilliant bead shop (I shall show my finds from there in a separate post). There also seemed to be an air of sorcery around the place as they apparently cook their food by cauldron.
We also found a chocolate witch but sadly she wasn’t open.
We reached the top of the hill at last, there were lots more (more touristy shops)
and this beautiful church.
We’d left dad at the bottom of the hill so a hasty retreat was called for.
But Jam insisted on taking a photo of me on the hill first.
We got serenaded down the hill by a harpist.
Then it was off to Ploermel, we arrived mid afternoon & after crashing in the hotel for a couple of hours we set out to eat in this beautiful family owned creperie.
I particularly liked the doorway.
The next day we visited Josselin on our way to the next hotel.There were loads more craftspeople & we bought an laid back concrete cat (who is now residing on the top of the piano). The main focal point of Josselin however is the castle.
We also found a fantastic sculpture who had a shop directly opposite the castle. You can find her work here www.catousculpteuse.com We headed off from Josselin to the bit of the holiday I was most excited about staying in ‘Arthur’s (as in King) forest in Brocellande, only we didn’t. We got to the hotel (named & hopefully shamed below) but they had lost our booking and all their rooms were full.
They phoned everywhere but the only place that had room was, yes you guessed it Josselin, we drove back to find our hotel opposite the castle. However even though we didn’t get Arthur (or the supposed grave) Josselin on the second day was pretty cool. First we went into the park in the middle of the town, they had this water clock built for the millennium.
Mum then took us on to see the ‘singing tree’ unfortunately it looks like the singing tree had a sore throat cause it wasn’t singing. Still a pretty nice tree.
Jam and I escaped to the main market square in the evening
to grab a bite to eat. I had the nicest mussels of the the holiday (and there were loads of them).
& we saw the church spire as the sun was setting, the colour of the stone made it look like it was on fire!
(These photos don’t do it justice at all). Mum and I had been in the church earlier on in the day and as well as having a lovely crypt belonging to the family that own the castle.
There was some really stunning stained glass.
Our final night was back by the sea ready for the sail home. We stayed in Concaneau
Mum gets to know a statue on the pathway next to the sea. We ventured into the old town during the day where there was another castle, this one cleverly had a moat of flowers instead of water.
The old town also contained the most fabulous chocolate shop (all of these items are rendered completely in chocolate).
As well as all the chocolate they had some pretty tasty looking macaroons.
We had a traditional Breton feast on the last night, cider mixed with creme de cassis to start, a gallet for main & sweet pancake to finish, all washed down with a generous helping of cider. Thank you France we had a lovely holiday. Cheers!
