Hiking Crozon: La Lieue de Grève to Ty Mark

We did two shorter hikes over two days to explore a piece of the coast that is quite close to our rental that we had not yet visited. We started in the middle of a very long beach, the Lieue de Grève or the Strand League (league being a distance, not an association). At one […]

Hiking Crozon: Plage de Lostmarc’h to Pointe de Dinan

With a little conditioning from our short hikes under our belts and a decent weather forecast, we headed out for our first longer hike yesterday. We started at the beach at Lostmarc’h, which is on the southern section of the trident-shaped Crozon peninsula. The beach is split into sections – one for surfers and one […]

Revisiting old haunts

Our first two hikes were local… we aren’t really in shape for long ones! J spent a lot of time weeding before departure and M cut up a huge amount of firewood – both strenuous in their own way, but not great preparation for long hikes. We’re getting up to speed with some easy hikes […]

We’re Back!

Our last days in France in January 2020 seem like a very, very long time ago. In retrospect, having to leave France early turned out to be the silver lining to the dark cloud of family medical issues. Instead of being marooned in France when the pandemic struck, we were at home (and, as an […]

The GR 34

What’s the best sign in Brittany? This one: Why? Because it means you’re on the Grande Randonnée (GR) 34, the hiking trail that goes all the way around the coast of Brittany. It’s 1800 kilometers long. We’ve only hiked a fraction of those kilometers, but we’ve enjoyed them all. There’s something for everyone: stark natural […]

Happy All Saints’ Day

All Saints’ Day (November 1) is a national holiday here. School children have been on vacation for the last two weeks; today their parents get the day off too. We’ve been seeing a big sign on a greenhouse nursery for weeks – “Ici Fleurs de Toussaint” (All Saints’ Flowers Here). The French tradition is to […]

The Sea Wind

The wind blows pretty strongly almost every day here near the coast. It’s delightful while we hike and, when it blows hard, invigorating. There’s quite an updraft when you walk up to the edge of a cliff – a hat-keeper is an essential wardrobe element. But what’s most impressive about the wind is what everyone […]

Lunch and a Show

Today we had an outstanding lunch at a restaurant in Le Fret, the Hostellerie de la Mer. It had been on our to-do list for a while – we had tried to eat here for J’s birthday, but they were full. So first, since J’s into that sort of thing, let’s talk about the lunch… […]

Quimper Redux

We had briefly visited Quimper in early September; yesterday we went back for a closer look. Our visit certainly started off better than last time – we had an excellent lunch at Le Gandhi, an Indian restaurant. It was great to find some truly spicy food, something very un-French. We spent the afternoon walking around […]

Hiking Crozon: Clouds 2

M was inspired by the skies near Lézargol today… next comes trying to reproduce them in watercolors! We’ve never seen so many interesting clouds as we do here in Brittany. What the heck is going on in the atmosphere to make the formation above?