April vacation took me by surprise this year. I was only in the office for a week after returning from the US to get my visa paperwork taken care of, then suddenly the students were on break and so was I. After a few days holed up in my apartment doing things that seemed important (like email) a friend from Brittany contacted me and invited me over for the weekend, so I got to planning.
My weekend turned out to be 6 days in total. Train ticket prices go way up during school vacations, so I opted to carpool with a sweet gay couple to Rennes, about a 4 1/2 hour drive from Paris. From there I took a bus an hour north to my beloved town of Dinan, beautiful as usual with its medieval façades under grey skies. I spent a couple days playing music and seeing friends in the area, went to a great jam at the BeauSéjour bar in Dinard, and on Easter evening got together with my dear friend Béatrice. Once her four kids had left for their father's house we packed up the big white van and headed west.
After about a two hour drive we passed through Ploubazlanec on the Route de L'Arcouest and arrived at the port that links the Island of Bréhat (pronounced Bray-ah) to the mainland. Although it's only April and warm weather has not yet hit Brittany, grassy parking lot was nearly filled with cars. As the evening wore on, however, more people came off the boats and the field started to clear out. Béatrice and I passed the time picnicking on the rocks and watching the sun set.
We spent a very cozy night in the van. When we got up the next morning the grass was whet with rain and the clouds were heavy in the sky. We heated up tea and chocolate bread for breakfast, packed a picnick lunch and headed to the boat.
The island of Bréhat was left
untouched by the first and second World Wars. Medieval chapels and castle-like
villas sit side by side with more modern beach houses. Stone is the principal
material here. Stoney pathways weave through intricate stone buildings
surrounded by low stone walls, sometimes interrupted by natural stone formations
too large to be dug out of the way. Protected by the ocean's humidity, the
island is a gardener's paradise, with it's own micro-climate allowing palm
trees to grow next to pines and nasturtiums to grow year-round. Béatrice
assured me that she had never seen rain during her previous visits.
Low tide gave us a nice view of the contours of the island.
The island's few farmers
supply meat and vegetables to the rest of the inhabitants (300 in winter months
and as many as 6000 in summer). Everything else is brought over by boat and
sold at the little grocery store in town.
The northern half of the island is
indeed more wild-looking. The sea is choppier and even the rock formations are
wilder. High winds must keep too many trees from growing. The peaty ground
reminded me of Ireland. We saw rabbit droppings everywhere, but no rabbits.
The weather, which started out
grey but dry, soon turned to rain. It only really began to rain hard near the
end of the day. By then, we had finished hiking the northern part of the island
and started to get hungry. We squeezed ourselves into the doorway of an old
windmill in order to eat our picnic lunch without getting too wet. In the end,
we managed to hike around most of the island and catch the boat by 5pm. Like
the day before, the weather cleared up in the evening. This time, the sun came
out just as we pulled away from the island.
