Travel Blog – 5th May 2023

We arrived at our hotel in Perros Guirec and found that we had mucked up when we booked. It is a little confusing that there is a town called Perros Guirec in a region called Perros Guirec. I had booked a little boutique hotel that I thought was in the town of Perros Guirec, but turned out to be in a tiny little village called Ploumanac’h. It turned out to be a fortuitous mistake, however, because Ploumanac’h is a gorgeous little town and the hotel was great. Our room overlooked the beautiful little harbour full of fishing boats. The hotel also had a restaurant and we dined there the first night. Lidia ordered the fish, cooked in a butter sauce with a delicious puree and asparagus, which she thought was the best meal she had eaten so far in France.

The next morning, we drove over to the actual town of Perros Guirec, which was only a 5 minute drive and was a lot busier and more touristy, so we were super happy with our choice of accommodation. We boarded a boat and took a tour of the 7 islands which lie just off the pink granite coast. The coast from the boat was beautiful, with unusual rock formations lining the shore. The day was clear and bright for 10 minutes and then suddenly we were surrounded by a blanket of thick fog. I started to feel dubious that we would see each other, let alone any birds!

We toured the 7 islands, which are only called the 7 islands in name because there are only 5 of them. The main reason we took this trip was so that we could see puffins! The islands are popular roosting spots for birds and puffins apparently roost there between April and October. Once we started our tour, however, I became a little concerned that we would not see any. Even without the thick fog, apparently, there are only 250 pairs of puffins left on the islands and they live in burrows, only exiting to fly out to sea to fish. We went to 4 of the 5 islands and the fog lifted enough to see some of the local wildlife. We saw seals, gannets, petrels and razorbills. We were very lucky to see the razorbills, because apparently there are only 20 couples left on the islands. However, we were there to see Puffins and we only had one island left. I was a little despondent, feeling sure that we would never see them. However, we arrived at the last island for the day to find that there were about 10 puffins swimming around! I was very excited and took some great photos.

After we disembarked the boat, we walked around the town of Perros Guirec. We bought some sardines and Kouign-Amann cake (a local buttery cake made from layers of flaky pastry), along with some cold cuts, cheese and a giant baguette, then sat on the beach and ate a picnic lunch. The weather was sunny and warm, the food fabulous and the company wonderful. Carmel was laying on her front in the sand and Lidia pointed out that she had sand on the end of her nose. In a sudden fit of lunacy, she shoved her entire face in the sand. We don’t know why. Madness is my guess. She had sand in her mouth and all over her face. Crazy lady!

After lunch we left the cars in Perros Guirec and hiked along the pink granite coast back to Ploumanac’h. The coastline really is spectacular. The rock formations amazing. We stopped to take a selfie with all six of us and there was a lady sitting on a rock in our photo. We waited for her to move and gave her pleading looks, however she refused to even budge. We had to take the photo with her in it in the end. We dubbed her Brittany Boulder, because we are in Brittany and she wouldn’t budge and liked to sit on boulders. I had a bit of fun with photoshop that night.

When we arrived back at Ploumanac’h, the girls went to freshen up for dinner while the boys walked the 45 minute hike back to Perros Guirec to pick up the cars. We all got ready for dinner and met in front of our hotel. Ian had donned one of his new pairs of shoes for the occasion, a lovely pair of Pikolino sandals. Unfortunately, he decided to wear a bright blue pair of socks under them! After informing him that that was a major fashion failure, I kindly asked him to walk 50 metres behind me.

We returned to Perros Guirec for dinner that night. It was a marvellous meal, and an exciting one for all of us. Caitlynne’s doctor gave her permission to have one glass of wine on this holiday and she chose that night to drink it. It was a beautiful bottle of Bordeaux and she thoroughly enjoyed every sip. Just quietly, I think she may have slipped in an extra glass, don’t tell her doc!

The following morning, we drove to Quimper. On the way we stopped at a village called Morlaix. Another example of a beautiful French village, we saw an ancient house that was built in 1530 and bought some lunch in a boulangerie, which we enjoyed in the public park. We then bought cakes from a patisserie, which we had all been drooling over. Rob wore most of his cake all over his face.

We then stopped off at a small cider factory to sample the local cider. Quimper is famous for cider and this cider house has been running for 35 years. They grow their own apples in the adjoining orchard, hand-pick the apples and press them in traditional machines. They are fermented and aged in darkened cellars so that the oak of the barrels doesn’t dry out too much and spoil the product. The only light comes from small stained-glass windows depicting various stages of the production process. They never import apples from other growers and all of their products are made on site. We toured the factory and then sampled their products. We had high hopes, having been sold on their story. Unfortunately, the cider tasted like horse manure.

We stayed in Quimper for the following two nights. I have to say that Quimper, although beautiful in the old town, left us wanting. So far on this trip we have stayed at some wonderful accommodation. Mostly boutique hotels, we have enjoyed every hotel in one way or another. Quimper was our first dud. We stayed at the Mercure hotel just on the outskirts of the old town, a four star hotel which left us wondering how on earth they achieved this rating. The moment we turned up, Rob, Caitlynne, Ian and Carmel all found that their safes didn’t work. When Rob told the manager, whose name was Baptiste, he shrugged his shoulders and smirked. Rob suggested that maybe the batteries for the keypad were flat and new batteries might fix the problem. Baptiste Fawlty, as we’ve come to name him, said “Prerbably nert” and left it at that. Lidia and I were allocated a room that required two elevators and about a kilometre of walking to get to. We went to reception to ask Baptiste Fawlty to move us closer to our friends just as Rob was having his pointless discussion about the safe. Baptiste moved us to another room and Rob asked him if our safe would work. He shrugged his shoulders and said “I dern’t kner”. The following day it was raining and Rob asked Baptiste Fawlty for an umbrella. He actually laughed and said “We dern’t do zat!”. I’m surprised there wasn’t an international incident. Meanwhile, we walked past a 3 star hotel right next door and there were a stack of umbrellas just inside the door for their guests. We felt like dragging Baptiste over there by his ear and showing him that if a 3 star hotel can supply umbrellas, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that his 4 star hotel could do the same.

The next morning, Caitlynne was carrying her bags down the metal back stairs, which were mossy and slippery. She fell and hurt her arm badly. Rob took her to reception and asked for ice. They explained that they had no ice and that guests should not be using the back stairs. There were no signs or barricades or anything to indicate that the stairs shouldn’t be used and Rob was a model of self control when he insisted that a hotel must have ice somewhere. Eventually they found some at the bar. Who would have guessed that the bar had ice?

Anyway, Quimper wasn’t a total loss. The undercover food market was really cool and we wandered around there for a while. I may have had a bit of an incident where I was walking into an Italian food stall to show Rob what taralli were and tripped over the step in the entrance, falling into a free-standing shelf full of jars of products. The whole shelf tipped dangerously over and Rob rescued it before the entire display went crashing to the floor. The stall owner came rushing over and she was none too happy. She really shouldn’t place a step right in an inconvenient location if she wants to avoid product damage. Anyway, we ate some really tasty ramen at another stall.

One of the nights In Quimper we ate at a really cool restaurant called L’Epee. The meals were beautiful. I ate “perfect egg” for entree, which was a slow cooked egg on truffle puree. Divine! Rob and I both had pigeon for main and it was really tasty!

The next day we took a day trip out to a tiny little village called Locronan and it was stunning. Ancient wisteria draped over granite shop fronts, all surrounding a cobble-stoned square with a well in the centre. The village looks like it hasn’t changed one iota in centuries.

On the final night in Quimper, Carmel received a phone call from the car hire company that they had reserved a car with 6 months earlier. They had organised to drive 7 hours south to Limoges to visit Ian’s cousin who lives there with his wife and then return to Nantes three days later to catch a flight with us to Rome via Paris. The car hire company explained to Carmel that they had not organised an automatic car in time and they had the choice to either drive a manual or wait until 5pm the next day for an automatic. Neither option was acceptable, so Carmel was flat out trying to organise alternative transport. All of the other car hire places in Quimper were closed by that time, so she tried plan B. That night we ate at a place called Copper J. Carmel was slightly distracted moving on to Plan C, D, etc right through to Z. She managed to secure a train from Quimper to Limoges, but couldn’t find transport from Limoges to Nantes in order to catch a plane to Rome for the next part of our trip. She tried trains, planes and automobiles (car hire) but there was nothing available. By this stage she was chugging the red wines back like an eskimo in the desert. Eventually she gave up and just enjoyed our last meal with all six of us present. At the end of the meal, she used her translate app to practice asking the waitress if we could split the bill in French. By the time she was ready to go, the entire restaurant was in on it. She nailed her spiel and the whole restaurant cheered!

We went back to the hotel and all said our goodbyes. This was the last time Ian and Carmel would see Rob and Caitlynne on this trip and we would not see Ian and Carmel for 4 days while they were visiting Ian’s cousin in Limoges. Half an hour after we got back to our room, we received a message from Carmel. She had managed to organise a bus from Limoges to Paris, where she could pick up the flight to Rome. Sorted!