FRANCE 2016

Good morning world ........it,s a scorcher too in Kilarney just as Kathleen predicted!!!! Maybe it is only the Irish men full of hot air!!!!!!! But.......this morning we are heading for Cork and Roscoff in France.
Not too far down the road, Cork is only an hour and a bit away, we hit RAIN!!!!! As we drive through Ballymakeera it is misty with a fine, soaking drizzle (I am sure you know the type) so we decide not to stop and head for Macroom where we discover there is a Saturday market and this quaint little township is booming and busting at the seams. There are traffic queues all through the town but at least this gives us a slow crawl through the main streets - equal to a motorised stroll - so although we can't park we see most of its quaintness and the town square and .......it is still drizzling!!!!!
Lissarda is next and then the Port of Cork where we find cheapish diesel before heading to France.
The Port of Cork seems to us to be the most efficient port we have experienced. Our queue time was minimal, our loading was amazing - how they work everything out we could not fatham - we were tucked right behind the bulkhead to allow smaller campers to park in front of us. They knew exactly what size van, bus, truck to summon forward and when - it was quite incredible. This was a huge, cruise boat style ship, an overnight sail and we had booked a cabin on Deck 5 - yep in the bowels!!!! But it was great - especially when we finally discovered the second bunk latched up in the ceiling of the cabin!!!!!
A few cheap cocktails, some food - which was wholesome and plentiful - a shower in our ensuite, a good nights sleep and 7am the next morning, Sunday, we drove onto the shores of France at Roscoff, Brittany into SUNSHINE!!!!!!
Driving on the RIGHT side of the road we immediately headed for Quimper but actually found we were extremely tired - must have been the stress of the ferry trip - so we pulled into a rest area beside a park in Pleyber Christ and had a two hour snooze!!!!! Absolutely unheard of for us and we were totally undisturbed - being a Sunday there were not too many people around.
Continuing our journey towards Quimper we arrived at our campsite in Chateaulin only to be told that we were expected the day before and our booking email had been consigned to the rubbish bin!!!!! Was true as well - on making the booking an OVERNIGHT ferry trip had not been taken into consideration, however she still had a couple of nice sites free and we stayed there for 4 nights in the end. This was a small, privately owned site and although the sanitary block left a bit to be desired it was not overrun by kids which was a bonus.
From Camping La Pointe it was a 15minute walk along the riverside to the village of Chateaulin, small, plain but possessed of the basics. Most of the smaller shops were "Closed for the Holidays" whilst others only opened sporadically. It suited us fine - we managed to sort out a French sim card with data, buy groceries for us and mats for Molly B - everything we needed. I managed to buy a watch made by Leny Harper which was an obvious must and the stay was pleasant with the rest of the time spent reading, eating and drinking - the basics really???
But....the weather was still not warm enough and there were signs of a further deterioration so we impulsively headed North again to find a beach and the ever elusive sunshine we were craving for.
We are still in the Finistere region of Brittany and as Corlay, La Croix, Quintin and Les Fraiche pass by the weather actually starts to improve - we have pure blue skys and sunshine - and then to complete an almost perfect day - our first "rattle free" day in Molly B - we drive into picture perfect Hillion which is a very small village which, incidentally has the most gorgeous, unassuming restaurant anyone would wish to stumble across and a very large, half empty carpark that we can fit into. We ordered the "Formulae" of three courses,a quarter of wine each and coffee at 13 Euro each all up. Superb is the only way to describe this meal and with nothing left on any of our plates we stumbled back to Molly B replete. We were freedom camping in an Aire on the beach just down the road at Pleneuf-Val- Andre so all was well. (I should mention here for those of you looking at a map whilst reading this blog that 5 days later we have almost driven full circle and are now within a stones throw of Roscoff again!!!!!) This was a good free Aire and obviously used well by the French for a cheap holiday but the beach was crap and next morning, after a walk along the clifftop, we came back to a French camper parked at our back doorstep so we high tailed it out of there fast and headed West to another beach and Aire at St. Pol de Leon.
This drive took us through Yffimac, Brieuc and to Lannion which is a very old town in Finistere region of Brittany with lots of history and great architecture. Some of the older, tudor style buildings are very colourful and appear to be holding each other up in their own wobbly way. This was a nice little township, although we had a relatively mediocre lunch here but a good park just on the outskirts of town - guess you can't have everything!!!!! Crepes are the order of the day in this area of Brittany - savoury and sweet.
Travelling on we finally arrived at our beach Aire at St. Pol de Leon only to find it was closed and the whole place was heaving with people, cars and campervans all enjoying the sunshine. Kate - the GPS - then took us along a hair-raising trip through the back, narrow streets of the town before spewing us back into the countryside - but not before we had made our first mistake of driving on the wrong side of the road into a small roundabout - just for a very little distance only though.
So we carried on to our next freedom camping site at the Basilica le Folgoet, in Le Folgoet, and as we passed through this agricultural area of Brittany we had the most peaceful drive on excellent roads - probably the nicest and prettiest scenery so far.
Staying one night here and enjoying looking through the Basilica and small village in the sunshine and warmth on Sunday we headed South to Douarnonez via Landerneau where a huge music festival was happening, the place looking like tent city, Daoulas, the pretty village of La Foue and out onto the peninsular to Crozan where we found an easy park to allow us to look around their Sunday market. Here we found a stall selling local honey and, believe it or not, a stall selling Vietnamese food which was delicious, as is the honey. Once again though this small village was chaotic with cars jammed everywhere and nowhere to go.
Finally escaping Crozan we retraced our journey back from the peninsular to Saint Nic, Plomodiern, Ploeven and back out towards the coast to Douarnonez, with it's fabulous marina, finally arriving at the coast in Poulen Sur Mer, Benzec-Cap-Sizun and eventually our destination at the Plage De Pors Peron campsite which is awesome. Free Wifi, nice clean sanitaries, croissants and baguettes to order, privacy and the most important - SUNSHINE!!!! It has been so hot that a brief sorte to the beach saw us burnt within an hour but unfortunately the Atlantic is still cold so no swimming for us - only the young and foolish venture in. 31 degrees has been the norm with warm balmy evenings and it has been exactly what we have been looking for ........that is until today!!!!!????? Everything changed and it has been misty, cloudy, rainy and cold with intermittent warm spots - apparently typical Finestere weather....fickel. Undeterred, a cooler day meant we could take an enjoyable but scary walk along the cliff tops comfortably, which made a welcome change from sunbathing in the long awaited sunshine.
Tomorrow we head off once again after 4 nights here to an Aire in-land this time. We shall see what pleasures that brings!