Mrs. Sixwheeler and I are on holiday. Some of you may recognise this classic sunset photograph of the Venice lagoon,

but it is actually Portsmouth harbour as we sit on the Brittany Ferries ship Bretagne waiting for our overnight crossing to St Malo…

…which went very well apart from my forgetting the hour difference between UK and France so our coffee and croissant were somewhat hurried.

Anyway we were quickly ashore and on our way. Garmin decided to take us on a scenic route but that didn’t matter as Brittany has already shut for the winter and the roads are deserted. This meant that we could toddle along and enjoy the scenery at a very relaxed pace. The only diversion was when we left a dual-carriageway to look for somewhere for a coffee and a round trip of about forty five minutes found absolutely no towns nor villages large enough to have a café; so back to where we started and onwards unrefreshed. 

We arrived at Quimper on the southern Finisterre coast without problems. As with so many French towns Quimper is surrounded by fairly unattractive modern commercial and industrial zones. In one we went through we were particularly taken by the very large biscuit factory with next door to it the “Darling Strip Club”. How did that ever happen? 

We arrived in good time at our hotel, the Best Western Hotel Kregenn, and dropped off the car before heading into the old town centre for lunch. This was only about five minutes walk and we soon had our first view of the St-Corentin cathedral.

Refreshment soon followed

and after lunch we had a wander round what seems like an attractive old town centre

and finished off with a look round inside the cathedral. 

There is some very nice stained glass but, frankly, not much else. There’s one strikingly modern window, this is one panel from that.

Then it was back to the hotel for a nap before we headed back into town for supper and where you can have anything you like as long as it’s a crepe.

Tomorrow we will start exploring.

2 September 2017