Vannes and surrounding area

What an amazing weekend.  On Friday I changed host families and I have been staying with a lovely lady called Yvonne.  She has a wealth of historical and cultural knowledge on the Brittany region and I have been trying to learn as much as possible from her.

On Saturday morning we went for a long walk along the Golfe du Morbihan (Morbihan Gulf).  We walked for well over an hour and a half right out to Presqu’île de Conleau (Conleau Peninsula).  While the wind was bitter, the scenery was spectacular.

After lunch we headed to Carnac.  This has been on my bucket list for quite a while.  Carnac is known for its alignment of “Menhir” – standing stones.  The alignment of stones were erected during the Neolithic period somewhere between 5000 and 2000 BC.  There is something like 3000 stones which align in perfect rows for around 4km.  No one knows the significance of the site.  I was blown away by the sheer number of stones; it was much more impressive than what I imagined.  And over the years some stones have been removed to make way for roads etc.

This morning we headed into the covered markets to purchase provisions for lunch and dinner.  Yvonne bought me a delicious dessert called “Gwen ha du” which is also the Breton word for the Breton flag (meaning black and white).  Oh my lord, it was amazing!  The region is known for its salted caramel and this dessert had a lovely gooey layer of it.  Yummo!

Next we went for a stroll around the beautiful port area and then back along the ramparts.  I’ve walked past this site several times now and each time I notice something different.  Today it was the ermine symbol in the garden.  The ermine is the mascot of Brittany.  The motto of Brittany is “plutôt la mort que la souillure” – death before dishonour.  Literally, though, “souillure” means stain.  According to legend, Anne de Bretagne was taking part in a hunt for ermine.  Trapped beside a swamp, rather than dirtying its white fur, an ermine chose to face its hunters rather than the mud.  Considering the nobility of this attitude, Anne ordered that the animal be spared and made the ermine the emblem of Brittany.

After our lunch, we hopped back in the car.  We stopped at a couple of historic sites – the Château of Suscinio and the Abbey of Saint Gildas de Rhuys.

Our final stop was the coast at Saint Gildas de Rhuys where we did a beautiful walk along the Atlantic Coast.  The coastline is so rugged and wild and the path sometimes required you to be part mountain goat but the scenery was spectacular.  When we made it to the end we had a lovely view of the islands.

Finally we stopped at a little village called Saint Armel where Yvonne bought a local specialty called  gochtial.  She said other places in the region make it, but if you want a real gochtial, you have to come to Saint Armel.  It is a kind of a mixture between brioche and bread.  We enjoyed a piece with another Brittany specialty, salted butter, this afternoon… along with a hot chocolate.

All-in-all, a wonderful weekend!

Vannes ramparts and markets

Please excuse any typos... I'm writing this on an AZERTY keyboard.  ARGHHHH!!!!

I arrived back in Vannes late Monday afternoon and returned to the high school to attend some more classes.  This week I am going to be visiting some classes at the collège - this is like middle school, so the students are younger.

Yesterday, one of the classes that I was to attend at the lycée didn't end up running, so I went for a walk into town and visited the old city ramparts which were constructed between the 3rd and 12th centuries.  Unfortunately, the weather was a bit drizzly (a common occurence here in Brittany, apparently) so I returned to school a wee bit wet.  In the afternoon I sat in on a PE class which was, quite frankly, organised chaos.

Last night for dinner, we had a typically French meal of raclette (stupidly, I forgot to take photos, so the images will be from Google). You hqve a type of grill on the table and you put a little tray filled with raclette cheese under it.  Once it is bubbling hot, you pour it over boiled potatoes qnd eat with cold meats like ham, salami and proscuitto.  Yummy!  We followed this with a typically Breton pqstry called Kouign-amann.  My host told me that it is basically sugar and butter.  The pastry itself is not unlike the taste and texture of a croissant, but on top the sugar is deliciously caramelised.  According to Wikepedia, the recipe originated in Dournenez in Brittany in 1860 and requires a ratio of 40% dough, 30% butter and 30% sugar.

Today the deputy principal kept my schedule free so I could walk into town and see the Wednesday markets.  They were quite impressive with fruit and vegetable stalls as far as the eye could see.  There were also cheese and crepe stalls and the seafood pavilion.  There were clothes as well, but they all seemed a bit old fashioned.  I have my eye out for a new jacket, but nothing really jumped out at me today.

Tonight I'm going to make pavlova.  I already cooked the meringue shell last night and there was much ooohing and ahhhing from my host family as I removed it from the oven.

Good thing I'm doing lots of walking!!!

Nantes

What a beautiful little city Nantes is.  Everything is oozing history and it is all within walking distance (although my Fitbit was ready to explode today I think… I walked all day and clocked up 21,274 steps).

I started the morning by visiting the Cathedral Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul… another impressive house of worship; however, in my haste to see as much as I could today, I missed seeing the tomb of François II, the last duke of Brittany and his wife Margeurite de Foix, so will pop back again tomorrow.

Next I visited  the Château des Ducs de Bretagne.  François II  began construction of this impressive building in the late 15th Century with the work being completed by his daughter, Anne de Bretagne.   François fought hard for Brittany to maintain its independence from France, but the Duchy became part of France when Anne married King Charles VIII of France in 1491.

The museum inside the château detailed the history of Nantes right up to present day.  Of course, it is where the Edict of Nantes was signed in 1598 by Henri IV.  The Edict promised religious rights to Protestants and put an end to the religious wars.  Nantes is an important port town and as such it was heavily involved in the slave trade that would provide African slaves to Europe and the Americas.  Following the abolition of slavery, whaling became an important source of income.

Following a yummy ham baguette at a café, I followed the magical green line which points tourists in the direction of important tourist sites.  The line lead me past Le Mémorial de l’Abolition de l’Esclavage.  In the footpath leading up to the monument were (for as far as the eye could see) plaques with the names of ships that left Nantes bound for Africa to collect slaves.

I then followed the line across the Loire and onto the Île de Nantes.  Here I walked along the river and past the old warehouse that was once used to ripen bananas.  In the distance, was the quaint fishing village of Trentemoult.

I then visited “Machines de l’Ile”.  The hour long tour showed off some very Jules Vernes type contraptions.  Currently, there is a giant carousel and elephant in operation.  By 2019, there will be another structure which will take the form of a tree with all sorts of futuristic rides on it.  While this was interesting, the tour could have been made a lot shorter if the presenters cut back on their lame jokes… I was a bit over it after 40 minutes.

I then headed back along the green line which brought me back to my hotel.