Isle de Batz

Another offshore island job, but the last one I promise. A bit of a reflection of the fact that I have visited a lot of places in Brittany with Phil over the years, so we have had to venture "overseas!" to find new destinations. Isle de Batz (the "z" is silent, but if not pronounced why have it?) is a small island off the north coast, but with a larger and denser population than the others we visited. And less touristy.

Its best feature is a botanical garden at one end of the island. When we arrived it was, of course, shut. But only for lunch rather than it was a day with "y" in it, so we only needed to make a brief detour around the ruined abbey of St Anne's and the headland before circling back.

Now the church was lovely in its own right. Some churches so suit being ruins that we really ought to consider artfully bulldozing some bits of our redundant churches. The special interest of this one is the way it shows the encroachment of sand dunes. At present it looks as if they built the place in a hole.

The headland, with its cannon emplacement (long bereft of Napoleonic cannons but now with one Breton flag flying proudly in the breeze (no, its not white)) offers nice views all round.

But the gardens are the piece de resistence. Utterly stunning and incredibly well desigened with all sorts of tricks to delight the eye. Of course it helps having the sort of benign climate that allows one to grow palm trees and echiums for example. And not everywhere has a setting on a headland with sea views and a bronze age burial site which you can integrate into your lawn. But it certainly makes the most of its advantages, even though the total site is quite compâct. Features include "windows" in the hedges to allow one to see various sea-views, lots of "rooms" demarcated by hedges or walls (a feature I have seen in many English gardens but then there were regular rectangles or squares while here you never know what size or shape is just around the corner - unless you cheat by looking at the map) and a lovely view down to the mainland overlooking a mat of colourful flowers. Not so impressed with the the few bits of modern sculpture dotted around - apart from one set with a magnifying glass. Oh for a decent Henry Moore.

Then back to the village and its rather substantial church. And a well-deserved cider on a warm day.