Gulf of Morbihan and the Ile aux Moines

So, I embarked upon a 10 day holiday at the end of April, starting in Brittany and then moving on to Paris. The Brittany leg comprised visiting my old school friend Phil in a hamlet about 20 minutes from Vannes. I think hamlet is the right description of a settlement with no shops or pubs. Very quiet. Apart from the distant sound of gunfire. Anywhere quiet of course appeals to the military for a quick bit of target practice. To be fair one would prefer that to a Town Centre.

I arrived in Rennes in glorious sunshine to be greeted by Phil and Marie-Pierre, and the only traffic during my trip. We got in amongst the French leaving work early on a Friday afternoon. Given I had been up before 6am to catch train to Paris that morning, Friday was a bit of a right off apart from a lovely meal in the neighbouring village of Plumelec. France does do food quite well. Who would have thought?

Anyway, Saturday was taken up with a boat trip that Phil had booked around the Gulf of Morbihan. Interesting fact - courtesy of Phil - Morbihan is  the only French Department which doesn't have a French name; it is Breton.

But I digress. A beautiful  day - a t-shirt, shorts and sunscreen day, although windy and so not overly hot, especially on the boat. The Gulf is a pretty amazing place. The mouth is under a kilometre wide, so tides rush in and out quite strongly, but by road from one side of the mouth to the other would be nearly 70kms. This natural harbour  encloses about 40 islands, but only two are sizeable with resident populations, as opposed to the odd house. And above all it is an interesting indented coastline with rocks and sandy beaches, so ideal for boat trips. We started at Locmaraquier, at low tide.

And after a little wait for the boat, off we go. Quite a large stable vessel so could take a few photos without having to contend with wave action.

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  Now one fact about this region is that it is just full of prehistoric remains. It makes Avebury look bereft. One of the small islands has a set of standing stones on its own. With a large barrow behind.

 A rare traditional Breton boat amongst the enormous number of  modern yachts

 After about an hour we landed at the Ile aux Moines, a cross-shaped island for a 90 minute stroll. This is very much holiday home territory, plus tourist shops and restaurants to appeal to the boat trippers

 We walked up into the village. Very chocolate box.