Cote du Granit Rose

Further along the coast, the granite turns pink, when the sunlight is just right, and takes unusual forms and shapes. We stopped at Tregastel to have a look.

From an overlook just before Tregantel

Thus

And thus

And then stopped near the harbor for a closer look

Have I mentioned that the hydrangeas all over Normandy and
now Brittany are in full bloom and pretty stunning?

More harbor

More rocks, this one in someone's front yard

And more rocks

This is an actual tidal dam and mill; there's a larger, newer one
between St. Malo and Dinard that actually produces electricity

Really nice houses in the neighborhood

Love Breton buildings

Private island (and mock castle) just off the coast, owned by
19th century celebrities...

Yard ornament

Tidal shells on the granite rose

More weird rocks

And some chain-saw sculpture

The House Between The Rocks

So here follow several pix of le maison entre les roches, its surroundings and view. It is right on the sea, private property, now walled-off because of the invasiveness of tourists. But still pretty compelling.The larger coastal area, Le Gouffre, is a preserve in the commune of Plougrescant. Oh, the adjacent property, not pictured, is available...

A Walk Along The Coast At Plougrescant

Sometime in the 1980s, during a visit here, Vicki bought a poster of what has come to be known as "The House Between the Rocks." We've always thought it epitomized the Brittany coast, but never took the time nor the trouble to see exactly where it was nor to visit it. Too many other things to visit in Brittany; and most of this was long before searching on Google. The poster still hangs in the library at Sentinel High School in Missoula. We easily found "The House Between the Rocks" this time and were sure not to miss it. But first we took a walk along the coast en route.

We parked on a hill within sight of the house, but opted to walk around the point

Saint-Tugdual Cathedral, Treguier

Interesting church. We were pretty far west in Treguier, almost to Finisterre, where, in my opinion, things start getting more Breton, which is to say, Celtic, than French. Anyway, we spent some time in the Cathedral here and were greatly rewarded.

13th century Gothic, mostly, although the oldest part, the so-called
Hastings Tower, is 11th century, which is indeed way old

Nave view

Elevation; no gallery, blind triforium, 3-lancet
clerestory windows with surmounting whatcha-
ma-call-it windows, 4-part ribbed vaulting; 
pretty standard 13th century French architecture; 
curious to find it so far west here

One of the quirky things here, however, is the piers in the nave:
look at them, right

And left

We've seen alternating piers/columns in some of the transition
Gothics, in the Ile de France, but never anything like this: no
two pairs are alike, at all

Crossing

Choir; nice carving, misericordia; enlarge the dude in the very
center and you will see a fighting Uruk-hai from The Two Towers

Apse ceiling, painted

Nice person

Killer Rabbit of Caenbannag (look it up)

The part of this cathedral that impresses,
however, is the 11th century Hastings Tower,
one wall of which is in view here; Romanesque
arches, etc., and the stone work above them
looks almost like rubble, at least when compared
with the finely cut stone of the 13th century
church; one doesn't see much 11th century
construction in Europe, at least not of any
magnitude (OK, OK, this is Brittany and human 
construction work here is measured in  millennia, 
not in centuries; we'll get to that shortly)

Anyhow, the capitals in the Hastings Tower are in part what
you'd expect of a Norman-era church

But then there is much I would describe as Celtic

Thus

And thus; and more

Saint-Tugdual's three towers: Hastings, the 13th century Sanctus
tower, and the 1785 bell-tower/spire

Interesting old church