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

Treguier

The Michelin descriptions of Treguier were not enticing, and we had pretty much decided to drive right through and on to our next stop...

But then we looked out the window into the marina parking
lot, and a merry-go-round and a bunch old men playing boulles--
someone please explain to me why one never, ever, sees women
playing boulles--and a whole bunch of rocks and the brown
cultural sign that tell us this is the stone circle of Tossen Keler,
underlying a tumulus some miles away and reassembled,
faithfully, here, in the park; probably to make way for a Leclerc
parking lot; anyway, we get out and inspect the circle, which
is like the things one sees in the UK of GB, but not in Brittany

And then I notice, across the highway, one of the grandest
calvaires I have seen in Brittany, ever

A really impressive and young one; a sign says only that it is
there to mark the "Protests of 1903"--read on, read on...

And then Vicki looks up the street and sees
this interesting old tower

And then, up that street, block after block of
half-timbered beauties; another city of them; we
are hooked

As we climbed up the hill to the centre villa, we stimulate
the local economy; despite being miles from Normandy, we're
still in StripeyLand; they have a very linear, level-headed
outlook here; they really look good on thin people

"Kouign Amann" is Breton for "food of Satan"

Family home of the great Biblical scholar, philologist, philosopher,
social critic, Ernest Renan, born in Treguier, and a son of the place

Not a good son of the Church; the calvaire down
the hill marked, instantiated, the ire of
Ultramontane (and other) Catholics, their rage,
when the city decided to erect this monument,
in the square right by the cathedral, of Athena
crowning Renan, the former seminarian turned
critic of religious and other dogma

More halfies

And some nice stone buildings to keep the halfies from falling
over

We visited the city's very interesting cathedral (next post) and
then walked back down the hill past this remarkably disguised
loo, actually a stone lean-to on an old city wall

When we got back to the camper, the men were still doing what
men must do

Just down the hill from the cathedral was one of the prettiest
aires we have stayed at yet, right on the tidal river, the Bois
du Poete

Thus; don't miss Treguier!