Chateau De Josselin

It had been more than a week since Penelope's last castle, so we decided to visit Josselin and its very old and historic chateau. This was August 2nd.

Josselin street scene

We had an hour's wait before the Anglais tour of the chateau, so
we visited the town church, the Chapelle Notre-Dame du Roncier
(Our Lady of the Brambles) 

Tomb of Olivier de Clisson and of his wife, Marguerite de Rohan;
Clisson was High Constable of France in the 14th century; and
chiefly responsible for the fortress of Josselin

Detail; the dog was an important symbol of fidelity in the
Middle Anges

Anyhow, the church has two halls (naves?), one Romanesque,
one Gothic; here's the Romanesque

Looking from Romanesque to Gothic

Thus

Exterior

Clisson's 14th century fortress had a keep, a curtain, and seven
towers; in 17th century, the Clisson-Rohans were Calvinists,
and thus Cardinal Richelieu had the chateau more than a
little "slighted"; it was largely rebuilt in the 19th century 

The "isolated" tower, across from the chateau

Nice grounds

View of the chateau, overlooking the Oust valley and part of
the town

Down river, or possibly up river

Frontal view of chateau; the tour indeed was in English; P, as
usual, listened intently, or at least acted that way; alas, however,
there is a no fotos policy

Nice down spout

After the tour we walked back through the old town to the carpark

Even in modest half-timbereds, there can be interesting carving

Thus

And thus

Another beautiful town and historic chateau

Quimper

And another day, August 1st, we visited Quimper, another of Brittany's larger towns, and capital of the department of Finistere.

Main square

Another half-timbered heaven

A main interest for me, Quimper's Cathedral, St. Corentin

Mainly because of its interesting curvature

The nave and the chancel are headed in slightly different directions...

Nice old windows

Some carving of interest

Wall of the cathedral precinct

Buttressing

But the main interest of the day was the carousel

Note stripey coordinates

Not just any carousel; Jules Verne was from Nantes, the largest city in traditional
Brittany (now in the Loire-Atlantique department)

Around the world in 80 days...

The Nautilus

Pretty town, Quimper

Vannes

For a day trip, July 30th, we drove to Vannes, one of Brittany's larger towns, mostly just to walk around, enjoy the ambiance, and stimulate the local economy. (The day before, we'd visited Pontivy, closer to Guern, for lunch and some provisioning, but, alas, I took no pix.)

P looks on as an artisan makes her a personalized necklace

Vannes street scene

Half-timbered everywhere

The bubbles man has stationed himself outside the cathedral

Fun for the kids; we bought one of these devices in Wales and
used it at Les Verts Paturages

Cathedral interior

Street scene with bubbles; what would the Impressionists have
made of this, the play of light, the transcience?

We visited many stripey and other stores

And ate here; it took me over an hour to tweezer out all the little
mussels, but they were great, Bretagne-style

More street scenes

And a walk along the ramparts to see the
chateau

And the old town laundry