Our Time in France – Part 2

Our first day of touring France, aka, not driving 8 hours from Paris to the West Coast of Brittany, Ted’s friend Jean-Marc took us to visit the medieval town of Locronan.  As with any village or town in the area, there is a lovely church, St. Ronan.  St. Ronan was an Irish pilgrim whose relics were housed for a time in the church.

Most of the street signs in Brittany are in two languages, French and Breton.  There is a movement to bring back the Breton language, and there are quite a few immersion schools for children to learn Breton.  Surprisingly, this was illegal until somewhat recently.

Anyway, we drove from our hotel in Plougonvelin to pick up Jean-Marc at his house in Brest, and then on to Locronan.  In the map I included in my last post, Plougonvelin is 1, Brest is 6, and Locronan is 2.  Locronan is such a pretty little village, with a population of about 800, mainly full of little restaurants and shops.  Jean-Marc said that while in Brittany, you must have crepes, so we had our lunch at a wonderful Crepere.  The picture of my delicious crepe is 2 posts down.  I have to tell you, I have never been a fan of crepes.  Too doughy, too sweet, just not really my thing.  But, I figured, if you are in Brittany, home of crepes, and the Frenchman touring you around says these are the best crepes in Brittany, you may as well have one.  So I dug in to a delicious crepe complete with tomatoes, and it totally changed my mind about crepes.  I mean, I may never eat another crepe in the US again, but if I find myself in France again, especially in Locronan, I will definitely have another crepe complete.

Jean-Marc is Ted’s friend that he met when we lived in Philadelphia, when he was there studying Andrew Jackson for his doctorate degree. He teaches U.S. History in Brest and also I believe in Quimper. He is a truly sweet guy, so enthusiastic and generous, and we had a wonderful time with him.  Prior to this trip, the last time we saw him was 1995, before I was even pregnant with Maya.  He is married and has 2 children, one an adult step daughter about Maya’s age (who we did not meet), and one a son about 11 or 12, who was very involved in his video games, and also very sweet.

After our time in Locronan, we drove down to the lovely city of Quimper, where we saw…a church! A Cathedral, actually, the Cathedral of St. Corentin of Quimper.

It was a beautiful cathedral, with lovely stained glass windows, and statues of St. Therese, St. Anne, and St. Jeanne, aka, Joan of Arc. Maya and I were a bit obsessed with Joan of Arc, and appreciated seeing statues of her all over France.

I liked Quimper a lot, though we did not spend a lot of time there. The streets were full of modern shops and restaurants, a bustling city, though nothing like Paris or even Brest. I thought, if I were to retire to Brittany, if I could afford it, perhaps I would want to get a flat in Quimper. Not as lovely as the coast, but with a lot more to do.

After more driving, we dropped Jean-Marc back at his house in Brest, then drove ‘home’ to our hotel, and then on to dinner in the neighboring town of Le Conquet.  No pictures this time, but as with all of our meals in France, it was delicious, and the waiters were gracious and efficient, and the wine free-flowing.  Also, not cheap.  I mean, the wine there is SO MUCH cheaper than it is here, but we spent a lot of money on restaurants.  It would perhaps have been better to rent an Air BNB, so we could cook at least some of our own meals, but we will have to take that lesson forward to our next trip.