France - July 2005

Claire and I went camping in France for our early summer holiday. We stayed in Mont-St-Michel (Brittany), Kervel (Brittany), Montreuil-Bellay (Loire) and finally the house in Regnetuit (Normandy). This is a collection of the pics from our holiday.
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Map of Brittany, France
A high level map from Multimap showing the places we stayed on our holiday. (Mouse over image to see notes)
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Close Proximity
Just as we finished setting up, I heard someone calling my name. As luck would have it Ian and Judith had chosen the same site as us and their caravan pitch was very close to ours. Not planning what so ever.
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Sign Language
They say a picture speaks a thousand words. You may not understand French, but the pic says it all.
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St Malo Town Hall
The French has a lot of very old and shoddy looking buildings, however the best looking building of a town is ALWAYS the town hall.. also called the Mairie. It took Claire to tell me that Mairie actually means town hall and is not the name of some old Monarch as I originally thought.
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Restuarants Opposite Town Hall
A little stretch of restuarants opposite the town hall in St Malo
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Turquiose Channel
You'd think this was the lovely turquoise sea's of the Med of Caribbean and not the English Channel.
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Hot
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Sunset on Mont-St-Michel
I thought an arty sort of sunset shot was due. Warning there are a few more of these to come.
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Mont-St-Michel
Mont-St-Michel is a walled island town with a huge abbey right at the top. We arrived early evening for the sunset and to catch the abbey lit up.
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Steep Street
Not only are the streets narrow, they're pretty steep too. Not a place to take granny and her chariot.
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View of the Bay
With the tide out, you can see all the sand banks that have built up in the bay round the one side of the island.
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Another Sunset Shot
Taken from up on the island. Couldn't see round the folage, so I included it.
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Reflection
I couldn't get my head through this for a good shot, but thought the reflection on the brickwork looked pretty cool.
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Buildings
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Abbey
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Claire
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A Mosque?
My feeble attempt to place the moon at the tip of the spire of one of the turrets in a
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Doorway Sunset
We couldn't walk down this section as it wasn't safe, but the doorway provided a cool border for another arty shot.
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Moon
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Mont-St-Michel - the Final Shot
The last pic of Mont-St-Michel taken from the causeway as we returned to the car.
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Douarenez
The beach we obtained our tans on. It's across the bay from a town called Douranez - once, the largest tuna canning town in Europe.
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The Church in Locronan
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Horse Drawn Cart
A very tired looking horse pulling a cart round Locronan. We didn't go for a trip as the poor horse looked really bored. The man, cart and horse a feature of Locronan appearing on many post cards.
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Fancy a Tea Cup of Cider?
Claire and I ordered cider, expecting to get it in a glass or a cider mug, but nope - we got it in tea cups. I felt obliged to raise my pinky whilst drinking :-)
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Concarneau Street
Once again, the narrow streets characteristic of most fort towns in France. These are just wide enough for a car.
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Porte de Vin
This door way on the fort has quite a bit of history but is called the Porte de Vin named after one of it's primary functions - it was once used to bring wine on to the fort.
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Bretan Africa
The entrance to one of the shops we found in the Concarneau fort. Hmmm, how do you make African produce Bretan? This shop tries.
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Man Vs Nature
Now something is wrong here - the sun dial is showing the wrong time, by well over 2 hours - the sun dial is reporting it's approx 9:00, whilst the actual time was 11:30. If we take into account the 1 hour for DST, what about the other 1h30m? Has the earth moved that much or has someone got the sun dial position a bit wrong?
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New Church Mosaic
The new church (of a modern design) next to the remains of the old church sport this pretty amazing mosaic.
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Kervel Campsite Entrance (1)
The main entrance to the campsite at Kervel we stayed at - Camping International Kervel. This shows the main reception and the little shop. The pool is to the right.
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Kervel Campite Entrance (2)
The entrance from a different angle showing the bar and games room.
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Inside Camp Site
Inside the camp site, all the roads and pitches are seperated by loads of trees and hedges.
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Odd Shop Decorations
Skulls certainly provide for a slightly different shop decor. This was the
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Claire and the Well
Claire's parents have two pics of Claire standing in front of this well holding bread in Locronan. One of Claire at about 5 and another of her at 13. So we took one of Claire at 25.
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Claire and the Well - the Other Way
We couldn't remember which way the other pics we taken, so we took one from both sides.
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Plomvez-Porzay
The little town up the road from the campsite was called Plomvez-Porzay. There isn't much to this town that isn't captured in this picture :-)
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Bretan March Past (1)
One evening a Bretan folk band marched through the campsite playing a traditional celtic tune using drums and bagpipes.
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Bretan March Past (2)
A shot of the flag and the front row of the band. Unfortunately, the flag is written in Bretan so I can't translate it.
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Door Way to the Town
One of the routes in to Montreuil-Bellay takes you through several very narrow door ways literally a car's width.
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Steps to the Montreuil-Bellay Town
The campsite is set next to the Thouet river which feeds into the Loire. These are the stairs up to the town from the campsite road.
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Chateau from the Bar
We stopped for a drink over the road from the chateau. I just turned around to take this pic.
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South African Recognition in France
I spotted this in Montreuil-Bellay. A Promenade dedicated to JRR Tolkien (born in Bloemfontain, South Africa).
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Hotel in Saumur
How's this for an elaborate hotel? It's in what appears to be one of the original buildings in Saumur.
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Building in Saumur
A very old building in Saumur, now with a mobile (cell) phone shop and sports shop in it.
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Red Cross In Saumur
This is the Saumur office of the Red Cross. It's quite fitting that such an old aid organisation is housed in such an old building.
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Placè Saint-Pierre
Placè Saint-Pierre in Saumur is just next to the main church and has loads of very decrative buildings made of wood and brick.
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Resting in the Gardens
Me having a little break after a huge lunch. This is in the gardens on the way to the Chateau in Saumur.
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Saumur Chateau
The chateau at Saumur - it looks a bit like the castles used in kids TV and movies.
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River side view of the Loire
One of the fuller sections of the Loire River. Over all it's a bit of an empty river this time of year.
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Mower Man
Back at the house, we all dig in an help Ian out with the chores... it's my turn at mowing the orchard.
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European Look
My Italian look - a nice linen shirt and linen shorts. Hmmm, short longs or long shorts.
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