Douarnenez

As the weather was looking a little windy for the next few days it didn't take much persuading for us to stop and explore Douarnenez. I have visited the town in the past and remembered it as being very pretty and a boaty kind of a place hosting a maritime festival every few years where hundreds of traditional craft gather.

We decide to begin by walking into town over the passarelle or small footbridge to the floating part of the maritime museum. Dark Tarn was actualy moored on the opposite side of the river on Treboul. We enjoyed looking at the many small craft and we're glad that we had chosen to stay a little away from the inner basin as it was very busy and popular with visitors hence a little noisy.

We had a look in some of the little shops I had memories of many more but these would turn out to be in the old part of town which we would rediscover later. As we continued up the river we came across some locals smoking fish by the road.

As we walked away the delicious smells  made us stop and decide there and then on dinner that night! We bought two pieces of smoked haddock which were just as good as they smelt.

A little further on we came across a skateboarding competition, skateboarding is something of a passion with our son Alex, and we stayed awhile to listen to the music and watch the skaters performing tricks .

That night we joined Dave and Carol from Hocus Pocus for a drink around town and ended up at a bar called " Porquoi Pas" which I seem to remember was the name of a French Antactic exploration vessel. The bar actually felt as though you were aboard an old sailing ship.

The following day Dave got a waterproof camera under his boat and discovered the missing propellor. He would have to order  a replacement from England luckily the marina office were quite happy to accept delivery.

As I walked to the boulangerie in the morning I discovered that the circus had arrived in town. Unlike circuses in England French circuses still seemed to have performing animals and there was a good selection of zebras tigers lions and camels as well as the inevitable elephants.

To be honest neither Lynne or I were convinced that the elephants in particular were happy as they seemed to spend a lot of time rocking in what I have learned to recognise in humans as " self stimulating behaviour ". We didn't go to see the circus and it was gone the following day as quickly as it had arrived.

We were dodging rain showers but when the sun did show its face it was still very hot. We replaced our damaged tender as my repair had proven to be slightly leaky.

The local chandlers proved very helpful and gave us and our new dinghy a lift back to the boat which avoided a very wet walk!

During a trip to visit the older part of Douarnenez we visited the chapel of St Michel. We had walked past it a prior evening but to go inside proved a revelation.

 Upon looking up the ceiling was completely covered with paintings. It was one of the most beautiful and deeply moving churches I have ever seen. The sense of history was overpowering.

 As well as the beautiful painted ceiling there were a great number of statues of various saints arranged in alcoves around the transepts. A stunning experience.

We continued to explore the winding streets of the old town with its sometimes quirky collection of shops and cafes.

We wandered down towards the port du Peche and decided we had earned a coffee.

Much of the history of Douarnenez is tied up with the sardine and as we walked around the fishing harbour there were various photographs and explanations at key points to illustrate changes to the town. One of the old fishing luggers of which the old harbour used to shelter hundreds, was moored very close to us at Treboul. The old seamans home, (these are found throughout Brittany and for some reason are always pink) was now home to the French classic boat magazine " Chase Maree " the fish factory's and cannerys are still to be found in this part of town but are much reduced from their heyday.

As we walked around the headland we had a different view of both our mooring pontoon and the Isle Tristan.

Every time we ventured out at Douarnenez we seemed to discover something new. A lovely place.