My Travel Time Has Arrived at Last

This is the sequel to an article that I wrote back in March 2010, entitled The Travel Was A Long Time Coming, which describes my lifelong desire to travel, and my hardly having been anywhere until close to the end of my university days.

If you haven't read the original article, I highly recommend doing so, as it provides the background for this continuation of my story and sets everything into context. Even if you have read it, maybe now is a good time to go back and re-read it, if you have the time. It's one that I really enjoyed writing, I hope this installment works out as well as the original. Since I haven't written it yet, we will both have to wait and see...

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The first chapter of my life, if you recall, saw me longing to travel, but having little experience of this until late in my university time, when four of us spent two glorious weeks in Northern France exploring the delights of Normandy and Brittany.

My Dad used to enjoy taking us out in the car when I was younger, and his passion was not flying down the highway at a breakneck speed to get from point A to point B, but more of taking the back roads and country lanes, driving slowly and enjoying the great English scenery. This is a passion that I have inherited as well, and one that my wife Debbie also enjoys, but more of her later as she doesn't come into the picture for another thirty years.

After graduating from university, I moved to London, the "big city" being the best place at the time to get a good job in the rapidly growing computer industry.

Within a year of moving to London, I had met a girl, fallen in love, and ended up getting married in the summer of 1978.

For our honeymoon we decided to go to the Greek island of Corfu, this being somewhere that neither of us had been to. She had travelled a bit more than me, but not much, and so this was to be a big experience for both of us.

If you recall my fear of flying and my having previously been as "sick as a parrot" on every flight, well I did survive intact on the trip to Corfu, despite our seats being on opposite sides of the aisle in the plane, not particularly good for a couple going on their honeymoon. However we were both too shy to ask if anyone would move, and since it was a chartered flight (like most package tours use in Europe), the chance of us getting re-seated would have been slim.

Corfu was interesting, a pretty island with some ancient Greek ruins, but already spoiled in many parts by the development of resorts that are for the party crowd. The common term these days in the UK is "lager louts", the kind that spends all night drinking and getting into trouble, and then sleeps it off all day. Fortunately we were in a new hotel in an area that hadn't been developed fully at that time, but knowing what would await now, I have little desire to go back there.

It was very nice in Corfu, going on day trips, spending time on the beach, although my wife didn't like the beach, and was very self conscious, being a larger lady, but by today's standards perfectly normal. However she was self conscious and didn't like to wear a swimsuit, and also couldn't swim having been thrown in the pool in her early teens and cut her chin.

So there I was, a water baby, happily spending time on the beach and in the sea, but on my own, which somewhat spoiled what ought to have been the holiday of a lifetime.

I had not been used to foreign food as I mentioned previously, but after moving to London I had been to a Greek Restaurant where I found that i really liked Greek food. The food in Corfu is not typically Greek, there is no pita bread for example, and no doner kebabs (giros). They do however have the most wonderful fresh baked moist bread, which is served thickly sliced at every meal, and perfect for dipping in your Hummus, Tzatziki or Taramasalata. They also have wonderful shish kebabs, and stews such as souvlaki or sofrito, just full of garlic and herbs and so good. Then there are the Greek salads, with large slices of tomato, olives and feta cheese. If nothing else I was in food heaven.

But I digress, this is supposed to be about my travels and not an article about food. However, I will let you into a secret, which if you keep reading you will no doubt find out for yourself in any case. There are three things that I really love about travelling. Firstly, it's visiting new places, experiencing the scenery, both man made as well as interesting geographical features. Secondly, it's the history around the places that I visit that fascinates me, especially if it's something that I learned in school and have had an interest in for years. Thirdly, if you haven't guessed yet, it's the FOOD!

Within the space of less than two years, I went from being someone who had been taught that anything other than good old English food was nasty and I wouldn't like it, to being someone who craved new tastes and enjoyed experiencing the smell and taste of those dishes that I previously could not have imagined.

My love of food and my desire to experience new culinary tastes and styles has remained with me, and the food that I have eaten is one of the main memories that I bring back from any trip.

But I continue to digress, it's all part of suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and so we will get back onto the topic of my travels right away.

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The next couple of trips that we took were both to Normandy and Brittany again. I don't recall exactly why now, but I think it was because my son was born and it was going to be too hard to take a baby on a plane to Europe.

Since I had already some experience of both Normandy and Brittany, and how to use the excellent green Michelin Guides to difference regions in France, we booked "Gites", which are converted farmhouses, to stay in, and re-visited some of the locations that I had been to on my previous trip, as well as many new places.

Normandy is fascinating with it's narrow roads and tall hedgerows, but it's Brittany with it's Celtic people (akin to the Cornish folk in England), the old towns that look like they came out of the middle ages, and the beautiful scenery, that I was really taken with.

Starting in Northern Brittany, no tourist can miss Mont Saint Michel which is situated where the province of Normandy ends and that of Brittany begins. This rocky outcrop with it's impressive abbey rises steeply out of the mud of the bay, and it's only reachable by a causeway that is under water at high tide. With steep cobbled paths, little restaurants and shops, and fantastic views, everyone who visits this part of Northern France has to pay a visit.

From there on, you come to the port and city of Saint Marlo with it's tall ramparts still standing, and across the river the historic seaside resort of Dinard. This part of Brittany is known as the "Emerald Coast" for the colours of the sea and the countryside, which is spectacular.

From here on going west you come to the rocky coast around Ploumanach which used to be an old mountain range millions of years ago, but now is rounded red granite rocky outcrops, which are most unusual and it's a wonderful place for walking and to take photographs. This has to be one of my favourite places in Brittany, and one that I would love to go back to one day.

Further along the northern coast of Brittany, in fact as far as you can go, you come to Point Du Raz, which is France's equivalent to Lands End in England. It's the most westerly point in France, and it's a rocky promontary that you can scramble along, right to the end.

Beyond here and heading south you come to the historic towns of Quimper and then Plougastel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plougastel-Daoulas which are very scenic, full of old buildings and lots of history. Around these parts you are also likely to hear the Breton Bagpipes, similar to those used in Ireland and Scotland, but they play a different kind of music.

Further south no traveller with a love of ancient relics can miss the Quiberon Peninsula and the standing stones at Carnac. Although far less well known than sites like Stonehenge, Carnac has thousands of ancient standing stones, more than 3,000 of them, and more than any other known ancient site. Like the rest of Brittany the scenery here is just wonderful, with old buildings, small farms, and quaint seaside villages.

Missing out another chunk of the coast for the sake of time, we come to the southern end of the province of Brittany, and the town of La Baule. Known as the "Saint Tropez Of The West Coast", La Baule has lovely beaches, with 5-star hotels and wealthy mansions behind the beach. It's more expensive here, and it's a complete change from the rest of Brittany, well worth a visit.

A few miles north of here lie the salt marshes at Saille, and you can get some wonderful views of flooded enclosures where the sea water is allowed to evaporate, and the salt that remains is harvested.

Just inland from La Baule lies another of my most favourite place in Brittany, the old town of Guerande. This town still has almost complete ramparts that you can walk around, plus the town is surrounded by a moat filled with water. Inside the walls are buildings that are hundreds of years old, and little cobblestoned streets, and it just takes you back in time.

If you go further south than this, you come to the estuary of the River Loire. A new suspension bridge takes you over the estuary to the port of Saint Nazaire, site of the German U-Boat base in World War II. Inland from Saint Nazaire of course lie the famous vineyards and Chateaux of the Loire Valley, so a trip to Brittany is not far out of the way if you plan to visit the chateaux.

I see that my ADD has kicked in again, resulting in my going into minute detail (I would give even more if I felt that you would read it), and this article has become more of a travelogue of Brittany. At this rate instead of being a three or four part series it's going to be a twenty part series, but if you enjoy reading what I write, I am happy to continue and to set events in my life down in digital format for you.

Before I forget, here is a Map Of Brittany so that you can see where some of these fascinating places are located. I have omitted so many places here, both ones that I have been to as well as ones that I have not, it's impossible to include them all. If you enjoy driving along quiet country roads, and exploring old towns with walls and moats, experiencing wonderful French food, including fresh seafood, lobster, langoustine (Norway Lobster), and of course oysters, this is for you maybe paradise.

I could have written a whole article on the joys of Breton food alone, however my son, who was aged between 2 and 3 at the time of these trips (he is now 29), would not sit still in a restaurant at all, so when we did eat out, almost every time by the time we had ordered and the food arrived, he had had enough, and so we were forced to gulp our food down as fast as we could so that we could leave. Back then eateries in France did not all have high chairs like restaurants do in the USA, nor did they cater for people taking food out, and so we ended up preparing most of our meals ourselves rather than experiencing the local cooking.

If this proves to be a popular article, next time I ought to move on to my other trips to Europe, and then on to my trip around the world, including spending nine months in New Zealand.

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Sources:

Personal memories