Iles de Glenans

This is a beautiful archipelago of small islands about 12M off the coast. Its famed for crystal clear waters and white sandy beaches – the pilot book describes it “as close to the Caribbean as you can get in Brittany”. Its also the home of the Iles de Glenans sailing school – reportedly the largest in Europe. We anchored off Ile de Penfret for the morning/lunch and while Nick and Lindy explored the island I dived under the boat to try and clear the fridge cooling outlet. Even in paradise there is maintenance work to do! We sailed to Concarneau in the mid afternoon in a great breeze – which we needed as we only had a small storm jib since our normal jib was in for some repairs. Anyway we still had a storming sail across the bay in 14 to 16 knots of wind.

Concarneau

This a very busy marina – esp when the sailing school boats come in for changeovers. However good news was we were able to get our sail repaired here. The best feature of the town (for me) was the old walled town “La Ville Close”, a heavily fortified (by Vaubin of course) town. Concarneau is also one of the principal fishing ports in France. We also made a trip to nearby Pont Aven as there was a Breton festival on (I think these might be quite a frequent occurrence! This one was the Fete des Fleurs d’Ajonc. Traditional Breton Costumes were brilliant.). Pont Aven is an art centre – Paul Gauguin moved here in 1886 and developed the new style of symbolism. A Scottish artist William Scott even came here just before WWII to teach at the art school but of course left when war broke out. The festival was great fun and as well as more Breton dancing and music, I was intrigued to find a stand with the men all dressed in tartan kilts. It seems each of the 9 regions (referred to curiously as “countries”!) within Brittany has its own tartan. Had a good chat with the boys from the Association “Amis en Kilt” and although we had language difficulties we seemed to understand each other well enough as they soon produced some Bretagne whisky – very good I can tell you. I thought it had a slight peaty flavour like an Islay whisky. So all in all a great day and most interesting to find so many similarities between Brittany and Ireland and Scotland. Must read more on this.

Now we’re going to head on further south east into Quiberon bay and towards the Loire. Weather looking more promising for next few days.

Hope you’re all well and enjoying the summer.
Best wishes
Iain and Helen