The weather forecast was telling us that we would stay put for a few days, so Lily decided to motor further up the river to L’orient, when bad weather comes, find a place with a train station is Suzanne’s moto.
The first day with the sun shining, we hired bicycles from the marina, and a ride to Lamour plage.
Here on the opposite side of the river to Port Louis, you get a great view of the Citadel.
The town also has a very impressive little fisherman’s church.
The next day with the strong winds and rain, a train journey to Quimper.
A tourist destination with it’s old medieval buildings, trendy shops, restaurants and macaronerie you can see why it is so popular on a rainy day.
The day included visits to the museum, art gallery, and cathedral. The museum included a lovely statue in the entrance, and a collection of Breton inspired clothing, including the long black dress with the breton symbol on the body.
The art gallery included one of the many copies of the mona lisa, and some great Breton art.
Next to some of the pictures there would be a code, this you could scan with your phone to listen to an explanation of the picture in English by the local high school kids.
The explanation with this picture, said that the man had survived a ship wreck, so he is placing a model of the ship in his local church in bare feet as thanks for his life. I always wondered why the small churches had so many model ships in them.
I don’t normally take photographs of paintings, it really doesn’t do them justice. But just for the blog, and maybe to inspire you to visit if you are ever nearby, here are a few of my favourites.
Finally the Cathedral, now due the fact that there was a funeral in the cathedral in the morning, it was unbelievably busy when we were finally allowed in.
but one thing that did catch my eye was the self service credit card terminal for donations. Who says the church doesn’t keep up with the times…
French Cuisine
Chas
Breton proverb
“Nourris bon ton corps, ton ame y restera plus long temps”.
(Nourish your body well your soul will stay there longer. )
But in my view better by far is Far Breton !
This easy to make flan with fruit option was made by the farmers wives for their menfolk to take into the fields for their lunch in the same way that the Swiss farmers took their fruit filled wahe.
Traditionally it was a plain nourishing custard but on special occasions it had prunes or apple added to it .
Prune is probably the most popular today .
15 mins prep time cooking about 50 mins
You need 2 litre baking dish or 8×10”baking pan
Set oven at 240 degrees (gas9)
Ingredients for 8
125gm plain flour
125gm suger (I use less )
Teaspoon baking powder
Teaspoon vanilla essence
Pinch salt
4 large eggs
30 gm butter
750 ml whole milk ( I use 1/2 fat )
60/70 ml rum
250 gm pitted prunes
Method
Place prunes rum and milk in saucepan and heat gently so that prunes soften ,but don’t let them get mushy . Take off heat and remove prunes with slotted spoon and put them in base of buttered ( or parchment lined ) baking pan .
Place flour sugar salt in mixing bowl, make a well snd add eggs one at a time mixing each egg in well with a whisk This should form a thick batter. Add the cooling milk and vanilla a little at a time whisking vigorously to keep your batter smooth until all the milk is incorporated. This will be a thin batter.
Remove the froth from the top , then cover the prunes with the batter .
Place the baking tin in a hot oven for 10 minutes then reduce temperature to 200 ( gas 6 ) for about 30/40 mins
The far is cooked when a knife or toothpick comes out cleanly from the middle.
The outside will ha e formed a crust , the bottom unctuous with the prunes and the flan firm . The top will sink as it cools , this is normal.
It can be served directly but is best left to cool in a fridge for 6 hrs to allow the flavours to blend … heaven on a plate 😄😄
31/7/19
70 nm
After the storm and high winds a small weather window appeared, and I mean small. This would involve getting to the Raz de siene as soon a we could. So Lily slipped her mooring lines at 0745 and motored down the river to Port Louis where the other boats had just left ahead of us. The journey was going to be close hauled most of the way, not great for Lily, and to be frank, I think everybody struggled a bit , and we fell a bit behind time. After passing the Iles de Grois, I spotted the Maciff trimaran coming towards us travelling at an impressive 29.6 kts. I did tell Suzanne that if we got one of those we could have done the journey in 2 1/2 hours. ( It didn’t go down too well ).
In South Brittany the tides are not very strong, maybe 1 knot, but on this journey with had 12hrs of foul tide, I’m not sure how that works, but on this day it did. When we finally reached Sainte Evette at 2000 hrs, after some impressive dolphin swimming exhibitions around ploumanac’h, and also some close fishing boat encounters around the same area as the boats were either rushing back or starting their journey’s before the sill closed.
It was at this stage that Suzanne realised we would be on a mooring bouy and would not be able to get off the boat until we had completed the journey to Camaret the next day…
15 mins after we had secured the boat, two lads turned up on a dinghy for the fee and to see if we would like anything from the bakery in the morning. At 0830 two croissants were delivered, a perfect start for the short journey to Camaret.
Cruising to Brittany 