Brest to Châteaulin

Tuesday 14th June

I had a problem-free flight from Luton (with Ryanair, £15.01 all up) and no problems on arrival. The man at immigration control didn't even stamp my passport, so I went back and got a stamp just in case I needed one on departure. Brest has quite a small airport, so there was no problem meeting Camilla. But she was rather frazzled: she'd had a stressful morning getting around Brest by public transport with all her luggage.

Picking up the pre-booked car was easy and we were soon off. After a wrong-turn taking us a little way into Brest, we got onto the freeway heading east and then south. We stopped in pretty much the first major town we came to, Châteaulin, which barely rated a mention in our guidebooks.

We checked into the Hotel Christmas (48 euros) and then wandered around in light rain, exploring the food shops and buying snacks from a butcher and patisserie. For dinner we had crepes from a creperie across the river, which were ok but unexciting — as I was to learn and Camilla already knew, they could be much better.

After dinner we walked a little along the towpath up the river Aulne, where we sat and ate dessert. It was very pleasant with the sun out and some brief light rain.

We did some washing and looked at some of my photos on Camilla's laptop, so it was midnight before we got to bed.

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