Ménez Hom, Locronan, Douarnenez

Friday 15th June

Breakfast was coffee and croissants in a patisserie. Continuing from the previous day, we had a mix of rain and sun, with rainbows.

We drove eastwards onto the Crozon peninsula, up to the little church of Sainte Marie du Ménez Hom. It was very windy up on Menez Hom itself and a bit cloudy and/or hazy, but the panoramic views were still impressive, extending 360 degrees around the peninsula.

Our first megalith of the trip was a cute little mini-dolmen in a corn field, found in the Brittany Walks book I had. It was very pleasant with the sun coming and going.

Next stop was Argol, where there was a "Musée Vivant des Vieux Métiers", a "living museum of old trades". Unfortunately this wasn't opening till the afternoon, but Argol also had an "enclosed parish" and a boulangerie. And Camilla got excited by a pottery workshop back on the main road.

We didn't have time to explore the Crozon peninsula, so we took back roads southwards to the coast at Pentrez-Plage, where we had a coffee so we could use the toilet. There were impressive looking blockhouses set up to enfilade the beach, presumably part of the Atlantic Wall from World War II.

We had a brief rainstorm driving to Locronan. This is a very pretty little village, even in gloomy weather. It's also very touristy, but wasn't crowded at this time of year — there were big car parks that were nearly empty — and we looked around the craft and souvenir shops.

In Douarnenez most places to eat had shut at 2.30pm, so we had grilled tuna and mussels from a sandwicherie and then visited the Port Museum. This is an excellent museum, with lots of boats — including a Sepik outrigger — videos on building a dugout canoe and a Nigerian hippo hunt, an exhibition on sardine fishing and the canning industry, and more. There's also a floating section of the museum, where you can walk around boats moored in the harbour.

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