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| Water wheel on Aven River, Pont Aven, France |
So the alarm went off early this morning – not early be
standards of when I was working or even as recently as March when I was
subbing, but early by cruise standards. I elected a shore excursion
called Brittany Countryside, Concarneau and Pont Aven, a nearly 8 hour
excursion. while Barb (with a bit more sense than I) chose to stay put because
she knows we have to go home on Saturday AND that we are doing excursions on
both of our last two days! The upside for me was that it was one of the
best shore excursions of the entire cruise and it had the best lunch served on
an excursion of any lunch we have had with the excursion this year. Never
having been in this area, I wanted to see a part of the area near the west
coast of France. It was the longest excursion offered today by Holland
America but it was well worth the time.
The topography of Brittany was formed over the millennia as
the glaciers receded, revealing the new land formations. Thus there are
lots of bays and inlets forming the shoreline of the Atlantic. This part
of France, Brittany, does have its own language which France had banned from
schools for many years so that the language was nearly lost. However more
recently it has permitted it to be taught and about 250,000 people out of 3.5
million in Brittany are able to speak the language. It’s related more to
Welsh, Gaelic, and Cornish than French.
The major city, Brest, was heavily bombed during World War
II and mostly rebuilt quickly after the war ended. Thus, according to our
Travel Guide Brett, the city is very functional and lacks the character and
beauty of other French cities such as Bordeaux. We quickly skirted Brest
as we headed out to the gently rolling green countryside which resembled the
terrain of upstate New York. Our first stop, after a ride of about an
hour was in the quaint village of Pont Aven, named of course for the
picturesque bridge over the Aven River in the town. When we arrived it
was still before most businesses had opened, but our guide pointed out the rest
room facilitie, an old, stone building with flowers winding up the façade which
looked quite pretty from the other side of the river. When we got in line
(as tourists know all so well, we found it quite unique to say the least, and
very European as some in our group commented. There were two blue doors
for stalls at either end. In between the two doors, but with no doors at
all were two urinals in either corner. Thus as the men took care of
business as discreetly as possible, the woman waited in the typical women’s
line. As we walked down the path on the other side of the bridge,
comments were made about how attractive it was from that side. Our guide,
Isabel, who by the way had been born in Austria but had moved to Brittany about
15 years ago, laughed and said originally the bathroom had merely had holes in
the floor and waste products dropped into the river! Needless to say,
that practice has been ended!!!! She took us on a walking tour of the
lovely village with people stopping for pictures along the way. The only
problem was that so often the sun was in the wrong place for that perfect
shot. When the short tour was concluded, we had a bit of free time to
check out more of the village or the shops which were now opening. Most
were opening after we were to leave because as she pointed out, it isn’t
tourism’s high season yet.
When we returned to the bus, I saw her and the bus driver
engaged in a conversation in French. She commented that he had said he
knew a back roads route that would take us on a picturesque drive through
another village that had several nice homes with thatched roofs.
That was another reminder of the connection with Britain. Occasionally he
would point something out along the route and she would point it out to
us. I don’t usually get the absolutely front seat on the bus because they
are typically identified as reserved for physically challenged
individuals. However, thse seats were empty on this tour so the guide
offered the seat to any that wanted it. No one seemed to want it, so I
had taken the opportunity for it.
We arrived at the town of Concarneau, another walled
town. There is something about walled cities that always seems
intriguing. The guide took us into town and pointed out the relevant
landmarks of the town. We walked through the village and past the
open shops selling local specialties including the biscuits that are well known
in Brittany. At that point she told people that they could continue
seeing the village with her or break away to wander on their own and that we
would meet at the designated time back on the bus. I walked with her to
the interior of the wall. As we reached the wall, it appeared there was a
stage with stadium type seating. There were a bunch of kids seeming to practice
for a production. Most of us snapped pictures and when the kids saw that,
they really performed. They walked to the front of the stage in a line,
and then bowed to our applause! They got a kick out it our seeing them as
much as we enjoyed seeing the kids being kids. We climbed the wall for
the view over the wall, seeing more of the pretty village as well as the harbor
filled with lots of pleasure boats as well as fishing boats. Concarneau
is the fourth largest fishing port in Europe, so while most of us don’t know
this village, clearly it has its importance in the economy of Europe. She
led us down the wall at one point and allowed us some free time to wander and
shop. When we returned to the bus and the count was taken, the guide came
up one person short. One lady said she knew who it was and volunteered to
go back to the entrance to the walled part of town to find him. Making a
long story short, the guide went off with our tour “lollypop” so the missing
man would come toward her if he spotted it. I’m not sure it was husband
and wife – it may have just been acquaintances, but they had decided to
meet at the bridge to return to the bus together. The lady was on the
late side and decided he had gone back. In reality he had waited as they
had agreed, she hadn’t seen him on the busy bridge and came back without
him. No harm done and he apologized for holding up the group.
From there we went to a nice restaurant for our lunch.
I’ve gotten a bit jaded by shore excursion lunches because they have often left
something to be desired, but this was the best I have had on any shore
excursion this trip, and I told the proprietor. He seemed pleased with
the compliment. I seldom comment on the tour group, but this was an
unusually congenial group. I knew no one at all and only recognized two couples
from having seen them on the ship. But the people at the table seemed to
enjoy the conversation. I sat near a couple from near Baltimore where the
man was pretty shocked that I was near the end of 71 days on the cruise. He
commented that 14 (the length of this extension) seemed about right to
him. So I explained how much there is to do on the ship during the Grand
Voyages and how people on the long voyages became better acquainted and new
friendships were made much more easily when we were on the ship with them for
several weeks. A couple from New Zealand, just north of Auckland, sat
next to me and across from a couple from Adelaide, Australia. So the
conversation was quite interesting and was a rare visit with 10 people involved
in one conversation for part of the time. As I indicated, people were
pleased with the meal. it seemed to have been prepared as a meal for us
rather than for a cast of thousands which seemed to be the case on some tours
we did. The people on this bus seemed to develop a quick rapport that’s
absent on nearly every other excursion. It reminded me of the group that
bonded so well when Barb and I did our World War II land tour over D-Day in
Normandy in 2010. We remember that group as a fantastic group to travel
with and remarked how random people came together for 12 days and how much we
had enjoyed that group.
The bus returned us to the port, pretty much right on time
and just before the final boarding time. Our ship continues to move
north, toward Cherbourg in Normandy. We look forward to visiting a favorite
part of France again. We’d like to do the long excursion that would take
us to Arromanches, Omaha Beach, and the American Cemetery, but that would be
too much for Barb yet. Instead we will go on a shorter tour to Ste.
Mere Eglise and Utah Beach. Then we return and get down to the very
serious business of packing to go home. Two more days to go
....
CT
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