Well, we have survived the storm that was supposed to hit Brittany at 80 m.p.h last night, although we both agree that it had been far worse the night before at Quiberon.
Something quite amusing happened yesterday morning. As we were leaving the aire at 9 am, we encountered a few vans parked around the exit, with a van trying to squeeze out between the bollard and the paying machine using levelling blocks, as this had broken down and nobody could get out. I was told help had been called for, but being Sunday it might take a little while. A frustrated camper tried jumping on the bollard itself to make it go down, but to no avail, but at least it provided a few moments of entertainment. A few minutes later, the gendarme arrived, but he couldn’t do anything either and even tried kicking it, which, of course, didn’t work! The guard finally arrived at 9.20 am and operated the system manually and we were able to leave without further ado. Very efficient, we thought, and we carried on merrily on our way.
We spent Sunday afternoon and night at the new motorhome aire at Baden, situated on Route de Port Blanc, Kerhilio, at 800 metres from the jetty de L’Ile aux Moines (www.airedesiles.fr) This is quite an impressive and beautifully kept motorhome aire and the €8 daily fee for this time of year included electricity hook-up, wifi and showers, although these were switched off! The water borne operated with a €2 coin and we were more than happy to pay for this, as we were running a bit low and desperately needed a shower. The aire has room for 50 motorhomes, but there were only 3 last night, well protected from the strong winds by the surrounding trees.
We loved the walk down to the beach and seeing the oyster beds in the fishing village. It was raining quite heavily at one point, but we didn’t really mind as the scenery was so lovely.
We went to Port Blanc after making a final visit to the Carnac Alignments at Kerlescan, with its 13 rows of the best preserved menhirs and the impressive Géant du Manio, which stands 6 metres high, and its Quadrilateral. This is situated just a short and pleasant walk through the woods from the D196 road.
This morning, we left in a downpour and got rather wet whilst filling up with water and emptying the grey water tank, but the rain cleared soon after and it has remained a sunny and warm day (22 ºC in van at the moment at 5 pm). We went back on the D101 to north of Vannes, N166 to Bohal, about 10 miles south of Ploërmel, D776 to Guer, D772 to north of Guichen and D577 to Pont Réan, about 6 miles south of Rennes.
We are parked right by the Vilaine river, with a beautiful and picturesque view of the stone bridge on La Cale de Pont Réan, Rue de Redon. It really is lovely here, with 10 pitches for €5 a day, which is collected by a guard in the evening.
There are lots of people walking along the river, so it seems to be a very popular place, with a few restaurants and all kinds of shops, as well as canoeing and other water sports. This is another charming stop to bear in mind for future reference.
We are going towards Alençon tomorrow and have already made an appointment at the vet in Broglie for Beano’s worming before returning home on Saturday.