After a
lovely wine fuelled catch up with Francie in Carnac last night followed by a
Powell walk / visit to the monoliths this morning, we said our farewells and
made our way to St Nazaire, marking the end our our travels in Brittany and the
start of another new page in our map book.
As we don’t
really enjoy the hustle and bustle of towns, we chose the parking furthest from
the town itself, and ended up with half a sea view and a coastal walk just
across the road.
We took the
coastal path to the closest village to find some bread for lunch but the only
boulangerie we could find was unfortunately closed on Wednesdays. You’d think we’d have learned by now, to buy
a baguette en route from the numerous supermarkets and boulangeries we
undoubtedly end up passing, but we still forget! It wasn’t a totally wasted journey though; we
got some fabulous views on the hour and a half walk and Powell had fun sniffing
in yet another new place.
On our
return, we got new neighbours from Germany.
It’s a rarity to see any other nationalities; apart from Francie we
haven’t seen any other Brits recently and have only seen a handful of other
nationalities in a good few days. Our
new neighbour spoke to us in English, asking us if we’d stayed overnight. I replied, in German, saying we hadn’t last
night, but that we would be staying tonight and that it’s free. I also mentioned that there was a lovely view
from across the street and that there’s a really nice coastal walk too. I don’t think he was expecting to be spoken
to in his native language as he looked pleasantly surprised to be addressed in
German! Unfortunately it started
raining, so we didn’t get a chance to have a proper chat with them as we all
retreated into our vans. It was so nice
to be able to say more than just thank you or goodbye in a foreign language and
to not be looking at someone in abject terror because you can’t understand a
word they’re saying! After living so
long in Germany, it comes to mind almost automatically as the second language
that we’re able to get by in; unlike French, which I’m really struggling
with. I’m looking forward to getting to
Spain as my Spanish, although not as good as my German, is a bit better than my
French!! At the end of the day though,
we try, regardless of how stupid we might look or sound; it’s all part of the
adventure.
Tomorrow
we’re going over the St Nazaire Bridge en route to our next stop. It’s a whopping 3.3 km long and 68 m
high. There are supposed to be some
pretty impressive views from the top so I’ll see what I can take in the way of
photos. It used to be a toll bridge,
which we are trying to avoid where possible, but thankfully for us, as the
bridge was built almost 40 years ago, the debt has been paid off and it’s now toll
free! I just hope it’s not windy as it
won’t be very pleasant if so...
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