Head south 'till the butter melts!

For the last wek in June more miserable weather had us holed up in Aber Wrach on the north west corner of the Brest peninsular. We got out for a bike ride and a walk then headed for Paris for the weekend. Our best man Craig and his family were over from Oz on a holiday so we went up to meet them. We had a lovely dinner on the a boat on the Seine and did the usual sights of Paris. 

Not so usual was the Gay Pride parade we stumbled across; 

this gave a whole new meaning to gay Paris!

On the Sunday evening after drinks by the spectacular Alexander bridge on the Seine  we went to the Champs de Mars beneath the Eiffel tower where huge screens had been set up for the football with the tower as a back drop – pretty spectacular – the giant football is lit up with the flag of the country that wins that day. We saw France beat Iceland standing in the drizzle - a great atmosphere!

Melanie then went home for a few days for her cough clinic (she is taking part in the trial for a drug that will hopefully stop the cough – July to August – right through the sailing!) and to see her Mum.

I was joined by uni friend, Nigel, who brought with him …… the sunshine! Wall to wall for 5 days – marvelous – but poor Melanie missing it!

We set off to Ouissant (Ushant in English), an island off the tip off Brittany and the turning point to head – yes, really south – keep going ‘till the butter melts! From here to the med we are promised down wind sailing; could life at 30 degrees really be over?? Sadly we could’t land at Ouissant because of the Swell but we did go ashore on the smaller neighbouring island of Molene, a very pretty little island. We skipped Brest that Melanie and I had passed through on the way to Paris, a rather ugly city that was flattened and rebuilt after the war and found a lovely anchorage at Camaret. A nice coastal walk took us past a huge gun emplacement from the war that had been turned into a museum; outside flew the flags of France, England, America and, which I found rather surprising, Germany. Put the past behind you, kiss and make up and move on I suppose; good for the French, I am not sure I could have done it.

Two cracking days sailing took us through the Raz de Seine, a pretty vicious tidal race where we had to fight a 4 knot tide as we got there earlier than expected and round to the Odet river and the delightful town of Quimper. The were some rather splendid chateaux on the river bank!

Nigel left me here and I picked Melanie up from the train.

Pronounced Compaire (with a french accent!) Quimper saw its hey day in the middle ages and many of the buildings still stand today. Although we have our fair share of these lovely old timber framed buildings in England, France does seem to have them in greater density. These wonderful buildings surrounded the magnificent cathedral.

Its difficult to get you head round this ornate monument to God being built 800 years ago (and even more difficult to get you head around the general poverty when money was being spent like this!)

At the end of any good days sight seeing one should, well, eat ice cream – the blackcurrant sorbet was fabulous!

Woody has truly taken to being a sea dog. He loves to stand with his face into the wind and take charge of the deck; he has taken to doing his Titanic bit keeping lookout from the bows!