Roscoff And Locquirec Brittany 2019

Roscoff And Locquirec Brittany 2019

Steve and I decided to take a short break to France on from 5th September 219 – 8th September 2019.  A break without our 2 year old dog Archie,  which would be a first as over the past 2 years we have taken dog friendly holidays in England.  Adrian our Son was going to look after him for the 4 days while we were away.

We booked through Brittany Ferries on the overnight crossing from Plymouth to Roscoff on the Pont-Aven which should have left at 8.45 p.m.  However if all is running well there is early boarding and a lovely way to start the holiday is a to have a nice meal on board in the Flora Restaurant, which we were looking forward to.

4th September 2019

We received a text this morning from Brittany ferries to say due to technical problem Pont-Aven will be leaving later than scheduled instead of 8.45 p.m it will now be leaving at 11.30 p.m.  So the restaurant meal we were looking forward to onboard would not be happening, so I was really disappointed.

As a result we decided to try a very good newly opened restaurant in Plymouth called  Fletchers not far from the Port, which we have never been to before but it has very good reviews.

5th September 2019

We had an excellent meal at Fletchers, great service, good food and very relaxing.  To start I had a herb coated duck egg with goats cheese, walnut burnt apple, tomato and rocket and water cress salad.  Steve had braised beef served with confit leek, smoked cheddar, truffle mash and parma ham.

For the main course we both went for the honey glazed duck beast with creamy mash, dug leg samosa, creamed cabbage, pomme dauphinoise, roasted shallots and asparagus.

For dessert I had white chocolate panna cotta, passion fruit gel, burnt white chocolate and orange sorbet and Steve had toffee and lime glazed sticky toffee pudding, banana honeycomb and salted caramel ice cream.

When we finished the meal it just a very short drive to the Port.

We boarded at about 10.45 p.m and found our cabin. We left port at 11.30 p.m. and had a reasonable crossing with just some slight movement but I never slept a wink all night.  We were woken up with music playing from the radio in the room at 6.00 a.m just before our continental breakfast was delivered to our cabin (this is included in the ticket price if you book a Commodore, De Luxe or Club 4 Plus cabins).

6th September 2019

We arrived in Roscoff just before 7.00 a.m English time (8.00 a.m. French time). We disembarked and made our way to our first hotel the Grand Hotel Des Bains in Locquirec which was about a 45 minute drive away. It should have taken a little less but we had a slight detour around Morlaix where we got lost.

We took my little Fiat 500 as Steve is waiting for his new electric car to arrive and Whzy (my car’s name) has no sat nav so we were going back to the old fashioned way of reading a map and following French signposts!!!

We arrived very early (about 10 am) at the hotel and obviously far too early to check in, but on checking with reception we left Whzy in the car park whilst we went for a quick look around the little harbour before we went for a lovely walk along the coast path.

First things first, and that was to buy some French bread and some pate from a lovely butchers we passed along the way to have for a picnic lunch. Unfortunately we could not find anywhere to buy some wine so had to make do with water.

The scenery was lovely passing above some lovely sandy beaches and we went down on one and an early  lunch (well it was a long time ago we had breakfast!!). The weather was dry but a bit overcast but we enjoyed it.

We walked back to the hotel but our room was still not ready so walked down to the harbour and then had a leisurely drink in one of the bars overlooking the little harbour.

When we got back to the hotel our room was finally ready.

The hotel was in a lovely location and very peaceful and very pretty from the outside.

Our room 102 was on the first floor which had a good sea view (which we paid extra for).

We had a cup of coffee on the large decked balcony enjoying the view and then went and explored the hotel grounds, swimming pool and spa.

It also had access to a private beach but it was a bit too cold to go swimming.  We did however go for a swim in the large indoor pool which was very nice.

We then went back up to the room and sat on the decking with a glass of wine before we went down to dinner in the hotel restaurant.

We had Foie Gras of Landes duck, pearls of monbazillac jelly,smoked duck & soft toasted bread.

Followed by fillet of beef in a bordelaise sauce with artichoke, mange tout and some sort of potato

Then a cheese course (no photo) followed by a dessert of a Grand Marnier soufflé with a shot of Grand Marnier and ice cream.

A very typically French relaxing unrushed meal which as all very nice but very filling.  It was  then up to the room for a much needed good nights sleep with no rocking bed.

Please read my comments about this hotel on Tripadvisor

7th September 2019

After a great nights sleep I woke up refreshed. Following breakfast I  packed up for the short drive back to Roscoff without getting lost this time. Steve programmed his phone into Google maps so it was an easy journey back.

We arrived at the Hotel Le Brittany about 11.00 am and luckily our room was ready, so we were able to unpack and we were ready for the day ahead.

It was a beautiful day and very warm, so we decided to walk to the Point de Perharidy which Steve had researched. We initially were going to drive there but thought we could walk to it from the Hotel.

We decided to take another picnic so just had to get a baguette and some pate on the way as we walked through Roscoff.  Just in case we could not find a good value bottle of wine I came up with a brilliant idea and that was to fill a small water bottle up with some of the box of wine I had packed.

Well the baguette was easy, but the pate was impossible to find so we ended up with just bread and wine.

We walked quite a way through the other side of Roscoff walking along the coastline and came across a nice beach.

From here we could see the Point De Perhairdy where we were supposed to be heading but it was still a very long away across the other side of the inlet and it would have taken us hours.

We therefore decided to stop here for our so called lunch dunking the baguette into the wine, pretending we were enjoying it.

The view however was lovely and it was very peaceful but we ended up giving most of the bread to the to the seagulls.

We walked back along the beach as far as we could then followed the coast path back to the centre of Roscoff.

As our lunch was a bit of a disaster we stopped at creperie and sat outside as it was very warm and enjoyed two large crepes. Steve had a banana and chocolate one and I had a pear and chocolate one, naughty but nice.

We looked around Roscoff and sat on the promenade and people watched and then walked to the end of the jetty and took in the scenery around the Port. We walked back to the hotel and had a cup of coffee sat out in the garden area outside of our room, as it was still very warm.

The last couple of nights we had enjoyed some rich food, so we decided to go back to a French Italian restaurant the Marie Stuart that we like in the centre of Roscoff which is a little walk from the hotel.

We had not booked but were lucky to get a table upstairs as it was a Saturday. Another  English couple came and sat next to us and we got chatting only to find out that the man lived in Okehampton which was where Steve lived in his younger years and they both attended Okehampton school, so we had plenty to talk about.

He was a farmer and was enjoying his one week off a year and had left his sheep and cows in the hands of a 91 year old relative. In his spare time he told us he had recently taken up bee keeping which we found very interesting. No honey yet but if all goes well he should have his first lot in the spring of 2020.

We had a very nice meal in this restaurant as always with Steve having a carbonara and me a lasagne followed by a tiramisu and a creme brûlée.

It was a very enjoyable evening and then as it was a lovely evening a nice stroll back to the hotel.

8th September 2019

It was another warm and sunny day and after a good nights sleep it was down to breakfast before we packed up and headed off to get our supply of wine to take back.

Just a little photo of Whzy my Fiat 500 in the hotel car park.

As we had a few hours to kill before we had to get to the port for our ferry home, we decided to drive over to Point de Perharidy where we didn’t get to yesterday.  So glad we did as it was beautiful with stunning scenery.  It is opposite the Isle De Batz and you follow a lovely coast path passing lovely sandy and rocky coves.

Also on the way was a large tree that had lots of items hung from it, but I have no idea what it all meant.

At the end is a beautiful white sandy beach which was practically deserted. The water was crystal clear and if we had our swimming costumes we would have gone in. Forget the crowded beaches in Spain this was paradise.

We sat on the beach for a while and watched an old fisherman arrive in his little boat which he moored a little way off shore and came onto the beach in his little rowing boat together with his little Scottie/Westie dog (not sure which).

He walked up the beach carrying his catch which he had in 2 buckets but where he went we have no idea. His little dog ambled up the beach after  him.

This was a lovely place to while away the time before we had to get to the Port and here is Whyzy in the ferry queue with the Armorique ferry in the background.

We boarded the Armorique which left Roscoff at 3.00 French time (2.00 British time) for our crossing back to Plymouth.  It was still lovely weather so we sat out on deck. We had a light meal onboard and arrived back in Plymouth at 8.10 (British time) after a very calm and pleasant crossing. We were one of the first cars off so we were back home in Ivybridge just after 8.30 p.m.

Adrian arrived promptly with Archie who I have to say was a bit underwhelmed to say the least. We thought he would have been very excited to see us after a few days, but clearly not. This was the longest time he had been away from us so I expected a bit more of a welcome. Perhaps he was still a bit unsure if he was actually staying.

We thoroughly enjoyed our short break but it wasn’t long before it was back to normality and daily routine.