We left Paimpol and the coast, trading amor for argoat, as we headed inland towards the forested regions of Finistère. We passed through Carnoët and the nearby valley of the saints, Huelgoat with its stunning lake and forest full of tourists and Brasparts with its beautiful church before arriving at our overnight destination in Lopérec.

    

  

  

  

  

It was a miserably hot and humid day and we were very tired from the late night at the Paimpol Festival mere hours before. On the way to the Valley of the Saints we saw a sign for a church and made a short detour to the Chapelle Saint-Gildas.

When we arrived we were treated to a lovely musical performance which turned out to be a soundcheck. The band were a husband-and-wife duo called ‘Fragrance of Love’ and were getting ready for their concert later that day. They played a kind of ethereal medieval-esque music that sounded beautiful and quite magical surrounded by the ancient stones of the Bronze-Age church. It was a surreal and special experience and the few others who were exploring the church also sat and enjoyed the music.

I’m sure the concert was lovely but unfortunately we couldn’t stay.

  

The Valley of the Saints was quite busy when we arrived. It’s free to visit and there’s a big parking lot (which was packed with camper vans) and an information centre (which we skipped) as you enter, just before the main event which is the sweeping hillside dotted with large stone sculptures.

There are a lot of them and we definitely didn’t see them all, but again the heat was pretty unbearable at this point so we did a quick circuit before returning to the car.

  

    

    

  

  

 

    

  

  

Arriving in Huelgoat I was immediately smitten with the lake – it was beautiful and driving past it on our way into the town was very impressive. We found an excellent parking bay right in front of it and then heaved heavy sighs upon leaving the air-conditioned comfort of the car and facing the oppressive heat outside.

  

  

There were people everywhere. Everywhere. It was actually quite unpleasant.  Flocks of tourists but also a lot of people in exercise gear going for a run or heading into the forest to walk their dogs.  The forest itself was lovely but in order to enter it you have to pass through a bunch of huge which wasn’t ideal, and was made harder when large groups of tourists tried to herd their kids (and in one case, push a pram) through the small gaps in the stones (the pram lady eventually removed the baby and left the pram by a tree on the way in).

  

    

  

  

  

  

  

I admit I was a bit underwhelmed by the ‘trembling rock‘ – I didn’t attempt to push it myself but watched a group of kids have a crack at it for a while and when they failed to move it I made my way back out.

  

The town-centre was pretty quiet – even though there were a lot of people out and about most places were closed given that it was a Sunday afternoon. We were getting peckish by this point but the only open crêperie we saw was laughably expensive so we gave it a miss and left hungry.

  

  

The next town we passed was Loqueffret, which really just seemed to be a few houses, a church and a godsend of a tobac/pub that was hosting a small group of elderly Scots, (visiting for a wedding somewhere nearby, they told us) and a friendly owner who sold us what we were convinced was the last baguette in Finistère.

  

Our last stop before our bnb was Brasparts and more specifically its beautiful church. It  was evening but the groundsman kindly kept it open for us and gave us some interesting history about it all too. The details escape me (he was speaking French to my mom) now but I’m sure it involved Saint Apollonia, patron saint of dentists…

  

  

    

  

 

We stayed overnight at Tyrbourg, a wonderfully quirky old house with proprietor to match. It’s quite isolated and surrounded by farmland and the night was incredibly still and peaceful.

  

  

  

  

 

– – –

BZH 2017: Intro  |  Pt 1  |  Pt 2  |  Pt 3  |  Pt 4  |  Paimpol 2017 – Festival du Chant de Marin 
Pt 5  |  Pt 6  |  Pt 7  |  Pt 8  |  Pt 9 |  Pt 10  | Pt 11  |  Pt 12  |  Saint-Malo: La Route du Rock Festival
Pt 13  |  Pt 14  |  Pt 15  |  pt 16  |  Pt 17  |  Pt 18

If you travel and you don’t use Booking.com you really should it’s the best! I’m not 100% sure how the referral codes work but try mine if you haven’t used one before for a discount after your first trip: https://www.booking.com/s/35_6/rattsi32