Saturday, June 4, 2022 - Market in Vannes and a local fest is not what we expected in Arradon

 We need some fruit and veggies that are best bought at an outdoor market (marché) and Vannes has a big one on Saturday. Dave has seen signs for a festival in Arradon (between here and Vannes) and wants to check it out. 

We  parked in an underground garage near the tourist center, making it an easy scooter ride into the old part of town where the market fills many of the streets. We're not in a hurry, it's not the produce that is the object so much as the experience of the market. You see so many different people and some of them will even engage you in conversation. 

The first hurdle is the campaign brochures handed out liberally at the old gate. And I even saw a political poster - not the 12 x 18 poster you see on the wall by the city hall (mairie), but a real campaign poster. I thought they were illegal. The upcoming elections (June 12 and 19th) are the legislative elections, somewhat like our House of Representatives. I even talked to one of the candidates from this area (I told him I couldn't vote because I'm American, but good luck.) 

Once through the port, apparently campaigning must stop as no more brochures were in to be seen. Within a block, we were in the thick of the produce part. The first booth we came to was a cider and apple juice producer. We bought a bottle of cider to try with apéros. 

We waited in line at the same producer we used last week as all his produce was delicious and he had both fruits and vegetables. You can tell who has the best produce by the length of the line waiting for service. In spite of having 4 servers behind the tables, the line stretched around the corner. We were kept entertained while waiting by free samples of apricots and cherries passed around liberally. That purchase crossed off most of the items on our list. 

The next booth offering samples was a cheesemaker from the interior of Brittany. We tasted all of his tomes each of which was seasoned with something different - tomato, garlic, seaweed - we bought a small slice of the garlic one. I liked them all, but Dave preferred the garlic and herb one.

We meandered to a part of the market we hadn't seen last week - more fruit and vegetable dealers, but these seemed to be small local growers. We saw strawberries from Le Bono and Baden and realized that strawberry season was just starting here. (We didn't buy because we had bought apricots, melon, and cherries.) As these booths were in a square, it was much less crowded here. 

We walked through the fish market and Les Halles, the covered market that happens daily in Vannes. Much of the fish market was sold out - tables of crushed ice held only one or two remaining fishes. 

the Fish Market

selling live crabs

in the back half of the hall, many tables just had piles of crushed ice on them

In Les Halles, there are permanent stalls for most fresh food needs - bakery, cheese, butcher, charcuterie, produce, and a few specialists in things like spices. 

Les Halles covered market with clothing market booths outside

While Dave waited in line to get some Roquefort cheese, I parked myself at the edge of a fishmonger who didn't seem too busy. 

I saw this sign at one of the cheese booths in the market. It remind people that the end of the line is in the other direction. The red circle with a line means "No Entry,"

But then a gentleman came and bought 12 langoustines (bigger than a shrimp, looking like a mini-lobster), and a fish that he requested be fileted. I was impressed by the talent of this man in fileting a fish. I know it's his life's work, but wow. 

buying langoustines

a vegetable stand

fish monger in Les Halles

We took a back road around the crowded part of the market and stopped to buy a Kouign Aman (pronounced queen amon) pastry from an on street bakery booth. Dave ducked into a spice shop in search of mustard. I was skeptical but he came out with a small jar of mustard with spices in it. 

where Dave found a small jar of mustard

One last purchase was a few sausages and we were done with shopping. We strolled through the less busy streets of the clothing, jewelry and household goods, but bought nothing.

clothing market outside Les Halles

when you're done shopping, you stop for a coffee in the café

Home for lunch. We had leftover salmon, so I made some salmon cakes, I needed to grate bread crumbs and couldn't find a box grater. But I did find a great appliance - an electric grater. Kind of a single purpose food processor, really, but it worked great at grating the frozen bread. We shared an apple kouign aman for dessert and were disappointed. It was a different kind of dough entirely, more like bread dough with a couple layers. So we'll continue to buy our kouign aman at our local bakery.

We left for Arradon about 1:45 as it's only 10 minutes from here. 

Our house to Arradon

Dave had seen signs for Algues Au Rhythme (Algae Rhythms, I think) with what looked to be names of bands. He wanted to check it out.

poster in the bakery

Signs pointing toward  Festival parking were at the round-about. When we followed them, we ended in a large field of tall grass that was intended as parking and camping space. A few vans were on the edges of the field. It seemed a bit too hippy for us old folks. We bailed on that and headed into town. We saw where the festival was, but it wasn't open and there were no signs telling when it was open. It looked like a carnival from the road. There was no parking anywhere near the festival grounds. 

So we gave up and drove down to the point so I could see it. The last time, I waited in the car thinking it would be unsuitable for my scooter. But I was able to go down and with help from Dave, climb back up the steep hill. 

Point d'Arradon at low tide

Point d'Arradon at low tide

But now we were curious as to where the main part of town was. I had expected the festival to be downtown, but clearly it was on the outskirts. Claire led us directly to the church and a lovely, quiet main square with a couple of cafés and two churches. 

St Pierre, 15th century Gothic

The calvary at St. Pierre

The big church is Saint Peter's, Gothic, with new stained glass windows and a simple calvary outside.

a beautifully embroidered banner for St. Pierre's

the nave

In the church was a memorial to those killed in World War 1.

And there was a memorial outside as well. This one included World War II, the Indochina war and the Algerian War. 

the town's war memorial

We saw an open bar tabac (basically a newspaper and cigarette store) where you can also buy postage stamps. I asked about the festival and the lady behind the counter didn't know any more than we did. 

We checked out the Bourg Chapel - the former St. Peter's church - which is now an exhibition space.

The Bourg Chapel was formerly St. Pierre Church and is now exhibition space for the town.

 We walked inside and the walls were covered by art by Annie Puybareau. I forgot to look at the historical space. The art was just my style and I was struck by the paintings that looked like New Orleans. I asked the woman there if she was the artist, Annie. She was and the pictures were indeed from her time in New Orleans. She told me she also exhibits at an art gallery in New Orleans. Next time we're there, we'll have to check it out. Here's a photo similar to my favorite painting in the show: https://www.artmajeur.com/fr/puybareau/artworks/9977791/img-9355-jpg 

She's a plein air painter who has clearly traveled widely. She seems to be quite prolific. There are lots of beach scenes, some impressionist-like landscapes, as well as scenes of Venice, Spain, the Middle East, and more. I was very impressed. 

Back in the car, we need to decide what to do next. From a town map by the Mairie, there's a dolmen just outside Arradon,  so we set out to find it on Chemin du Dolmen er Roch. We found it, all alone in a field outside town (it did have a sign though). Dave decided not to tramp through the long grass to look at it. From what we could see from the road, it was pretty tumbled apart. But hey, every town around here has a dolmen or two.

Would you crawl through this long grass to climb around on that dolmen?

Next we headed back into town aiming for a gallo-roman villa, but instead found Tour Vincent, a building with a tower right on the water. 

Tour Vincent at low tide

Well, it would have been on the water if it had been high tide. But the water was then 50 yards from shore, with all kinds of small boats beached in the muck of low tide. 

low tide at Arradon

What we also found is a wonderful path right at the water's edge (except it's low tide) that I could scooter on. It goes for quite a distance around this edge of the bay. A lovely 4:00 walk. 

the walk along the "water's" edge

these roses were growing near where we parked the car

We checked in on the festival location one more time on our way out of town. Not open yet. Well, the fest idea was a bust, but we had a wonderful afternoon wandering around Arradon's downtown and beach area. The weather was perfect - hot sun, cool breeze, lovely views. Nice little town, Arradon.

Back home, after apéros, I googled this fest and discovered that it's open from 5pm-2am Friday and Saturday. Sunday 11 am - 7 pm. It's the 18th year of this festival. It looks like a young person's festival - the website talks about where to camp, encourages people to link up to ride together, 15 different bands, and the names of the bands sound strange. Oh, and it costs $15 to get in. So we will take a pass and head west to Concarneau tomorrow. I think I'm relieved.