Thursday, June 2, 2022 - To the end of the Earth - Point du Raz

 Finistère - the end of the earth - is our destination today. More precisely, we are going to La Pointe du Raz, a rocky outcropping into the Atlantic Ocean. This is one of the farthest trips we plan to take, just over 2 hours. The weather predicts morning rain here and afternoon rain at La Pointe du Raz. But it's reasonably warm so we packed our raincoats and headed out. It's 172 km but over 100 are on an autoroute, so the drive should be quite comfortable. 

our house to Pointe du Raz

The drive took us away from the seacoast and through land similar to what the Breton farm would have experienced. High berms and hedges make it difficult to see the landscape, but glimpses show us farm and pasture lands and lots of woods as we gently roll up and down hills that minus the hedges and trees could be Wisconsin. Once in awhile an inlet reaches as far inland as we're driving and there is a port city. We cross a couple of sizable rivers as well that have pleasure ports. Slowly the landscape changes. Fewer hedges and trees, flatter, more open vistas appear as we slowly move from interior back to seacoast again. The last 20 or so kilometers we are traveling the peninsula that sticks its finger out to the sea. Glimpses of sea can be seen out right and left car windows. The road is covered on both sides by whitewashed houses with stone corners. The barrier between town and countryside is broken as the houses become more and more attached to the tourist trade. Bed and breakfasts, cafés, hotels, are more prolific than single family homes. 

The soil here is clearly poor, covered in rocks and tufts of hardy bushes

Then it ends. We have arrived at the parking lot for Pointe du Raz. And it's huge in spite of being hidden by stone walls as it tumbles downhill. It's clear that this is a HUGE tourist attracton and it's very well organized. You purchase a ticket for the day from a machine that you must show to a person in a booth on your way out. There is a semicircle of tourist restaurants and shops - probably a dozen eateries and a half-dozen shops. There are bathrooms at both ends of the semicircle as well as one out near the point. 

the tourist center - tourist office is on left

I asked at the tourist information whether I could scooter my way around and he gave me a very well marked map that told me exactly which trails were handicapped accessible. (There's also a "navette" - a small bus that takes visitors from the tourist office to a parking lot half a mile toward the point. There are walking trails and viewpoints that are well marked as well as a path for handicapped visitors. They've clearly thought of many peoples' needs. 

I'm not sure what happened to the predicted rain, but on arrival, the sky is blue without a cloud. There's a fresh breeze to mitigate the warmth of the noon sun. The air is fresh, clear. It's a perfect day to explore the Point du Raz. Once beyond the tourist area, a flat vista opens up on the top of the cliff ("falaise" in French) and we can see water on both sides of us (but down a long ways!). 

It's hard to tell in this photo, but the dark, narrow strip of blue to left and right is water.

It suddenly occurs to me that we are in La Lande - that concept I struggled to understand yesterday. Amidst the rock grow a profusion of low plants. We see gorse and heather everywhere. In fact the gorse is in bloom.

gorse - 

Your can see how woody gorse becomes - enough to give heat in a fireplace in winter

Heather in bloom

 Now I can see how this gift of the poor earth was used by peasant farmers to feed livestock as well as provide bedding. I can also see how "la lande" could also provide wood for heat and cooking. (I'm so glad we went to the ecomuseum yesterday! Who knew it would enrich a visit to the sea?) 

We also found a plant in the mustard family 

Dave standing next to yellow-flowering wild mustard

 and broom mixed among the other plants. 

broom behind the gorse

And even some hedge plants ("buis") the thick, impenetrable green mass that is along every road in Brittany (and separates every farm field in Burgundy). 

try to get through that mess of hedge

Of course the setting was spectacular and while there were a lot of people around, they were spread out over acres of trails. As we walked down the direct path (about half a mile) straight ahead of us was what appeared to be a modern lighthouse that turned out to be a military site. 

the military "lighthouse"

Makes sense. A good location for monitoring air and sea traffic. Pointe du Raz jutted out into the ocean just in front. 

Pointe du Raz

panorama of Pointe du Raz

Dave checked out the viewpoints that were not scooter-friendly 

Dave's viewpoint

and we headed back to the parking lot via the long path (about a mile), stopping for lunch and photos along the path. 

our lunch spot 

The walk, despite the people, was so calm and peaceful. Birds sang constantly and bees hummed among the flowers. 

A Celtic cross at a lookout point

The sea was quite calm today

heather and gorse in bloom

the grasses of la lande

As seems normal with Claire our GPS guide, she sent us home a different way than we arrived. But, as usual, she showed us things we hadn't seen, like the beach near Pointe du Van and windmills both old and new. 

Pictures out a car window are never that great. There were about a dozen windmills in this area.

two windmills were just along side the road

OK, so I mostly got a work truck, but the beach is back there somewhere

Two last stops were for two impressive Breton churches in towns we drove through. This one in Buezec-Cap-Sizun 

This church in granite looks like it's been there 1000 years and will last another 1000. 

and this one in Confort-Meilars 

built in 1633

bells in the bell tower for Clark Hunsinger

In front of this church is a Calvary - an elaborate sculpture of the crucified Christ. Brittany is know for its beautiful and elaborate Calvaries, unlike any other place in Europe. 

The apostles surround the cross, carved in the 19th century to replace the original apostles which had been torn from their niches and destroyed. 

We had light apéros on the patio while Dave started the charcoal to cook beef kabobs. Tonight's wine was a Morgon, one of the 10 Beaujolais crus. It was more like a Burgundy than a typical Beaujolais. 

We had stopped along the autoroute to buy something called AdBlue. It's an additive that is stored in a separate tank in our diesel car. It's purpose is to decrease nitrogen oxides emitted from the diesel engine. As we're driving, AdBlue is squirted onto the exhaust gas turning the Nox into nitrogen and water. You have to refill the tank periodically and we've been receiving warnings that we can only drive 300 more km before the car will refuse to start. That would seem like a bad thing. So, we have now emptied all 5 liters of the jug we bought into the correct tank and we should get about 4000 kim driving on that amount. Whew! I was getting nervous.

Dave also set up one of the jump seats in our car which officially seats 7 people, but that takes away trunk space. When Katie and Randy come, we will need 6 seats, so it was good to find out that we can fit my scooter in the trunk with one of the jump seats set up. Check that off the list. 

We now have a pretty good idea about life for the Bretons who live inland, but I still want to see Breton fishing villages. And we have a lot of dolmens, menhirs, and tumuli to unearth. Tomorrow we plan to see Carnac where there are rows on rows of menhirs.