Wednesday, June 15, 2022 - Waiting in lines - Vannes and Ile aux Moines from a kid's point of view

Guest author Evie Richgels continues to blog:

Our author, Evie, got up way earlier today which helped because we were going to the market in Vannes and then explore the old city outside and inside the city walls. 

20 minutes to Vannes'  historical center

The car ride was much shorter today, only 8 roundabouts. We parked in an underground parking ramp. We came out next to the water. 

Then we walked through an old city gate to get to the market. 

There were a lot of people at the market. 

(Evie has now left for Brussels - more later - so Grandma will take it from here.)

We went to our same produce seller and stood in line. 

(French market wisdom says to go to the stall with the longest line. They have the best produce. This was confirmed by the lady behind me who is from Vannes and always shops at this producer because he is consistently good.) But while waiting, the man from this stall constantly filled the girls hands with cherries, strawberries, and other bits of fruit, so the wait wasn't too painful. Katie and Penny bought sunhats. Penny and Evie got treats at the bakery. We stuck our head inside the covered market and the fish market. Penny, Evie, and Katie didn't like the smells of the fish market, so didn't walk through it.

Shopping done, Dave took the bag to the car and we agreed to meet at the gate where we entered the city. We stopped along the way to listen to two buskers who were playing some pretty good jazzy numbers. Penny and Evie took a few minutes to dance and wiggle to the music. 

Dave was waiting at the gate for us and we walked out to the city walls. We headed out of the old city. 

heading out of the city

city gate with drawbridge

The moat in front of the ducal palace is now a lovely planted garden with the stream flowing through it, but is not open to the public. 

Halfway along, however, there are steps to get down to the old washhouse, a long arcaded pavilion built along the stream bank where the women of the city used to do their laundry. 

view of wash house roof from outside the walls.

posing in the laundry house

The river was used for washing out clothes. People carried their laundry to the river. This was a pretty fancy wash house - It has a roof and a second story.

From there, the garden is public and freshly planted with summer flowers so it is a riot of color. 

Penny, Evie, and Randy found a cool spot in the garden to rest

Grandma riding outside the curtain walls above the garden

Dave, Randy, Penny, Katie, Evie in the public part of the garden

Penny looking at the inner walls from the public garden

Gate at the far end of town

At the far end of town, we entered back into the city by another gate and made our way to the church, passing lots of half-timbered houses along the way. 

Dave entering by the place where there would be a drawbridge for people. Horses and carts came in by the bigger drawbridge

half-timbered houses by the church (on right)

half-timbered houses on the church square

Evie had to explore every corner of the church. She loves old buildings, and appreciates the reverence of the church. 

organ with clock

view of chancel from in front of the altar (the transept crossing)

looking down the nave toward the chancel and altar

We walked back through the old streets, out the gate and back to the car in the underground garage. Then drove back 8 roundabouts to home for lunch.

The afternoon was planned as an easy couple of hours, but of course with Dave and Evie, exploring takes time and there's always one more thing to see. We drove over to Port Blanc, arriving just as the ferry for Ile aux Moines was departing, causing tears in the younger crowd. 

Penny being sad 

But the ferry "schedule" says they come every half hour. In fact, the next ferry came in 10 minutes. 

The ride over to Ile aux Moines took 5 minutes, it's that close to the mainland. But it was enough time for photos. 

Penny, Katie, Evie, Randy on the ferry

Katie and Penny on the boat

Once on Ile aux Moines, Evie and I went into the tourist office for maps. The island has 4 suggested meanders to see different parts of the island. They are marked with colored arrows on the pavement. We decided to follow the blue path for awhile, then headed back into the center of the city on the red path. Evie was expert at spotting the arrows. 

a type of sweet pea

part of a round tower that used to be a windmill

Randy carried Penny a lot of the way up hill to the Cromlech. The girls took turns riding with Grandma on the scooter.

The blue path took us to an ancient stone circle called a cromlech. Penny and Evie were impressed and very interested in the items in the museum. The Cromlech of Kergonan has 24 stones that still exist (there were 36 in 1877) some of which are on private land. The circle was once closed with 2 tumuli (burial mounds) in the middle. The stones range in height from  6 1/2 feet to 11 1/2 feet in height. 

part of the stone circle of Kergonan

There was a museum and information and picnic tables at the Cromlech

one of the taller stones in the circle

We looked around a bit in the center of town then headed back down towards the ferry landing. 

It was low tide when we walked back into town and boats were stranded on the mud.

We stopped for an ice cream (Evie, Penny, and Grandma) or a beer which helped us cool down from the walk. Luckily, there was a lot of shade on the walk because it was really warm. 

Evie, Grandma, Randy, Penny, Katie having ice cream near the ferry landing Look carefully at Evie's cone which is empty of ice cream.

Penny licking her cone

Evie ate her ice cream cone in a rather unusual way as you can see. She really didn't want to eat the cone and only ate as much as needed to lick all the ice cream out.

The ferry home was a quick trip of just a few minutes. 

Randy, Evie, Penny on the ferry

Randy, Penny, Katie on the ferry

Dinner was pretty late that night. But we still had apéros. The girls insisted. We pretty much went to bed right after dinner.