Day 1 Roscoff

The trip to Plymouth was wet! And sadly a bit deary, we will come back when the sun is shining to see it in a better light. The highlight was queueing for the Tamar toll bridge and watching a small terrier pop his head out of the drivers window of the van in front to take a treat from the toll booth assistant. It was mega cute 💓. When we moved up to pay, I asked him what treat was he gonna give me 😂. He stuttered and then said, I can give you a dog treat but you might not like it 😁, I asked about the dog and apparently he comes by every day and asks for his treat 💓💓bless them.

We took the overnight ferry to Roscoff from Plymouth because frankly there weren't any other choices. Covid has affected the winter schedule on crossings and now you have so much less choice, obviously plus the fact that we are now in the south west and the drive to our normal departure point of Dover is just too far!

Boarding was a doddle. You now have colours assigned to you so that they can manage the amount of people accessing the stairs and lifts to and from the car decks. Honestly, it worked so well we think they need to use it all of the time.

The food in the restaurant was surprisingly pleasant (Gareth had the chef's special which was a veal stroganoff with rice and ratatouille and I had beef bourgingonne with mash and peas and carrots) washed down with a lovely small bottle of French Cotes de Rhone 😋.

Gareth had pre booked the cabin and didn't realise it was at the very front of the ferry! 😱 Lucky for me I always carry my seabands.

Firstly, we couldn't find the second bed! (Then I remembered a cruise I went on with my girlies where the steward had to come and show us where the extra bed was), it was in the ceiling. The cabin was so small you had to juggle past each other unless one of you is in a bed 😁.

My sleep was interrupted by either the boat rocking to an angle I thought we weren't going to return from or dead body parts making movement impossible due to the hardness of the mattress 😂 adding to the fact that I was on the top bunk.

We were awake before the lovely morning tune was played but after having a good kip Gareth stood up and the wobbles of the ship got into his head 🤢🤢, took him by surprise too. I'll bring spare seabands next time.

Just had time for a cup of tea on board before our colour (yellow) was called to access the car deck.

When booking the ferry Gareth was sent a link to the French gov site so that we could complete a Covid declaration - we were supposed to present it at the Douane post when coming off the ferry. When we handed it over with the passports he asked Gareth what is was? 🤔😁. So many rules.........

Roscoff looks very pretty, at present we are sat enjoying a cuppa and some Weetabix at a picnic site in the Parc Naturel Regional d'Armorique before heading to Concarneau.

Drove down to the port in Concarneau, and whilst trying to find a parking spot we got caught in a convoluted one way system taking us literally around the houses. Not to be put off we tried again and parked in the carpark opposite the old fort. A lovely lady in the office de tourisme confirmed camping cars were allowed to park and it was free. She gave us a map of the town and advised us to go see the old town which is basically a walled town on an island. It was lovely and we could see that come the height of season it would be really busy and full! Lucky for us we got to see it in all it's bare glory. Lots of cormorants.

Walking round the old town, all of the tourist points are in English as well as French and the map offers 5 walks of varying durations around the town.

In the main town the vast majority of the buildings have kept their old charm and new buildings are sympathetic to the style with beautiful ironwork below the upper floor windows and window boxes. The square is closed for a market on certain days and the local catch appears to be sardines.

We did a quick lunch stop in a little Carrefour, Gareth did the choosing of bread, ham and cheese 😋😋. Halfway through our lovely plate he asked if one of the hams was cooked🤔, I didn't know as he picked it And I had already eaten a slice. Anyway he said it looked cooked but he didn't like it so I got the packet out of the fridge and he Google translated the packaging. It said Jambon Cru, which means ham raw! Thanks Gareth....again! I'm starting to wonder what's next 😂

Concarneau also provide 2 parking areas for camping cars to stay overnight!

Well done Concarneau, we will definitely be back.

Onto Auray or Surat as predictive text keeps calling it!

Just picked it off of 'searchforsites' as an overnight stop, free with facilities except water refill so no compliants there.

It's just above a little port so we thought we'd better take a look. What a lovely surprise, it is beautiful. Apparently it's the highest part of the river that was reachable by ships/boats. Mega fact: Benjamin Franklin visited here in 1776 to ask King Louis for financial aid to beat the English.

The buildings are just charming, hilly tiny backstreet's with little creperies and bars promising delicious food and beverages. We sat on the harbour of one bar looking out over the water towards the old ramparts....along comes the local parkrun, up and down the ramparts!!! Had to turn away as the sight made me breathless!

We watched some crows picking away at the pointing of a building, amazing as we had only heard of this from Don who has the problem on his own house in Southampton! 😂😂

On our way back to the van we passed a little Creperie tucked up a steep little lane. I had never had a savoury crepe before so we decided to try them. Have to say it was delicious, ham, cheese, mushroom and a fried egg on top 😋. To wash it down I had a glass of red wine and Gareth opted for a local cider which he liked very much. It came in a bottle and so he drank it from the bottle. It was only as he finished it we realised that the lovely cups on the table (which we thought were for coffee) were for the Cider 😁 we can hear the sighs of 'philistine' still 🤔😁.

Anyway, back at the van now having a lovely cuppa and thinking of you all xx

Maps and pics to follow. Did 114miles since departing the ferry.