My Blog List

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Finistere - Lands' End

Finistere in Brittany is rugged and wild. The coast is dotted with high rocky cliffs and little inlets and coves, some small towns and ports, and inlets. This was what we came to see - really almost the point of the trip and we weren't disappointed.    



There were so many different types of birds living on the cliffs, all I could identify were the hawks, and what I think were puffins and gannets. We saw hawks soaring on the air currents and floating for what seemed like ages without flapping their wings, and then suddenly diving for prey in the rushes along the coast.  


The Celtic nation of Brittany

Brittany is one of the six Celtic nations. (The others being Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man). The road signs are in French and in Bretton.  Some of the town and road names are similar to the the signs that you might see in Ireland, and some of the more southernly town names have a similarity to Galician.
 

All along our way we found signs and advertisements for Celtic festivals, music, and food.


Sand Yachting in Brittany


With some great Autumn breezes, Brittany is a big center for  land sailing or  sand yachting. There are 56 Land Sailing centers in Brittany and even in September after the hordes of tourists have departed it's still popular along the coast.

The sand yachts are  three-wheeled vehicles that work like a sailboat, the pilot is lying down steers the vehicle by its pedals.  When a gust of wind would hit the beach the sand yachts would go faster than the wind.






Digging for Clams in Brittany

As we drove along the coast through the towns in Normandy and Brittany, we couldn't help but notice that about mid-day when the tide was out, there were people out in the shallow surf. It appeared that they were looking for something but we discovered they were actually digging for clams in the tidal pools.