Day 43 - ce sont des phares Jim, mais pas tels que nous les connaissons 🤔

They're lighthouses Jim, but not as we know them 🤔

The little policeman was due about 9am to collect the €5 for staying on the marina. I just knew he would be early and I just knew people would be waking us up to escape without paying. About 7am I heard noises. Using the excuse to get up to use the toilet, peeping out I saw the German campervan with his bonnet up 😲. Was he using his wifes duvet to muffle the engine noise or was he engaging 'silent running' mode ? I'm not sure but at 7.30am he 'ever so quietly' rolled out of the carpark and away. 

    Nobody else seemed to bother or they left it too late and got caught out by the man coming round just before 8.30am. Tapping softley on our drivers side it threw him that we were a UK van and our sliding door was on the opposite side. Money changed hands, ticket produced, everybody happy. Breakfast, dumped the tanks, filled up with fresh water and on our way leaving behind high tide in the sunshine and abandoned fishing boats by the roadside. 😞

Lighthouses, where are all the lighthouses?

Heading west along the coast ment we had to go down into the town of Morlaix first.

Morlaix is a place, now that we have driven thru it, I'd like to go back and explore. 

Set back from the north coast of Brittany it often  suffers floods  because it is at the joining point of two rivers, the Queffleut and the Jarlot, which between them form the Dosenn which then flows into the English channel. The river itself is the boundary between two county's. Its famous for its viaduct built built in the 19th century,  its medieval architecture and its 200 berth marina set right in the middle of the town. The roads down to the town on both sides are steep and twisty and we got to see the marina twice because the turn at the bottom was too tight for the van so we had to carry onto the roundabout, turn round and hit it from the other direction 😯

Definitely nowhere to park for lunch we headed a few miles out along the estuary and found a little picnic area with tables which we took advantage of.  While Jill sat with her binoculars looking at ducks I sat and looked at muddy bottoms 🫣. With the river being tidal when the tides in its full and when its out its practically empty. This gives you a chance to look at all the mud and what's in it.  Just for a change there was very little; no car tires or shopping trollies, all nice and clean if a muddy bottom can be described as clean 😏.

Onward. Always things to look at along the way. France seems to have water towers everywhere and some prettier than plain old concrete ones with mobile phone aerials on the tops and sides.

Now that we are in Brittany the churches have all changed too. All very Gothic,not had chance to go in any yet.

Still no lighthouses tho. The problem with lighthouses (Phare) in France we have discovered from our research is that most of them are not like our lighthouses. You find a lot of them in land for one thing and another is that a lot of them have at least one house attached. Some are even holiday homes now even tho the light still works although your not needed to attend to it during your holiday with it all  being automated. The up shot of all this is that you cant always visit as its private property or its in such a busy area that  there is no parking. But we persevered and found one of the planned ones, Le Phare du Pontusval 🤗

A pretty little lighthouse it is of course private property and you cant get near to it but that didn't stop us going for a clamber over the rocks and a walk along the beach with its very course, sharp broken shell sand. Was nice to hear and smell the sea and even to find a geocache hidden under the sign at the entrance to the lighthouse 😉.

(man walking on beach looking for wife)

Now happy we had found a lighthouse it was time to head to a park'y place for the night and a beer. La Greve Blanche is a highly populare campsite next to a beach. Its a quirky place, set back in time to the 70's and 80's and caters for vans, caravans, backpackers and holiday home'rs. The very helpful owner has a 'unique' mannerism about him shall we say 😏.

"Hi, do you speak English?"

"Yes, how can I help you today?"

"Do you have any sea view pitches available for one or two nights?"

"Yes we have pitches available here is what I would like you to do. Leave your van where it is and BOTH of you walk round and pick 2 or 3 pitches then come back to me and we will check if they are available. Then we will talk about how many nights you would like to stay.  Then we will talk about payment. I do not have a machine it is cash only. Then we will talk about bread"

"Oh, ok 🤨"

Jill and I walked here there and everywhere. The site is on a hillside and the pitches are arranged in terraces with shoulder height bushes between them all so its a bit of a maze. Anyway we found one with the best view of the beach we could . Other couples were now wandering around muttering to themselves in various languages so we knew the race was on for the best pitches.

"You stay here, I will go tell him and pay then I'll come back, keep the pitch then you go get the van". "Ok"

"Hi, can we have pitch B11 please?"

"Let me check.... how many nights?"

"Two please"

"Ok, that will be €32. I do not have a machine it is cash only. Then we will talk about bread"

(looking in the wallet...dam! €5 short)

"I'm sorry I don't have enough, can I pay you for one night then tomorrow I will go and get some more cash?"

"No. You need to pay all the money then we will talk about bread".

"Ok, is there a cash machine in the village?"

"There is a cash machine. If you walk to the road from this office and turn left then walk 500m there is a road on the right hand side. You then walk down the road for 4km (2.5miles 🥴) and you will find the cash machine. When you have your cash go into the bar across the street, Le Cafe Blanch and have a drink as it is very hot then come back and pay then we will talk about bread".

"Ok (🙄), do we leave the van here or can we put it on the pitch?"

"You can put it on the pitch but you may have to move later"

I hurried down to Jill who was still stood on the pitch.

"Go and get the van I will explain later, I will stay here."

Once we had decided the best way to point the van with the sun and the view I explained the situation to Jill. "That's ridiculous, you cant walk all that way  now". "I will be alright, you get set up, I might have a solution 😉"

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One of the couples I'd got talking too about the strange arrangements while running around the site looking for a pitch was an English couple from Kent. I went to find them. "Hi, all set up?"..."Yes thanks, you?"..." err well not exactly, how would you like to make some money?".... " how do you mean?" ... "I don't have enough cash and the machine is two and a half miles away. Do you have enough euros to swap me a twenty pound note  for twenty euros? You make about four euros with the exchange rate"

"I'm not sure, I wasn't expecting to pay cash either you will have to ask the the wife, she's the banker 😅"..... "Yes we have enough, heres twenty five euros"... "No, that's too much just give me twenty"...."No, you take the twenty five;  you can buy him a beer at the bar, it will get him out of my way for a while!"....."oh, ok, thanks  I'll see you in the bar later about severn then, thanks".

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"Hi, I have the cash now for the pitch, B11"

"How do you have the money? How did you get to the cash machine 🤨"

"I didn't, I managed to sort it out"

"Ok you pay now, then we will talk about bread"

Pitch paid for, receipt handed over, one baguette and one pain eu chocolate ( pastry thing with chocolate in it) ordered, he then reeled off all the site instructions, told me how the kitchen was closed at this time of year but the bar was open till 8pm if I would like a drink as it was very hot.

"Will you be using the water to shower?

"erm, yes I'll be having a shower at some point do you mean having a shower in the toilet block or using water in the van"

"In the toilet block to use the shower  you need a token. I will give you two tokens. The water will run for 8mins then it will stop. You can not have a cold shower. You need a token to start the water. If you want to have more showers then come back here before 8 o'clock at night and we will talk about tokens"

"Thanks"  .....(I NEED A BEER !)

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I went back to the bar later as arranged while Jill had a nap but my money lender was no where to be seen. I sat and had a bottle of blonde beer or unknown origin, listening to Bob Marley on the radio and looking at all the plastic birds dotted around the small bar with its 5 tall, 4 seater tables and stools. No campers in, probably all sat outside under their canopies drinking cheaper supermarket beer. Only 3 old frenchmen drinking lager from fancy tall, brand embossed glasses I wondered  if there was draught beer available but then one of the old boys got up, bought a round of cans of Heineken, opened, poured and quickly got rid of the evidence.  The 3 of them sat silently drinking. When finished they handed over the glasses to my little man who was now behind the bar. He rinsed and returned them. The  3 of them then wandered off with their beloved glasses. Finishing my beer I took the glass and bottle to the bar and thanked him. "I shall see you tomorrow for the bread" he said. "Yes, good night".