{"id":8037,"date":"2026-07-01T06:39:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T06:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=8037"},"modified":"2026-08-06T11:36:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T11:36:43","slug":"17-crozon-part-2-and-home","status":"archive","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=8037","title":{"rendered":"17. CROZON PART 2, AND HOME."},"content":{"rendered":"

The beaches here are indeed superb.\u00a0 Even when there is almost no beach at high tide!\u00a0 This is our “local” patch, Plage de Trez-Bellec, at sunset.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The next beach further down the coast was the Plage de Pentrez …<\/p>\n

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Further on there’s a string of beaches, one better than another.\u00a0 Some are so long they have several names depending on where you meet them!\u00a0 Confusing, but all the beaches are huge at low tide.\u00a0 Big enough to run land yachting races.\u00a0 Here are two “Chars \u00e0 Voiles” rounding the downwind mark.<\/p>\n

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At the south end of this long beach there was a restaurant.\u00a0 The only (open) place in France that refused to serve us coffees – the cr\u00eaperie, Breizh Lipous.\u00a0 OK, it was moving towards lunchtime and the place was geared up for diners.\u00a0 But it was spectacularly empty.\u00a0 They could easily have accommodated us for half an hour on the terrace.\u00a0 They were still almost empty an hour later as we drove past on our way south!<\/p>\n

Independence Day – 4 July.\u00a0 Today it’s a trip to Camaret-sur-Mer on the middle of the three prongs on the end of the peninsula.\u00a0 A quick stop for a stroll on the beach at Kerloch.\u00a0 These beaches are sooo good for level walks!<\/p>\n

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Just up the road we passed a really interesting restaurant, Sovaj’.\u00a0 A quick u-turn for a closer inspection.\u00a0 It looked really good.\u00a0 Just our cup of tea!\u00a0 But “exceptionally ” closed for a family wedding.\u00a0 Ah, well.\u00a0 Easy come, easy go.\u00a0 We are going to look at our alternative campsite.\u00a0 Le Grand Large.\u00a0 Had we come here rather than to L’Armorique, we would have stayed here.\u00a0 No mountain-side.\u00a0 Big pitches, many with great sea views.\u00a0 But a bit far from many of the things we want to see and do.\u00a0 Another time maybe.<\/p>\n

So it’s Camaret for lunch.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 Tourists!\u00a0 Restaurants!\u00a0 Dozens of them on the harbour wall.\u00a0 A bit of a random choice backed up by personal inspection and a check of reviews on the interweb.\u00a0 We settled on the Cr\u00eaperie Le Kerguelen – and very good it was too.<\/p>\n

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After lunch we wandered aimlessly in the backstreets of town, immediately behind the row of restaurants in Saint Thomas.\u00a0 This is the artist quarter where 25 creative spirits were busy creating stuff in their galleries and ateliers and then trying to flog it to the tourists.\u00a0 But the tourists were all beside the harbour.\u00a0 We were on our own!\u00a0 There were graphic artists, photographers, sculptors – and our favourite\u00a0 – the cat lady.\u00a0 She will make you anything you like – so long as it’s a cat!\u00a0 Very specialist!<\/p>\n

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Back on the habourside, we walked out on the pier past half a dozen old boats falling to pieces in the second boat cemetery we have seen on the peninsula …<\/p>\n

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… to a little church, the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Rocamadour.<\/p>\n

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Yes, it was a cooling break, but there’s something afoot.\u00a0 There was a choir warming up …<\/p>\n

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… then musicians got weaving …<\/p>\n

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then a lone piper (a different one! – with a different type of bagpipes – but still not the Breton type.\u00a0 But it played “Amazing Grace” superbly well!)<\/p>\n

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Everyone was getting ready for a concert in support of the French lifeboats.\u00a0 There was a lot of practice, but not much actual action – certainly not before we left the church.<\/p>\n

Further along the pier, there is a Vaubon tower – the inspirationally named Le Tour Vauban – it came into service in 1693.<\/p>\n

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And a more recent statue that was installed two years ago in memory of local mariners lost at sea.<\/p>\n

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Before heading home we called at Le Pen Hat beach.\u00a0 This is about the most westerly point of the peninsula that is publicly accessible.\u00a0 \u00a0The Pointe du Toulinguet is military land.\u00a0 Basically a headland fort (designed by Vauban, of course) with a semaphore at the furthest point.\u00a0 From the beach, looking eastward there is a collection of towers on the horizon.<\/p>\n

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The ruins of the Manoir Saint-Pol-Roux.\u00a0 The chateau was requisitioned by the Germans in WWII and destroyed by allied forces in 1944.\u00a0 All that remains are eight towers.\u00a0 And, unbeknownst to us a couple of hundred metres further to the south is an “alignment”!\u00a0 Dozens of standing stones.\u00a0 The Alignments of Lagatjar.\u00a0 In the 17th century\u00a0 when the site was first documented there were over 600 stones.\u00a0 \u00a0Asterix and Obelix must have been busy!<\/p>\n

We haven’t been to the north-pointing finger of land at the end of the peninsula.\u00a0 Today’s the day!\u00a0 But first there’s a place we’ve passed several times and have decided that we are going to haul in there this morning.<\/p>\n

Tal Ar Groas (about 10 kms from camp) is not much more than a roundabout at the junction of seven roads!\u00a0 \u00a0But there is a supermarket, two petrol stations, a biscuiterie, a specialist burger place, a boulangerie and a school.\u00a0 And the Bar Caf\u00e9 de la Forge.\u00a0 Coffee time!\u00a0 Early on this trip one of us has added a new style of coffee to their drinking habits.\u00a0 “La Noisette”.\u00a0 A small strong\u00a0 espresso with a spoonful of milk froth on top.\u00a0 But we like it in a big cup with a side serve of very hot water.\u00a0 In a busy bar that’s quite a mouthful of French – but we do sometimes get more or less what we want!\u00a0 Other times, less so.\u00a0 Getting it in a large cup is the main stumbling block!<\/p>\n

This is where the hardened locals come for their alcoholic beverages.\u00a0 \u00a0Most of them stand drinking at the bar.\u00a0 It’s usually cheaper there than at a table.\u00a0 And by the looks of some of them, the accumulated discount will be quite substantial when it’s time for home!\u00a0 We prefer a table where we can mix and dilute our drinks in peace!\u00a0 Here, it’s OK to bring in a little something from the baker’s next door, but that’s not always the case.\u00a0 It pays to watch the locals for guidance!\u00a0 On the odd occasion when we’ve done this we always feel guilty and try and disguise what we are up to!<\/p>\n

Moving on – we take the ninth exit from the roundabout.\u00a0 (We missed it on the first lap!)\u00a0 We are heading generally north and west, but we come to an attractive side road off to the right which promises to lead down to the shore.\u00a0 And there aren’t many of those, at least not lanes I want to take my car down!<\/p>\n

It must be instinct because as we hit the beach we found ourselves parked outside a bustling restaurant.\u00a0 Well, coffee was almost half an hour ago!\u00a0 There’s one free table for two, so, on an impulse (and with thoughts of not having to cook supper in a big white “air frier” on wheels …) we grabbed it!<\/p>\n

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There’s a short prom leading from the front door around the top of the beach.\u00a0 There’s a slip way which seems to stretch a long way.\u00a0 And there’s a small campsite on the side of the hill.\u00a0 Almost empty.\u00a0 Fabulous sea views.\u00a0 We’ve got the details from the guardian – maybe another time.<\/p>\n

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Onwards and upwards.\u00a0 We get back on the coastal road leading to the Spanish Point.\u00a0 There are the remains of some fairly substantial artillery emplacements.<\/p>\n

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That’s Brest in the far distance and this battery would have been installed to deter unwanted guests from getting up close and personal with the naval base.<\/p>\n

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And this Vaubanesk fortification was to stop stray land-based intruders approaching the guns from the rear!<\/p>\n

We had another walk on the beach and one quick swim in the sea before we headed off to Roscoff via the “Red Bus” wine store.\u00a0 We got the last official overnight parking spot and had a jolly evening with a bunch of rally-crazy campers.\u00a0 In the morning we joined the queue (of mainly camper vans all returning early to avoid the heat wave) for a very full crossing on the Pont Aven.\u00a0 Our favourite ferry!<\/p>\n

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Although we look to be near the front of the car-and-caravan queue, we ended up almost at the very back of the boat (Which was actually the front when the ferry got going!)<\/p>\n

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So, there we have it.\u00a0 Eight weeks touring a bit of Europe where the temperature ranged from 2 to over 40\u00b0 C.\u00a0 We drove a total of 3,252 miles and towed the van 1,416 miles.\u00a0 Twelve campsites visited, every one new to us.\u00a0 4326 lunches out!\u00a0 One fridge door disaster and two new expensive windscreen wipers (new vocab learnt: essui-glaces).\u00a0 The gas BBQ has been hauled around with us and NOT used for the third succesive caravan tour.\u00a0 We’ve been in more churches than you can shake a stick at!\u00a0 Lots of fascinating facts heard, learnt and largely forgotten already!\u00a0 17 episodes if the blog with a total of 21,540 words written, I’ve just counted them!<\/p>\n

And the noisette is the new cappuccino!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, where are we going next?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The beaches here are indeed superb.\u00a0 Even when there is almost no beach at high tide!\u00a0 This is our “local” patch, Plage de Trez-Bellec, at sunset. The next beach further down the coast was the Plage de Pentrez … Further… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8037","post","type-post","status-archive","format-standard","hentry","category-france-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8037"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8056,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8037\/revisions\/8056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}