Sailing with Amy Clair

  Vannes market is great with so much food (and other stuff) displayed wonderfully   The Duc de Bretagne doesn't look too happy I don't think we have many hat shops left in the UK but in France...... ..

Happily French buses , though infrequent, are comfortable and cheap. We took the one hour ride from Crouesty to Vannes at only €1.50 each !

Happily the weather has really cooperated during Abbi's visit. Lovely weather on Noirmoutier followed by a couple of really nice sailing days. We had originally planned to take the short hop back to Pornic (easy for getting to Nantes airport) but we all wanted to take advantage of the nice sailing weather; first to go from Noirmoutier to la Turballe and then from there to le Crouesty. Both days were really good sailing - so much so that I forgot to take any pictures !

We do seem to be doing a lot of cycling this year . It's just that they are such a great way to explore the many small islands off the Brittany coast.

Another tick in the box for Le Crouesty . They have really thought through cycling in the area and using a combination of traffic free and quiet roads we saw quite a lot of the region

Our plan was to head south over a few days and to pick up Abbi at Pornic - becasue this is easily accessible from the airport at Nantes. However with sailing wetaher and tides always has a part to play. In this case we were experiencing extremely high spring tides. This meant that they go very high (as above) but also very low (next photo). Also meant that the port that we planned to stay at en route to Pornic was not accessible for a boat of our depth. Hmmm... So we had to leave it a few days until the tides had moderated and we were able to get in !

 France is a truly blessed country. From Brittany and Normandy in the North, through Aquitaine and down to the Mediterranean. There is so much space. Whilst both France and the UK have similar populations of 66m , France has a surface area approximately 2 1/2 times that of the UK. 

At Port Haliguen we were intrigued to see lots of people out on the rocks at low tide with buckets. We went to take a look and , unlike their British counterparts, they were not just "rockpooling" they were very actively searching for very small crabs - which they seemed to find by the bucket load. Not sure exactly how you eat the little blighters but everyone seemed to be going away with at least one bucket full - suprised there are any left !

  It's a busy , bustling sort of a place but great for topping up water and supplies from the large supermarket - plus plenty of restaurants.

 It's a nice feature of the islands that there are very few cars , so people use their legs, bicycles or occasionally improvise with small scooters.   As with most of these islands our Brompton's have proved to be invaluable to use for exploring.

 I can't take credit for this photo (sadly) but it does give a great perspective on the island. We were anchored in the bay on the left hand side of the island. The islands in the Morbihan are quite different to soem of the windswept islands which face directly onto the Atlantic ocean. These islands are safely protected within the Gulf of Morbihan and whilst only accessible by boat they can be accessed throughout the year regardless of weather. They are not as glitzy as we might expect trendy costal resorts in the UK  to be and retain much of the traditional charm.

We moored on a convenient buoy and took the dinghy up to the centre of Le Bono. It's a really pretty spot and well worth the visit. One of it's claims to fame is that it is the final resting place of the legendary French sailor Bernard Moitessier (who sailed in his boat Joshua in the original Golden Globe alongside Robin Know Johnston in 1969. For French people their sailing heroes are like rock stars - rather unlike the UK !

  We finally made it through the notoriously challenging entrance and into the Morbihan. It is a truly special place. Imagine a combination of Chichester harbour meeting the upper reaches of the rives Dart and Fal in the West Country and then multiply that by 2 or 3 times, add a few islands .... et voila you have the Morbihan. The city of vannes lies at the top of the Morbihan but there are many places to visit within the area. 

We sat on deck and watched one of the most beautiful sunsets we have ever seen .

 Access is only by either your own boat or ferry so there aren't too many people on the beach even in August

 Out for another days cycling exploring the area around the Vilaine. The river estuary has many mussel beds and the mussels seem to be being harvested on an industrial scale. Continual incoming barges laden with  mussel crates line up at the quayside. Well moules frites is on the menu in most restaurants around here and they have to come from somewhere !