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| Eurocamp Douarnenez |
 The Trip We chose to spend a fortnight at Kervel Plage, near Douarnenez in Brittany, staying in a Eurocamp caravan on a fairly quiet campsite. It appealed to our need for fantastic seascapes and sandy beaches, warm weather, and relatively short driving time, with a 2- and a 7-year old in the back seat…  … in fact the ferry crossing, with P&O from Portsmouth to Cherbourg, was a fine start to the trip. At under 3 hours on the fast ferry, an earlyish start meant we could cover the 280-mile drive to the site without overstraining ourselves. The Club Class upgrade seemed well worth the £10 extra, and with free coffee and tea and soft drinks (and champagne on the evening crossing!), a kids’ film and a bit more legroom, it was unstressed. We enjoyed watching the Isle of Wight slip away behind us; the crossing itself was smooth and untroublesome, and our children enjoyed the play area. Eurocamp had sent us a route plan that detailed the best roads for our exact journey, although – being first-time drivers in France – we didn’t follow it exactly. We found the roads amazingly empty, and wondered where the French were on a summer Sunday afternoon; not shopping, or out for a drive, or shopping . . . the roads were so quiet, that I got the chance to figure out how to tackle junctions, roundabouts, etc, without incurring too much displeasure. This I hadn’t expected. Of course, we drove all day in ferocious heat, and hit downpours as we got to the west coast of Brittany. Finisterre, on first impression, was very much like Cornwall, or even South East Ireland: fairly gentle, hilly, small-farming country, incredibly cute churchy towns and villages: unspectacular until we reached the coast, with the fishing port of Douarnenez running down the hill to the Baie de Douarnenez. Now the scenery became suddenly dramatic, a craggy cove-ridden coast, with sandy beaches wherever the sea met the rock. We were welcomed by the Eurocamp courier, who couldn’t do enough to set us up and give us all the tips and information we needed. He was always available to help and chat. Eurocamp have about a dozen caravans on the Kervel Plage site, and it was fairly quiet when we went in early July. We settled in quickly, our neighbours and their children helped orientate us and played on the grassy area around which the caravans are sited. The Caravan The accommodation was fine for us. There was plenty of bedspace; the shower worked well; the mains-connected flush toilet did its job, and the kitchen had everything we needed to self-cater, with gas-bottle powered hot water and cooker, pots, pans, crocks and cutlery, cupboard space, good sized fridge-freezer, 240v mains electricity (with 3-pin UK sockets). There was a fan to cool us, and a gas fire to warm us. We liked the living space, which was well designed and soundly fitted: solid and comfortable, with views through the glass over the play area outside, which, for us, was the most used facility on the site. The caravans are well-spaced, sited in grassy ‘closes’ of seven or eight pitches. Outside, there are sunloungers for each caravan, a table and chairs with parasol, a barbecue and plenty of room to charge about without shattering windows. The Site At the entrance to the site are the small shop, selling baguettes, milk and the usual cornershop stuff; the bar, the restaurant, the swimming pool with chute, and the information office. This made for a fairly cosy, friendly site, with a little razamataz each night in the bar (bingo, karaoke, quiz, live music …). The restaurant was pretty good, with home made pizzas, Thai dishes, salads. Kids’ activities included treasure hunt, table tennis, painting, crazy golf, pedal cars; there are tennis courts, a football pitch and a couple of playgrounds. Our ones enjoyed the space when we were on the site, but our main aim was to get around that coast and enjoy the area as much as possible. The locale The site is about five or ten minutes’ walk from Kervel Plage. This is a long, golden-sand beach, with clear views across the Baie; it was popular with locals and visitors but, even on a scorching Sunday in July, wasn’t overcrowded. The inland scenery is generally unspectacular, but the coastline is fantastic here. There are paths rising and falling along the rocky coastline, connecting beaches virtually all around the large bay. Some are huge and virtually empty, like Ste Anne la Palud, site of a large annual pilgrimage (pardon) to a 16th century statue of the patron saint of Brittany. We went to an excellent crêperie in the hamlet with imaginative toppings, unstuffy service and a small play area in the garden. In the other direction, there is a coastal footpath to Douarnenez, though not great for a 2-year-old. The town is essentially a fishing port; there are modern canning factories, but also a harbour with busy restaurants along the front. Seafood is dominant and we really enjoyed our oysters, winkles, shrimp, skate, tuna, rice and salad (and the universally disappointing frites). Another attraction is the old harbour, which hosts the Musée du Bateau, an excellent exploration of the boat in Breton culture; there are huge halls with all kinds of boats as well as displays, films and oral histories. After all this, on the Port-Rhu river is a floating extension to the museum: half-a-dozen old boats to explore, including a Thames Barge. Both children enjoyed the museum, including the temporary exhibition ‘Parlons du breton’ (til 2/11/03); our younger knows the Breton for cockerel, and enjoyed seeing a Breton translation of a Spot the Dog book. Coastal Brittany is excellent for day-trips with kids. There are so many places worth a visit and within 30-60 minutes’ drive, and the roads are so empty of traffic, that everyone gets happy. One good day – and we are not early starters – saw us head north to Menez Hom, the highest point in Finisterre and halfway between London and Paris. We drove virtually to the summit, and the views from the top were fantastic. I’d recommend this as a first place to visit, as it really helps bring the map to life and orientate yourselves. We could make out the whole of the Baie de Douarnenez, from Pointe du Raz to Cap de la Chevre, and beyond to Brest. We could see exactly where we’d been, and where we were headed. Like many sites in Brittany the ‘attraction’ was fairly rough and ready, with ruined WWII gun emplacements and concrete pill-boxes scattered around the hill-top, no paths or shops or marketing … which is a plus, if you like a light touch to your tourism. The Crozon Peninsula curls around the northern coast of the bay, and again the drive forces us to wonder why the roads are empty. There are deserted, brochure-golden beaches under brochure-blue sea and sky in hidden coves within the spectacle of this coast; there are quite busy small towns, with warehouse-shopping peripheries; but there are no tourist coaches, there are no lorries, trucks, vans delivering just-in-time goods. Perhaps the French – or at least the Bretons - simply live differently. If you want to shop, you do it when the shop is open; if you want to dine out between 2.30 and 7pm – forget it. Take a picnic. I wouldn’t dream of driving this much in England with our two kids on board: it really is that different. Having said that, the Pointe de Pen-Hir, at the tip of the Crozon Peninsula, is teeming with visitors. The clifftop has a huge parking area, breathtaking views along the coast, a monument to the dead merchant seamen in the Battle of the Atlantic and some standing stones in a field at Lagatjar. The southern arm of the Baie de Douarnenez is less spectacular, slightly, and finishes with another great headland at Pointe du Raz. There’s a handy visitor centre, shops and restaurants, and an amazing statue of Our Lady of the Shipwrecked looking out to the Île-de-Sein. Nearby, we had half a day on coastal paths near Audierne, where old drystone walled smallholdings run down to the sea, with rocky beaches popular with local anglers. Pont-Croix is a small town on a hill, with narrow alleys and cobbled streets putting me in mind of Shaftesbury in Dorset. There are good-looking restaurants, especially one next to the beautiful church of Notre Dame de Roscudon, which opens at 7.02pm when the church clock chimes! There is an ancient river port – just a grassy area now – where we watched hundreds of salmon leaping. Another unmissable town in the area is Locronan, which is in a time warp, preserved virtually perfectly in 17th century style. You can’t drive in the town, there are no phoneboxes or streetlamps; Polanski filmed Tess of the d’Urbevilles here. Worth a look, but I found it too tourist-oriented … and children get bored easily in such places: craft-shoppes are no remedy for them. During our stay we tried to balance our desire to get out and about, to expose ourselves to the sun, the scenery and the Breton culture with the life on the campsite. We enjoyed the laid-back atmosphere and were happy with our choice of site; we’d like to go again, but perhaps try the Emerald coast in the north of Britanny. On the way home we stayed a night in St Malo, which is an ordinary enough port with a beautiful and lively walled city (Intra Muros), a fort/museum on a huge beach and much of interest nearby: at Rotheneuf, the kids loved the weird carvings, in the coastal rock, of grotesque heads and figures. Here again, the coastline is breathtaking. We even drove to Mont St Michel – but it was full of visitors on a hot day, so once around the car park was enough for us. Next time, though … We took a ‘scenic’ non-motorway route through Normandy, so only just got to the ferry in time. No fuss, club seats again, ready for the joys of Portsmouth and the A3, tenez la gauche … Eurocamp enquiries 01606 787787. www.eurocamp.co.uk Back to more articles |
| Posted: 01/04/2005 20:29:02 Last Updated: 25/04/2005 19:53:14 |
Chick Lit > Chick Lit Kids :: Eurocamp Douarnenez