And i continue my road warrior tour of the north of Brittany or the Côtes d’Armor dept 22 in my lovely Bretagne and belle France. Here we follow the wonderful amazing road D788 to visit two new towns in our world map. Pleumeur-Bodou and Trébeurden! Let me tell you a bit on them ok.
In sequence of driving let me tell you first of Pleumeur-Bodou!
Pleumeur-Bodou has a common border with Lannion, Trébeurden, Trégastel, Perros-Guirec (see posts on all of them) and Saint-Quay-Perros. At the south-eastern end of the town, there is also a place called Pont-ar-Pevar-Person (the Pont-des-Quatre-Recteurs), where Pleumeur-Bodou, Lannion, Perros-Guirec and Saint- Quay-Perros join at a single point!.
The Pleumeur coastline stretches for 17 kms. The main sites are Île-Grande, Keryvon Bay and the Landrellec peninsula. The town has several beaches, including those of Pors-Gelen, Toul-Gwenn, Keryvon and Landrellec. Many islets dot the coast. The best known are Aganton Island, Losket Island, Erc’h Island, Morvil Island and especially Avalon Island , where, according to legend, King Arthur would be dormant (the island of Aval is private property, its visit is therefore prohibited).
In the 6C, a monk from the British Isles (UK today), named Bodo or Podo settled in Armorica (Bretagne today). He founded a parish on a very vast territory since it extended over the current towns of Pleumeur-Bodou, Trébeurden, Trégastel, Perros-Guirec, Saint-Quay-Perros, and the west of Lannion (Servel). At the same time, another monk, Uzec, founded a small monastery on a very limited territory ranging from the chapel to the menhir of the same name, but on which he had a great influence. Other monks later settled on Île Aganton and Île d’Aval. The Saint-Marc Church on Île-Grande: there used to be the Saint-Sauveur Chapel, but it was destroyed by lightning. The inhabitants of the island then undertook to build a church in 1909. The Île-Grande church will take the name of Saint-Marc. In the meantime, a bridge had been built in 1894 to connect the island to the mainland, and avoid having to cross the beach and the Kervoallan marshes on foot.
Saint-Pierre Church in the village: a church dating from the beginning of the 18th century was demolished when it became too small to accommodate all the parishioners. In 1844, one rebuilt at the same place. The first mass in the new church was celebrated only seven months after the start of the works.
The Château de Kerduel, 16C, exterior visitable from Easter to September The covered alley of Île-Grande. Granite from the Île-Grande quarries was used in particular to pave Boulevard Haussmann in Paris! The famous cobblestones of the Paris-Roubaix cycle race also come from these quarries, as do the stones constituting the Morlaix viaduct. Finally, Île-Grandais granite can be found in certain New York buildings. Although the town is located in the heart of the Pink Granite Coast, the island’s granite is gray. Every year in August, a big antiques fair takes place in Pleumeur-Bodou for 3 days. It is organized at the Château de Kerduel. Its fame goes beyond the borders of Brittany.
Some webpages to help you plan your trip to Pleumeur-Bodou and worth the detour are
The town of Pleumeur-Bodou: Town of Pleumeur-Bodou
The town of Pleumeur-Bodou on the ïle Grande: Town of Pleumeur Bodou on the Big Island
And lets continue to Trébeurden shall we!
Trébeurden is a Breton seaside resort on the Channel, at the entrance to the bay of Lannion, classified as a tourist resort on June 13, 1921. Its main assets are its protected natural sites, its beaches, two of which benefit from an exposure south and south-west rare in North Brittany, its marina with a floating dock, its municipal port and its other anchorages.
The town of Trébeurden is 45 km from Guingamp, 76 km from Saint-Brieuc, 180 km from Rennes, 524 km from Paris, 47 km from Morlaix and 103 km from Brest. The granite massif of Ploumanac’h stretches over 12 km from Trébeurden to Perros-Guirec and is one of the most beautiful geological sites in France! Indeed I agree!
A geological curiosity: in 1978, Odile Guérin geomorphologist, presented to the Academy of Sciences the results of her study on a geological curiosity encountered on the foreshore of Île Molène in Trébeurden. It is an ellipsoid of revolution in its pot (3 tons, 1.40 meters in length, 1.30 meters in width and 1 meter in depth). The Academy authenticates it, as the biggest pebble in the world!!. In the middle of the promenade of Tresmeur, a compass rose includes, among other things, a sundial of reverse analemmatic horizontal type of circular shape. The circumference of the rose has 24 different stones, all from Trébeurden, and whose age ranges from 2 billion to 100 million years! At Trébeurden, on the occasion of equinox tides, the maximum tidal range is around 9.40 meters with a coefficient of 115!!. The tidal range corresponds to the difference in water height measured between the levels of a consecutive high tide and low tide. In comparison, the maximum tidal range of some ports in northern Brittany (on the same date): Saint-Malo 12.85 m, Erquy 12.25 m, Saint-Quay-Portrieux 11.85 m, Perros-Guirec 9.75 m , and Roscoff 9.15 m.
The D788 road (which we took) connects Trébeurden to the seaside resorts of the pink granite coast: Trégastel and Perros-Guirec. The D788 is commonly known as the Corniche road. Originally built from Perros-Guirec to Trégastel from 1911 to 1918, it was extended to Trébeurden from 1927 to 1933. It was around 1960, at the initiative of the town, that the section from Place Crec’h Héry to the beach of Pors-Mabo (the D6D road) named route de la Corniche de Pors-Mabo was built. A large part of the 20 km course of the Côte de granit rose takes place on the route of the D788. The D6 links Trébeurden to the town of Pleumeur-Bodou. To the north, the D21 connects Penvern to Île-Grande.
The region experienced a wave of Breton migrations, from the 3C to the 8C. Many Bretons from Great Britain land on the coasts, and introduce Christianity there. Their presence causes a significant impact in the region: the names of Trébeurden and Milliau originate from Preden and Meilaw, names of two Welsh monks. With the French revolution, requisitions and looting are frequent and many properties belonging to the lordships are sold. The tumultuous and sometimes tragic history of the priests of Trégor who attended the parish of Trébeurden during the revolution is reconstructed and synthesized by the biographical notes on each of the priests of the region available in the diocesan archives. Ernest Renan made several stays with his uncle Joseph Morand, lawyer in Lannion, at the manor of Trovern. In 1886, he brought back to the young Maurice Barrès this memory of 1830: “I can still see our stone bench sheltered from the breeze, and the rushing waves. I was reading Telemachus… And an old woman ran up saying: “Ar revolution so e Paris! The revolution is in Paris! “. The Côtes-d’Armor departmental archives keep the program of the regattas of Trébeurden from 1895 to 1913 The regattas will resume, in more or less identical form, after the Great War or WWI.
At the Roches Blanches, the Pointe de Bihit, the ensemble formed by the islands and islets of the coast between Trébeurden and Île-Grande, such as Le Castel, a rocky peninsula between the port and the beach of Tresmeur. Kastell means “Castle” in Breton, but in this case, this word designates a rocky promontory overlooking the sea. On the path that goes around it, it is possible to see the “Père Trébeurden“, a rock in the form of of a face profile. The Île Molène has been the property of the Conservatoire du littoral since 1991. It is 300 meters long by 100 meters wide and is located 3 kms from the coast. There is nice Ïle Milliau island . The pointe de Bihit ,from this point, you can see the bay of Lannion, Locquirec and in good weather, the north coast of Finistère to Roscoff and the Ïle de Batz island. The Quellen marsh is located behind the dunes of Goaz-Trez. It serves as a refuge for many water birds. Trébeurden has several places discovered at low tide where you can practice shore fishing for crustaceans and molluscs: mussels, cockles, periwinkles, clams, clams, etc. This fishing is free but highly regulated (quantities collected, minimum size of catches, etc.). Main fishing areas are Goas Treiz, and Toëno. Sea baths were reported from 1880 in Trozoul and Tresmeur. Until the 1890s, Trébeurden was frequented mainly by folks from Lannion, particularly at the end of the week. The houses built as a holiday resort are built by local building owners, in a traditional vernacular style . It was around 1895 that the first villas were built, in a new style that could be described as seaside, by sponsors of more distant origins in the department, or even by Parisians. The first hotel on the seafront was built in Trozoul around 1894-1895.
By Rue Pors-Termen, statue of Aristide Briand b. 1932. He spends his summers in Trébeurden with his partner Lucie, Amélie Uro, known as Mme Jourdan. The Church of the Holy Trinity; and Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours in Penvern. Also,Maurice Denis, famous resident of Perros-Guirec, represented The Bathers in Trébeurden in 1919. Henri Morisset , painted a Beach in Trébeurden, presented at the Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts in 1922. François Mitterrand , former French President was invited by a friend in October 1971,when still not president to spend a few days in his villa overlooking the Pointe de Bihit. There he wrote some of the most beautiful pages of La Paille et le grain, in which he described at length the landscape he had before his eyes. Ernest Renan , writer and philosopher as a child, spent many stays with his aunt, Madame Morand, at the manor of Trovern. He recalls this in his letters from the seminary. Kenneth White , writer, poet. Foreign Medici Prize 1983, Brittany Prize 2006. The extravagant Scotsman, as he may have presented himself, has lived in Trébeurden for more than twenty years. In The House of Tides, he observes, not without humor, like an entomologist, the landscapes, the fauna, the flora and the local population.
And some webpages that will help you enjoy Trébeurden are
The town of Trébeurden on its heritage: Town of Trebeurden on its heritage
The tourist office of Trébeurden on its heritage: Town of Trebeurden on its heritage
And there you go folks a wonderful road ride along beautiful scenery of my beautiful Bretagne and the gorgeous Côte de Granite Rose in the Côtes d’Armor dept 22! Pleumeur-Bodou and Trébeurden are woth the detour.
And remember , happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!
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