Paris1972-Versailles2003

Here I am again on my road warrior ways in my beautiful Morbihan, This is heaven with so many and long coast and pretty towns alongside, There are so many do not think will see them all in my lifetime !! Anyway, I keep on trying and besides some familiar ones, I dwell into new ones such as Billiers. Let me give my take on Billiers ok ; another town passed by and finally came into city center. Hope you enjoy the post as I.

The town of Billiers is located in my beautiful department 56 of Morbihan in my lovely region of Bretagne. The main here are the wonderful beaches several to be exact. There are the Plage des Amoureux, Plage des Granges, Plage des Barges (where we were) or Baie des Prêtres: family or intimate, small or large, in the sun or a little sheltered, there is certainly the beach you need in Billiers ! A great combination of land and sea lol !!

The Plage des Barges beach will be love by shore fishing enthusiasts will find some rocks on the sides. Large free car park and restaurant near the beach, 200 meters and facing south offers you a moment of relaxation in front of the estuary of Vilaine. Seems like a very relax little beach to unwind for a day.From this beach you can see the Domaine de Rochevilaine which is now a luxe lodging.

The Church of Saint Maxent dates back to the 17C for the oldest part, the Choir in particular. It was extensively altered in the 19C and renovated in 1995. The 17C church had only one nave without aisles and a small bell tower. In 1837, this is how major works were undertaken: 2 aisles were built with 4 pillars on each side and 4 transverse bays with 8 vaults, 1 door on either side and 4 semicircular windows, 1 porch was added · the frame redone · a square tower 15 meters high, surmounted by a 6-meter lighthouse lantern, replaced the small bell tower. The chancel and the apse were kept as they were, with the 4 current large windows. In 1995, major renovation work was undertaken.

Other things to see here are

The Notre-Dame de Prières Abbey was founded in 1252 by Jean Ier dit “le Roux”, Duke of Brittany, to be forgiven for having destroyed the small monastery of Saint-Pabu, in the peninsula of Rhuys, during of the extension of a park around the Suscinio castle (see post). It was offered to the Cistercian monks to pray night and day for their founder and for the souls of sailors who would be shipwrecked on this perilous coast, hence its name of Prayers. This monastery was for 500 years, one of the best known in Brittany. The French revolution drove out the monks in 1792. The abbey was transformed into barracks, the church served as a fodder store and stable. the lead which covered the dome was removed to make slabs. The chapel contains, among other things, the tombstones of John I (died 1285) and Isabella of Castile, wife of John III. The stones from the abbey were used to build the abutments of the La Roche Bernard bridge around 1839. The Dolmen de Crapaud or the Dolmen of Les Granges, nicknamed “the crapaud or toad” because of its resemblance to this amphibian. The cairn des Grayes is located about fifty meters from the cliff overlooking the north coast of the Vilaine estuary, not far from the pointe de Pen Lan, and the Toad Dolmen, is located nearby. The phare de Pen Lan lighthouse. The pointe de Pen Lan has a lighthouse built in 1837. 18 meters high, it rises 26 meters above the sea, you have to climb 73 steps to reach the lighthouse top.

I must add to this post a bit on the excellent Domaine de Rochevilaine, a lodging worth the stay me think and already looking forward to it before year’s end. On a rocky peninsula of more than one hectare, including 300 meters of private seafront. A key location on the ancient tin route, Rochevilaine is a place where the Phoenicians would have come to buy and transport the tin needed for the copper foundries producing bronze, a universal material of the time. They were probably the first guests. in the 13C, Jean 1er Duke of Brittany founded the abbey of Prières in Pen Lan. Rochevilaine retains from this period a lookout post which is part of the abbey property; this is attached to a circular turret used to store powders and today wine! Even more recently, various blocks of the Atlantic Wall have been installed in this strategic location: platforms for guns, underground shelters…Rochevilaine keeps the memory of these fortifications which pepper its basements. At the end of the WWII, all that remained was a memory materialized by abandoned walls. in 1956 an inn which will appear in the Michelin Guide from 1958. From 1997, the Domaine de Rochevilaine was the first French Spa. The concept of “marine spa” was born! In 2004, this jewel of the Breton hotel industry brilliantly returned to the prestigious international association Relais & Châteaux. It must be said here that it is one of the oldest members of the whole Brittany region since it appeared in 1961 in the Relais de Campagne guide, the ancestor of the international group. webpage: http://domainerochevilaine.com/fr/

The town of Billiers on the Church St Maxent : https://www.billiers.fr/patrimoine?pgid=kq8ft6fd-9af05d18-4632-45c0-b21a-295cce807774

The local Damgan-La Roche Bernard tourist office on Billiers: https://www.damgan-larochebernard-tourisme.com/lieux-incontournables/billiers-et-la-pointe-de-pen-lan/

There you go folks, another dandy road warrior ride in my beautiful Morbihan ! It really is beautiful. I have finally entered the town of Billiers, and worth the detour and back visit me think.  For now enjoy my latest post on Billiers; and hope you enjoy the post as I.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!

Here I am again on my road warrior ways in my beautiful Morbihan, This is heaven with so many and long coast and pretty towns alongside, There are so many do not think will see them all in my lifetime !! Anyway, I keep on trying and besides some familiar ones, I dwell into new ones such as Arzal. Let me give my take on my new spot in the world, Arzal, and hope you enjoy the post as I.

I must say,new one because I was able finally to go into city center because passed by it several times. The town of Arzal is located in my beautiful department 56 of Morbihan in the lovely region of Bretagne.

The Barrage d’Arzal or dam is on the Vilaine estuary, between the towns of Arzal and Camoël.It was commissioned in 1970,and was mainly intended to regulate the flow of the Vilaine river and to supply drinking water to the Guérande peninsula during the tourist season. It is one of the few estuarine dams in the world !! About 500 meters long, the dam consists of a dike on the Camoël side and five gates. It has a lock that allows navigation between the river and the ocean. A marina and a drinking water treatment plant have also been developed nearby.

In 1961, the Vilaine Development Institution (IAV) was created by the departments of Morbihan,(56) Ille-et-Vilaine (35) and Loire-Atlantique (44) to carry out the necessary structural developments. The development of the body of water has led to the development of pleasure boating in the Vilaine river , with the creation of several ports, in Arzal-Camoël, La Roche-Bernard and Foleux. The creation of the body of water allowed the construction of a drinking water plant some two km upstream, in the town of Férel. The 17 million cubic meters treated per year supply 70% of the Guérande peninsula where tourism has developed enormously and 25% of Morbihan, the rest being destined for the south-east of Ille-et-Vilaine, especially the town of Redon.

Other things to see here are :

The marina, still afloat, thanks to the dam. The Chapel of Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Lantierne. The Château de Broël, overlooking the Vilaine river . Largely 17C, it retains parts of the 14C and has a domestic chapel. The lordship had high, medium and low justice which was exercised at the truce of Lantiern. Property of the Bois de la Motte until the French revolution when the castle was sold as national property, then of the Lorois in 1799 who passed it on to the Pluyettes in 1866, to whose descendants it still belongs.

The town of Arzal on the barrage/dam : https://www.arzal.bzh/decouverte/histoire-patrimoine/le-barrage-darzal/

The La Vilaine site on the barrage d’Arzal: https://www.lavilaine.com/index.php/fr/

The Eaux et Vilaine site on the barrage d’Arzal: https://www.eaux-et-vilaine.bzh/index.php/accueil/barrage

There you go folks, another dandy road warrior ride in my beautiful Morbihan ! It really is beautiful. A new spot in my world map ,Arzal. For now enjoy my latest post ,and we will be back !

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!

Here I am again on my road warrior ways in my beautiful Morbihan, This is heaven with so many and long coast and pretty towns alongside, There are so many do not think will see them all in my lifetime !! Anyway, I keep on trying and besides some familiar ones. I dwell into new ones visited but this one is a repeat visit to Pénestin. I have written a bit on Pénestin before in my blog, this time was an expanded visit. Let me give my take on it ok ,and hope you enjoy the post as I.

The town of Pénestin is located in my beautiful department 56 of Morbihan, in the my lovely region of Bretagne. It is part of the country of Guérande, one of the traditional countries of Brittany. With its 25 km of coastline, Pénestin is the southernmost town in Morbihan. It is a former truce of the parish of Assérac, the parish of Pénestin was created in 1767, and included in the castellany of Assérac, and formerly attached to the seneschalsy of Guérande until the French revolution, the town was created in 1790. The town was known since antiquity for its tin deposits. This is also where it gets its name: “Pénestin” being the contraction of “Pen Sten” which in Breton means “the tip of tin”. But in 1850, two miners from Piriac-sur-Mer boasted of having discovered gold. Two years later, the City/town hall granted a concession to exploit the sands of the beach.

The plage de la Mine d’Or beach is 2 km long, a real paradise for paragliders. It is also the only take-off site in Morbihan. Thrill seekers take advantage of favorable winds here and soar from the top of the cliffs that reach up to 10 meters high. The The Mine d’Or site is unique in France for its ecological interest. Its cliff bears witness to the passage of an ancient river, which flowed through a valley that has now disappeared. A border of this paleovalley is visible to the north of the cliff. The cliff which overhangs it constitutes a geological site of international interest, for its fossil river estuary.

The plage de la Mine d’Or beach therefore actually takes its name from gold mining between the end of the 19C and the beginning of the 20C. The gold was not in a mine, but in the open air, in the sand in the form of flakes. However, the washing of tons of sands only allowed to extract a small quantity of gold, and this was stopped at the start of the Great War (WWI). The cliffs of the Mine d’Or beach to the west of the town of Pénestin, 10 to 15 meters high and whose verticality is sometimes broken by scree, are characterized by their copper colour. They offer over nearly 1,800 meters a roughly N-S oriented section of a sedimentary system, called “Pénestin Formation”, This is wonderful and the beach superbe ! We love it !!

The Saint-Gildas Church (19C): built and then consecrated in 1880, this church, built in the neo-Gothic style, replaces an older church that was in the current cemetery. the building has a few statues, one of which represents Saint Gildas, the patron saint of the town. The capitals located on the pillars of the nave represent flower motifs and the stained glass windows represent the life of Christ or that of Saint Gildas. Each arm of the transept contains a 19C wooden altar. The bottom of the chancel wall is paneled. Below my twins going in !!!

Other things to see here are (and see my other post):

The Tréhiguier phare or lighthouse: Built in 1881 and commissioned the following year, the Tréhiguier lighthouse was an alignment lighthouse which served, together with the Scal lighthouse, to indicate the path to be followed for navigators through the Vilaine river. It ceased to operate in 1989, due to the construction of the Arzal dam, upstream of the river, which accentuated the siltation of the estuary and moved the maritime channel. Since 1995, it has housed the Maison de la Mytiliculture, a museum on the culture of bouchot mussels. And of course, the bouchot mussel of Pénestin was registered on October 14, 2020 in the Intangible Cultural Heritage of France. The meat rate is much higher than other mussels. In Pénestin, in summer, they reach a meat rate of 35%, that is to say that out of 1 kg of mussels, there are 350 grams of flesh. For comparison, in other regions, this rate is between 25 and 28%.And they are superbe, delicious we seek them out !

The town of Pénestin on the mine d’or :https://www.mairie-penestin.com/patrimoine_geologique_,la_mine_or-4873.html

The fav site plages tv on the mine d’or beach : https://en.plages.tv/detail/mine-d-or-beach-penestin-56760

The local La Boule-Guérande tourist office on Pénestin : https://www.labaule-guerande.com/penestin-camoel-ferel.html

The Bretagne region tourist board on Penestin: https://www.brittanytourism.com/destinations/the-10-destinations/brittany-loire-ocean/penestin/

There you go folks, another dandy road warrior ride in my beautiful Morbihan ! It really is beautiful, Once again by Pénestin and still think it merits more time, For now enjoy my latest post on it and we will be back !

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!