Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Capturing the Sun - Cote d'Emeraude


















We've been playing hide and seek with the Bretagne sunshine. Since nobody loves a loser or a dark gloomy photo, we'll do our best to share just our wins. The north coast seems to have hundreds of beautiful cliffs jutting out into the water with amazing views of up to 270 degrees and lots of rocky places to climb down and around. They're all great if the sun deigns to shine, but they lose their sparkle when the sun hides behind thick clouds. Looks like this, but imagine turning your head to see more and more.






















There you see? All those clouds coming in on the next shot.... we took a walk and had a Limone, but the much worshiped sun wasn't coming back. So we headed inland to a Medieval town named Moncontour.















Moncontour has walls and a church from the 12c, with improvements along the way. The Germans, ergo the allies left it alone in WWII, so it stands in it's very ancient manner today. They are justly proud of the beautiful stained glass windows in the church.




This one is a detail of a much larger window in the church




Then we drove through beautiful French countryside to Chateau de la Hunaudaye, also built in the 12th c with later additions. It had closed at 6:30PM, but we could walk around it. Paul wants to return when they're open, as he loves climbing all over and through old fortresses.




Driving homeward we enjoyed the small villages and farms, the smell of new mown grass and hay and the sights of farm animals. Then we stopped for dinner and ate some of them.

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