To Plymouth and back, despite the Bonnets Rouges.

    Well, it`s all worked out in the end, I did succeed in travelling to Roscoff, crossing the channel with the dogs, spending a week with Kim and Alyson at Al`s house in Plymstock, and finally in bringing Kim back with me to France! Phew, what a relief after the previous debacle, described in my blog entries last but two. If you haven`t read them do now,  it`s an adventure story to make your toes curl up...
   After missing the ferry last time, due to the blockade of the Bretons, protesting at the new Ecotax on lorries, I decided to leave a day early and to avoid the direct route, which is easily blocked. I decided to go cross-country via Bressuire, avoiding Niort altogether, together with the Motorway, and go from Nantes to Vannes, where I had booked a Formule 1 hotel to stay the night. The next day, I would go cross-country from Vannes to Morlaix and Roscoff, the ferry terminal. The scheme, though a little long worked out well, with just a slight worry around Carhaix, where the Bonnets were holding a rally. However, the action was in the town, which my (or rather the Satnav`s ) route avoided, though I did see a Police presence and a hugh pile of brushwood heaped on the roundabout outside the town to be set alight later.

   One advantage of cross-country travel is that you see far more of the countryside and villages, lets face it, all motorways look alike you could be on the M5 near Bristol or the A10 near Melle and if you forgot which you`ld never know the difference... What do you think, for example of this enormous shrine erected alongside the road in a small village?  I HAD to stop and get a pic. It was in the form of a sort of bridge with steps leading up to a huge stained-glass window, but no stream ran beneath it.... very strange.

  Or this typical Breton cottage beside the road further on.


 But what I really wanted to see was Brittany Ferries ship Bretagne waiting at the dock at Roscoff to carry me, the dogs and the faithful Berlingo across the sea to Plymouth.

   Bye for now, I`ll tell you later about my day in Roscoff.