Saint-Thégonnec to Le Fret

June 14, 2019

From the Rough Guide to Brittany & Normandy:

“The region that’s bounded by the valleys of the Elorn and the Penzé rivers, a few kilometres west of Morlaix, is remarkable for the wealth and distinction of its church architecture. Thanks to intense inter-village rivalry during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when each parish competed to outdo the next in the complexity and ornamentation of its village church, this small area holds the most famous examples of what are known as parish closes.

"It’s no coincidence that most such Breton churches date from the two centuries to either side of the union with France in 1532 – Brittany’s wealthiest period."

Conveniently for cyclists, the most famous examples, St-Thégonnec, Guimiliau, and Lampaul-Guimiliau, are comfortably close together.

I started the morning slowly, because the church at St-Thégonnec didn't open until 9. The ossuary is also open, but I didn't find it very impressive. The church, on the other hand... My photos can't do it justice.

The church at St-Thégonnec. The gateway in the foreground is a war memorial. The centre pillar, both the side shown and the opposite, are covered with names of the dead from St-Thégonnec and its surroundings 1914-1918. The side columns have the names of the dead from WWII and the Indochina and Algerian wars. St-Thégonnec must have been a lot bigger before the Great War.

I always wondered what these things were; I don't remember them from any of the Catholic Churches I attended as a child.

Unprocessed version of photo above; to be removed when comment transferred.

They are lecterns, if that's the word. All of the intricate decoration on this one has to do with reading.

Just one of the incredible altarpieces. Why does a church need more than one, I wonder?

And a detail of those faces at the bottom. Makes me wonder what the model looked like!

This fellow has his own box. I wonder why the hinged doors?

I just liked this one. I'll have to research St Christopher. [Update: from Wikipedia: "His most famous legend tells that he carried a child, who was unknown to him, across a river before the child revealed himself as Christ. Therefore, he is the patron saint of travellers, and small images of him are often worn around the neck, on a bracelet, carried in a pocket, or placed in vehicles by Christians."

In the ossuary. No bones, just this and souvenirs for sale. The other churches had pieces like this in the church proper but I guess there wasn't room in St-Thégonnec's church. It did have four confessionals and those take up a lot of room. I can't imagine all four in use at once.

Guimiliau wasn't far and it was a little different.

Detail from the calvary, Guimiliau. The soldiers' helmets aren't very Roman!

Each church had a display like this in the entry; six statues on each side (except St-Thégonnec where most of the niches were empty). The apostles, perhaps?

The baptismal font had a carved canopy in each church...

Detail of column carving, baptismal font. Note the bird (middle of photo) and the snail (on the grapes above).

This distinctly out-of-plumb column worries me, but it's probably been that way for centuries.

A winged dragon! And it still has its wings!

Lampaul-Guimiliau was its own variation on the theme.

Apostles (?) in the entry, Lampaul-Guimiliau.

The canopy over the baptismal font here is similar, but painted and gilded.

Just to give you an idea of the interior...

There were also four tapestries in glass cases. I can't imagine the work that went into each one. This is just a small detail.

Having seen the sights, I continued on my planned route. The first village large enough to have a good chance of a restaurant was La Roche-Maurice. No luck there, so I continued on my route--up a big hill to join the highway on the south side of the Élorn. Landerneau wasn't too far, and was my originally-planned destination for yesterday. It had several restaurants, with a few on a bridge across the Élorn. I chose one of those, a brasserie called Le Goeland and was not disappointed.

A big hill to escape the river valley, of course, and now I was heading south, avoiding Brest. At Le Faou, all the major and minor roads seem to meet, and I joined D791.

D971, the "Route de Térénez", is red on the Michelin map, with green highlighting. Unfortunately for cyclists approaching the Crozon peninsula from the north side, there isn't a reasonable alternative. So I got on with it. While I was on this road, I saw three other cyclists riding in the opposite direction, though none had panniers.

The Pont de Térénez across the Aulne is quite new, opened in 2011. It has a nice wide cycle/pedestrian path. Too bad there isn't a path or shoulder on the highway on either end!

Pont de Térénez with its great cycle path.

I departed D791 as soon as possible after the bridge and soon came to Argol. I'd considered Argol as a potential stopping place, but it had started to rain as I approached and I sought shelter under the awning of a little bar/épicerie. At least it hadn't been raining while I was on the busy road! I asked the proprietor whether there was a hotel here, but no. How far to Crozon? 13 km, he said. Even allowing for the squiggly route, I could easily do that, so used Booking to find a hotel. I didn't want to camp in the rain and I still had wet laundry from last night.

Of course, by the time I got to Crozon, the rain has stopped and the sun was out. It was also after 7 so even with the sun, laundry wouldn't have time to dry, I consoled myself, having committed to an 80 € room, the cheapest available.

I made the mistake of asking Garmin to navigate me there. It started well enough, along actual roads and even a stretch on a highway. I should have used Google Maps, though, because Garmin wanted desperately that I ride a muddy track. I declined, and it rerouted me along one that looked okay. It wasn't. As soon as I made it back to asphalt, I ignored Garmin and followed the directions on my phone.

You might ask why I don't just tell Garmin "no unpaved roads". Unfortunately, there is no way to say "no muddy or rough farm tracks, but smooth packed gravel voies vertes are okay".

I finally made it to Hostellerie de la Mer in Le Flet (another Logis) and crashed after my room picnic.

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Today's ride: 97 km (60 miles)
Total: 2,688 km (1,669 miles)

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