A l’aise Breizh: Vannes (Part VIII)

Exceptionally, we did not spend the first day in the town, but went for a hike from the port of Vannes (I don’t remember why we made this decision — maybe the weather forecast for that day looked more promising). Actually we had planned a lot longer hike (~18K) that would have required a short boat ride. However, it being off-season, the boat service did not operate. So, instead of doing a loop, we did an aller-retour hike by the sea. Both when we started and when we finished we saw a bunch of school children rowing in the port, apparently in their PE class. Some kids were already quite skillful in handling their boat. We never got a chance to row in our PE classes; we got to swim though (those who did know how to swim).

The next day we walked downtown and soon found ourselves in a huge market area that practically consumed the whole town center. First we found clothing stalls, and then street after street vendors of fruit and vegetables, cheeses and sausages, meat, fish, bread, candies, tea, etc. There were also two market halls: Halles des Poissons for fish and seafood and Halles des Lices for seasonal, local produce, meat, and fish. After the market we toured around the still existing fortification that enclosed the town center. It was a beautiful day!

Then it was the time to return to South. On our drive back to Rennes to catch our flight we visited one more site of standing stones, Megaliths and Moors of Saint-Just. I have to admit it was a bit of a disappointment; having seen the pictures and the ‘mega’ existing in its name, we were expecting much more impressive stones. However, it was mentioned somewhere that parts of the site were destroyed in attempts to grow buckwheat in the area. We were extremely lucky with the weather, though: even if it was grey and cloudy overall, we saw some glimpses of sun, but as soon as we were back to our car, it started pouring and it rained for the rest of our time in Bretagne.