A mostly sunny day for us today, a bit of a coastal breeze – ideal walking weather. We started off today with a bit of a drive down to and around St Brieuc a sizeable town / city – we even went him a dual carriageway for the first time in quite a while! Our first destination was on the outskirts of St Brieuc in the small village of St Laurent de la Mer and Plage les Nouelles – not so much a sandy beach but more of a shell beach with low tide sand/mud flats and as our parking spot was less than ideal we didn’t linger here….

Next stop was Plage des Rosaires – a long stretch of course sand sprinkled with shells of every description where we enjoyed a nice crunchy walk…

A bit further up the road at Binic we visited Plage des Godalins, a much nicer long stretch of firm sand for us to walk along….

A short hop up the coast from there took us to our Aire for the night at Plage du Moulin….

Once settled in we took a walk along the coastal path to the neighbouring seaside village of St Quay-Portrieux visiting its handful of beaches along the way, starting with Plage du Portrieux…

Plage de la Comptesse….

Plage du Chatelet….

The infinity pool….

Plage du Casino…

And finally Plage de la Greve Noire….

A lovely circular walk on a lovely sunny afternoon.

Thoughts of the day:

• Sadly as we wander through these seaside towns we note that there are a lot of closed up businesses and not just for the season – though the tourist season here is much shorter than in the UK which surely must make it even harder for them to survive.
• It is good to see that the cyclist and walkers are very well catered for in the network of cycle / footpaths that we are using.

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 27
• Miles walked – 8
• Beaches – 9
• Aire – £9.16 no ehu

A little cooler, breezier and cloudier today but ideal for driving and walking – so we did. After a trip stock up on groceries we rejoined the coast at the little village of Cotentin and ambled down to the beach….

A mostly rocky beach but with enough sand to make it possible to navigate without having to scramble over the jagged and oyster encrusted rocks and as it was deserted an ideal place for Tilly to have a runabout and explore.

Next up was the huge expanse of sand leading out onto mudflats of Plage de Beliard….

After taking a walk along the coastal path for a bit and checking out the Chapelle Saint Maurice (locked) we wandered down onto the beach to enjoy the sunshine….

From here it was a relatively short hop to our overnight stop a free Aire at Plage de Lermot – there are no marked pitches and all are sloping but it does at least have a view….

Once settled we took a walk along the coastal path firstly above Plage de Lermot….

And eventually down onto Plage Bon Abri ….

And along the beach to Plage de la Granville….

The beaches of Bon Abri and Granville were strewn with mussel shells which I guess had become detached from their rocks and washed in with the tide – not the most attractive beaches but a nice walk nonetheless.

Thoughts of the day:

• What makes a good beach? Well the all look better in the sunshine but I guess for me it is about the sand, the backdrop, the clarity and colour of the sea and a feature of some sort that makes the beach stand out from the crowd.
• I am getting the hang of the road signs – the key being to recognise the bit that you want and don’t bother trying to read the rest!

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 17
• Miles walked – 7
• Beaches – 5
• Food – £21.30