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

A beautiful day for us today as we leave Erquy behind, not very far behind admittedly as we travelled a mere 8 miles further along the coast to Pleneuf-Val-Andre – stopping to take a quick snap of Plage de Erquy in the sunshine as we drove past…

Arriving in Pleneuf we went straight to the Aire and got ourselves a nice pitch before setting out to explore, stopping first at Plage de Val Andre and walking along the beach in a north easterly direction….

Pausing to enjoy the pretty little harbour….

We then made our way up the coastal path above the harbour and along the cliff tops, affording us spectacular views of the coastline along the way with our destination soon in sight….

Soon we were on our way down to the lovely long stretch of sand being Plage de Nantois and then Plage de la ville Berneuf….

Here we enjoyed a lovely long walk and of course a bit of downtime before making our way back through the villages to the van.

We are not done yet, so after a break and something to eat we set out again to a much busier beach and promenade – the French love to promenade especially on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Our mission now was to cross the beach at the southern end and access Plage de l’Anse du Pissot which is only accessible via the beach at low tide….

We were not disappointed and from the beach climbed up the steps to get a vantage point from which to look down on the beaches and village of Pleneuf-Val-Andre….

We also haven’t done one of these for a while – a room with a view through a derelict lookout up on the cliff tops…

We also took the opportunity for a sneak preview of the rugged coastline still to come…

Thoughts of the day:

• Suddenly at about 4pm on a sunny day these French coastal villages come to life with people appearing from wherever in their cars or on foot to enjoy a stroll along the beach or promenade
• The promenading French were all dressed in their Autumnul finery – spot the Brit in her sandals, T-shirt and cut off jeans!!

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 8
• Miles walked – 8.5
• Beaches – 5
• Aire – £9.26 (EHU)

Another grey day and a little chillier but good for walking – we have a fairly ambitious walk planned for today so set off in good time and were soon on the route of the Plages Sauvages – which I am taking to meaning ‘Wild Beaches’ rather than ‘savage ones!’….

Arriving at our first beach – Plage du Guen – I’ve noticed that the sand has changed to be almost pink though the Pink Granite coast is still a little further on….

We didn’t linger here – though we did come back later on when the tide was much lower and enjoyed a late afternoon stroll….

Our first main stop of the day was the stunning Plage de Lourtuais which we had to ourselves (in fact we didn’t see another soul until we were up by the main path to the Cap de Erquy) and was well worth the trip up and down the wooden steps….

From here we cut across the headland rather than continue on round as we still have a ways to go and we’re soon peering over the cliff edge at Plage du Port Blanc – definitely pink though not sand and down on what I can only assume was a former lifeboat station – though how you would get down there remains a mystery…

After this it was rather a long decline down into the centre of Erquy to the main beach….

Clearly a completely tidal beach, as we tried to walk along it it was way too squidgy and heavy going so we opted for the promenade instead and then up and over by means of a series of footpaths to our final destination beach – Plage de Caroual….

Here we sat for a while, at least I did – Tilly however has discovered the thrill of chacing sticks and doesn’t seem to care that we have a long walk back uphill to the van!

Thoughts of the day:

• Space – there is so much of it here in France – the roads are wide, the pavements are wide the building plots (not in the village centres) are wide
• There is building work going on or planned almost everywhere you go but I haven’t seen any ‘estates’ of new builds just the odd infill here and there and pleasingly some renovation works of some of the older buildings.
• I have been wondering why some people turn up quite late to these Aires and am now thinking that it is as a result of a lot of the more scenic car parks prohibit use after 9 or 10pm and so maybe the French motorhomes park up somewhere pretty to spend the day and then move on for the night as these aires tend to not be anywhere scenic or particularly attractive – who knows?

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 0
• Miles walked – 11.5
• Beaches – 6
• Aire – £7.51 (no electric)