Concarneau, Pont-Aven and Celtic Music

May 11, 2013 Concarneau, Pont-Aven and Celtic music

A really busy day today.  After an early breakfast we left for the small port town of Concarneau, a bit southeast of Quimper on the Breton Atlantic coast.  Here we visited Ville Close, a medieval fortress-islet:

 

A word about weather to explain the next picture.  Every day is a mixture of sunshine, clouds, misty (almost Irish) wetness in the air, and a few minutes of rain here and there which doesn’t last.  The changes occur every 10 or 15 minutes!  It’s truly astonishing.  The profusion of beautiful flowers and the fertility of the land must be at least in part to this combination.  There’s also a fair amount of wind.  So you can imagine the seeds of things flying around, grabbing a perch where they can, and growing because there is constant moisture.  Look at this, which is typical, on the walls of Concarneau:

 

Today the islet is a mixture of tourist shops and galleries.  We came across a performance of Breton music and it’s really easy to hear the Celtic origins.  Note the bowing of a triangular string instrument:

 

We then drove to some of the remote coast to see and feel the Atlantic air, and had lunch in a tiny town on the coast.  After lunch we drove to the absolutely gorgeous little town of Pont-Aven, a haven for artists including Gaugin.  Everywhere you look there is a beautiful view, such as:

 

 

This is the exact site where Gaugin painted one of his canvases, and there is a reproduction of that canvas on a post at the spot.  There is an abundance of art galleries to visit (and buy from) here.  The public WC is stone and hangs over the river.  I hope the plumbing is carried elsewhere!  Note the WC sign on the side of the building:

 

On the way back we toured the Manoir de Kerazan, a lovely old home where there just happened to be an antiques show happening:

 

Tomorrow the Chateau de Keriolet which Fodor’s calls a “fairy-tale neo-Gothic extravaganza” and museums.