Iter Facere

Fougeres and the Vallee de Couesnon

The oldest belfry in Brittany does work, we learned last night, since it is one block away and keeps excellent time. It chimes on the quarter hour. I noticed it once or twice, Kathy also noticed it at different times. Sean and Jenny said "what bells" when we asked them. Youth.

Today we did our walk around Fougeres. It's charming. Nothing spectacular, but a interesting main street, rebuilt after a fire into a line of stolid stone homes in the 18th century. The main church is neat, especially when the organist began practicing Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor. The public gardens are really nice, overlooking the countryside and the chateau. Neat medieval quarter and then the chateau.





Unknown to us, this is the largest castle/fortification extant in Europe. Good walking tour and views.

Perfect day, clear, 72 degrees. A good day for lunch on the place du Theatre! Tante Suzette's gallettes were tasty (try the chevre miel and noix) and our server was delightful. She tried to understand our French, corrected us and was just generally happy. She was from Normandy, so she was happy to speak to us about cheese for and hour, she claimed. Great fun.

Off to the Circuit Touristique du Vallee du Couesnon. The goal was Bazouges-la-Perouse. Bazouges has a charter as a small town of charm (deservedly as we discovered). The route took us along the river through various cute places. The (demented) planner took pleasure in making each road smaller than the previous. It's amusing to look at the GPS map and see your location in the middle of a field because the road is too small to show up. It was great fun, trying to find the sign posts and wandering down tiny lanes. Beautiful views and buildings. As pointed out in the brochure, the skilled Breton granite craftsmen left behind distinctive double arched doors (check) and external staircases (not seen). Several interesting churches, one which had the tower off center because of the later addition of an aisle. Highly recommended. Bazouges was pretty, so the whole expedition succeeded.





Found the Roman bridge (picture) and headed back.

Once back in town, practiced my French on our server from earlier in they day. She understood my drink order! Huzzah. Baby steps.

Enjoyable dinner overlooking the chateau. Catastrophic failure of language while ordering. Hubris is always punished. Salved my wounds with Bordeaux and Calvados.

Location:Fougeres

posted by Jim @ 8:09 AM