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26th and 27th May - Brittany, France
We used the Catamaran from Bournemouth and stopped off to see some old friends in Guernsey before continuing to St. Malo in Brittany.
This is distinct from other French regions because of its Celtic heritage. About one-quarter of its (older) population are able to speak Brythonic, a Celtic language mutually unintelligible as Cornish and Welsh.
Our accommodation was a 1000+ year old house which had been so badly 'modernised' by the owner. The stairs had been left alone and were amazing. We had a long drive around Brittany and visited Roskoff which was exceptionally busy - no parking spaces at all. The bridge into the channel went nowhere! just stopped dead. At Brest we found the Pont de Recouvrance - a vertical-lift bridge. It opened in 1954 and was the largest vertical-lift bridge in Europe until relatively recent.
The local polce gave Sunatcha some problems for taking photos of a restricted military site! .... deleted all her pics.
Didn't go to Mont St. Michelle this time and wasn't too disappointed as I've been there before. St. Malo was busy but Sunatcha managed to get a little snack.


















































28th and 29th May - Through France
Travelling through the West Coast of France - La Rochelle, Bordeaux and Biarritz, we stopped over in
an old mill in Jonzac - dating from Napoleonic times.

























30th May -
San Sebastian, Spain
Basque country, Northern Spain. Our accommodation was superb again. San Sebastian is noted for the Pintxos (tapas), but we were so underwhelmed. Think about eating slimy leather on stale bread. The town was lovely though.

























31st May - Bilbao
We headed along the Camino Trail into Bilbao, passing through a little vilage which has the claim to fame of being the roots of Simon (Jose Antonio de la Santisima Trinidad Bolivar y Palacios) Bolivar - also known as El Libertador! - who led Venesuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador into independence from the dastardly Spanish Empire.
In fact, we dia Airbnb at a place called Camino Pagasarri which we discovered was in the middle of nowhere along a steep sided single track road leading into the mountains. We thought that we were so lost - see map!
Arriving at night didn't help ..... a huge caged dog looked like a bedraggled bear and had a very deep scary bark. But, daylight came and it wasn't so bad .... but there were 2 huge dogs with one roaming free!!! It was the fastest check-out ever.

