My Travel Book - Hitting the Road in Penthièvre - Discovering Brittany

From Les Tertres (Saint-Mathurin) to Lamballe

When it gets too lonely at Les Tertres and despite all my good resolutions like studying Arabic or working on my website, I hit the road...

It does not mean I go very far. There are so many places around Les Tertres I’ve been to without really taking the time to discover them.

Our interests are more sea-oriented when Popeye is around. I love the countryside. Brittany is a beautiful place to travel around.

Today, I was feeling really down. Lots of clouds in the sky. Good books to read. I couldn’t get myself to get dressed until quite late in the afternoon. Yes, I was feeling depressed.

Then on the spur of the moment, after a long shower, I jumped into my photographer disguise... Jeans, sturdy shoes and my lumberjack shirt (which I discovered this summer hidden in a trunk in the attic).

And off I went.

First stop: Lamballe.

I’ve been there thousands of times because the train station is there but I had never roamed its medieval streets. There are quite a few medieval cities in Brittany, a lot of churches and castles. So why care about Lamballe, the ‘station city’.

When you keep to the streets on your way to the station, Lamballe is very ugly. Not modern. Unfriendly. A very small provincial town. And yet...

It only took a short walk through the center of the city in very narrow and winding streets and I totally fell in love with Lamballe.

I walked up to the collegiate church, once the chapel of the castle of the Dukes of Penthièvre. It’s a magnificent Gothic building.

From it, you go down a small street and there it is. The medieval heart of Lamballe, well hidden from the main streets.

The weather was lovely by then with a crisp fall air. Lovely.

I walked around. Delightful, it was so delightful. So quiet too. Funny it took me so many years to get there.

I fell in love with the chimney-tree

The executioner's house (1609) - a pun about the name of the owner. Now a museum.

Now a lovely store

Detail

It's fun to imagine what it's like inside!

She obviously survived the French Revolution.

Another funny flowerpot

And now a beautiful view of the steeple of Saint-Martin, built in 1083, at the heart of the medieval city.

People still live in those houses. All of them are beautifully maintained. Some of them are 1000 years old. Most of them are from 800 to 500 years old.
Amazing Brittany...


Well, that's all for tonight. (To be continued)




*Good luck, and Good night*