Page 127 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Brittany

MORLAIX  125

in 1925. The town also has an
Caplan & Co elegant fountain decorated
This café and bookshop, which opened in with lead statues.
1933, is one of the most atmospheric
places in Finistère Nord. It is housed in a E Musée Rural du Trégor
former grocer’s shop overlooking the Le Prajou, Guimaec, 13 km (8 miles)
beach at Poul-Rodou, on the coast road northeast of Morlaix. Tel (02) 98 67 64
between Locquirec and Guimaëc. Outside, 77. Open Jul-Aug: daily; Sep–Jun:
there is a terrace with tables. Inside, where (timings vary, phone ahead). &
the décor replicates a school classroom, is The museum is housed in a
an excellent selection of books by an Caplan & Co, one of the barn on the road running
international range of authors. region’s most famous cafés between the small town of
Guimaec and the wild coast
around Beg an Fry. It contains
Environs (reached via the D46A2) and almost 2,500 traditional tools
The Trégor Finistérien, the Primel-Trégastel (via the D46). and implements of the Trégor,
small region of heath and Walkers will enjoy the including flails, gorse-crushing
woodland between Morlaix and coast path that runs round the hammers, combs for carding
Locquirec, is worth exploring, Pointe du Diben. The head land linen and cream separators.
not least for its archaeological bristles with rocks in strange
sites and beautiful coastal zoomorphic shapes, such as
landscapes. From Morlaix, take those of a dromedary and a
the D76 that runs along the sphinx. The Pointe de Trégastel
estuary to Dourduff-en-Mer. offers a wide panorama of the
English Channel, the Île de Batz
 Cairn de Barnenez and the Île Grande.
Presqu’île de Barnenez, Plouézoc’h.
Tel (02) 98 67 24 73. Open daily. & St-Jean-du-Doigt
This megalithic monument 6 km (4 miles) northeast of Morlaix
crowns the Presqu’île de via the D46. @ from Morlaix.
Barnenez. Built in about 4,500 In the late 19th century, the
BC, it is the largest and oldest pardon held in this small town
cairn in Europe. It contains 11 (Sant Yann ar Biz in Breton)
dolmens, and excavations have would attract up to 12,000 Fountain in St-Jean-du-Doigt, decorated
uncovered pottery, bones and faithful. It is named after a with lead statues
engraved motifs. From the tip of famous relic, the finger of
the peninsula, there is a superb St John the Baptist, that is kept Locquirec
view of the Château du Taureau in the church here. Road map C1. 19 km (12 miles)
(see p126), the Île Stérec and the The relic reputedly has the northwest of Morlaix on the D786
small harbour of Térénez. power to restore sight, and, then the D64. * 1,200. £ @ from
in the early 16th century, Anne Morlaix. n Place du Port;
L Plages de Plougasnou of Brittany came to seek a cure (02) 98 67 40 83. ( Wed am.
The beaches tucked away for a troublesome left eye. It was in this small fishing village
along the coast between She was healed, and building on the border between the
Térénez and St-Jean-du-Doigt of a much bigger church to Trégor and the Côtes d’Armor
are the most beautiful in the house the relic duly began in that the thick, heavy Locquirec
Trégor Finistérien. They are at 1510. The spire and three bell- slate – with which almost all
Samson, Guerzit and Port-Blanc turrets were struck by lightning local buildings are roofed – was
once mined. Locquirec (Lokireg
in Breton) is now a coastal resort,
with nine beaches, a large hotel
and a coast path that offers a fine
view of the bay. The church, with
a belfry built by Beaumanoirs in
1634, is as dainty and intimate as
the village itself. It has a painted
wooden ceiling and a charming
statue of Our Lady of Succour.
The Chapelle Notre-Dame-des-
Joies, 5 km (3 miles) further
south, has a 16th-century oak
chancel decorated with fruits,
flowers and chimeras, and a
Cairn de Barnenez, one of the most remarkable burial mounds in Europe Virgin and Child.

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