Vitre and Fourges, Towns in Brittany

The world is full of amazing and surprising destinations. There are so many amazing places that we all know like the pyramids of Egypt or Angkor Wat, but what blows my mind is when we stop in a town, just because. A town that we know nothing about. A town that does not appear underlined as a place of interest on any map or in any guidebook that we have seen; and after parking we walk round a corner and are blown away by that which we see. Vitre and Fourges are such towns in eastern Brittany, near the border of Normandy and the Loire.

Vitre and Fourges are fortified towns set high on hills, with 15^th and 16^th century chateau's (though parts of them date back to the 13^th century).

The chateau / castle at Vitre appears fairy tale-like with pencil point turrets, a draw-bridge, moat and built from a mixture of grey stone. The walls are more than 3m thick, many of which are curved and the windows looking out from the castle provide amazing views.

Views that were enhanced by the colour of the autumn leaves on the surrounding trees, the river below snaking around the hill and the field of billy goats beyond. Chateau Vitre was one of the most beautiful castles / chateaus that I have ever visited. What made it more special was that we were the only visitors at the time, so we had the grounds to ourselves.

Today was a reminder that we should always look around the corner; stop to take in places that otherwise could be overlooked; and we may be pleasantly surprised to see something beautiful.

Comments

How to take a Van-life gap year

How to take a Van-life gap year You don’t just wake up one day, book tickets, fly to Europe and pick up the first campervan you see. There is a lot of planning and organizing to make it happen. For us, it was a concept that we worked towards over two years and got serious about in the last 6-8 months. Van purchase In researching vans, we learned that we could buy one, but couldn't insure or register it without being either European residents (read: address, bank account and utility bills in the country we wished to buy the van in) or set up a company to own, insure and register the van. Now this is not straight-forward as one needs to be able to navigate the system from the other side of the world and in another language (as vans in the UK / Ireland were considerably more expensive than on the continent). There are a number of companies who provide services in this space. We chose EuroCampingCars, because they are based in France and deal in la...

Highland Games

Arriving in Scotland we saw Highland Games advertised in almost every town that we visited. The problem for us was the events were either the week before or in 4 days time; never at a time convenient for us. Our luck changed on the Scottish Borders town of Peebles; all the stars aligned. Highland Games are when local communities get together and celebrate Scottish culture. All Highland games include: a pipe band competition, highland dancing, and traditional heavy events including caber tossing, hammer throwing, and the crowd favourite of haggis hurling. Pipe bands and dancing are open to all ages and cover a range of abilities Shot putt is the same as the Olympic event but competitors are free to use whatever technique works for them. Some use a standing throw, others use a run up or spinning preparation. Hammer throwing, unlike its Olympic equivalent the hammer has a wooden handle and the athlete does not spin in a circle before throwing it. ...

Ben Nevis – Bagging our first Munro

To a Scottish person, a Munro is a mountain over 1000m in height. To hike up one is to "bag" it. Every Scot can tell you how many Munros they've bagged. Now a 1000m doesn't sound that high but the base of almost all Scottish mountains is close to sea level. Yesterday we bagged our first Munro, Ben Nevis the UKs highest peak. Ben Nevis is walked by 12,000 people a year. In rough figures that is 400 a day. It is not walkable all year. Even without the winter snow, the almost constant cloud cover and accompanying rain mean that there are few great days to climb it. We had checked the forecast and saw a window in the morning and knowing that thousands would attempt the climb we resolved to start early. The alarm went off at 5am. We started at about 5m above sea level and hiked the 1345m to the summit. The hike has three distinct sections: 1. The base to the saddle: the path winds its way through silver birch forest and sheep paddocks w...

Mid-life gap year Tanya and Craig

Search This Blog