2006: May 30, West and South

Weather report - Wind from the southwest has shifted to the north, making things much cooler, but a bit of sun still filtered through to interminable clouds add touches of glorious springtime colour to otherwise dull-green-washed hillsides.

Saturday, I went southwest from Guingamp, visiting Le Grâces Trois (though I really couldn't figure out where the other deux were), Callac, Duault, and parts between. The sun followed me as far as the Grâces, then played blustery evil hide-n-seek the rest of the day. The birds, of course, knew this game well, and played it to perfection. There are gorges near Duault, but decided the day wasn't a good one for hiking six miles into isolated backcountry, and road signage for the Gorges du Corong disappeared once I found the hiking trail.

Sunday was spent just a bit west of homebase, only going as far as the D11 highway. There are a few French chateaus in the area, and a number of 16th-century chapels here and there. For me, the highlight was discovering a small bridge on the D30 (just east of the D11) that crossed the rivière Léguer. There is a mill partially-hidden from the road about 150 metres upstream, and the view downstream will require I revisit in better lighting.

Today (Tuesday), my travels took me further westbound, along the coastline from just west of Lannion to the Finistere-Côtes d'Armor border at Locquirec. And while the birds continued their game (to perfection), the pampillons (butterflies) were out and incredible. I was lucky enough to photograph four of the five new species I ran into, and speak ever so temporarily with a curious older woman in the middle of nowhere. Her accent wasn't nearly as severe as Madame's, and we almost chatted about something other than what I was doing, which was chasing small and fidgety flying things in front of her home with a large camera.

I also discovered the only people who stop on these roads are foreign photographers, which to the best of my knowledge, pretty much limits this dataset to one point: me. It turns out the French haven't yet become "flip you off" irritated, but annoyed or uncomprehending they do appear to be as they drive by. I suppose this is in part due to the lack of places to pull over for the vast majority of roads around Bretagne, and perhaps in part because they expect their prey (the car in front of them, exhibit A (me)) to barrel down these narrow roads at breakneck speeds so they don't run over you in the split-second they decide to go around you, missing both bumpers and the roadside edges (which, in some cases, are houses and other largely-immovable objects) by hairs...

REAL Laundry Day is tomorrow. Don't argue with me :)