There are a couple of reasons why we chose Douarnenez as a destination: firstly, its reputation in Breizh as Sardine Central - we haven’t had any for lunch yet on this trip – and we do love a grilled sardine; and secondly, because the beaches looked promising and we might just have enough time to get some more beach reading/walking in!
Mrs B thinks that we might also need to do some intensive listening skills development with Mr B’s French on the phone however, as yet again we turned up during the 90 minute shut down for lunch time! As is our wont though, we took advantage of this, and (after checking our oxygen masks – it’s steep and hilly) we ascended the hill overlooking the town that Camping Trézulien is set on. We’d read that some pitches have sea views, and, as our altimeters started to reach their limits at the top end of the site, we found a couple of possibles – fingers crossed when reception opens!
We were in luck – greeted by a very friendly member of staff, we were booked in for three nights – plenty of time to explore – and relax! The pitch was set amongst rental cabins/chalets – something we are used to across Europe and they usually work out fine, often being empty in the week. This pitch was especially lovely, at the front of a terrace, with far reaching views across the bay. Setting up in our new ‘slimmed down’ mode of just chairs, table and a parasol, we enjoyed a quick bite to eat before heading off to explore the beaches, enjoying our (distant) sea view and the headland to the north…
Both reception and Google Maps told us it was a 20 minute walk to the nearest beach – Les Sables Blanc – well within Mr B’s trolley hefting capabilities – even with the steep climb on the return trip, he reassured Mrs B… So, after a 40 minute, largely urban and busy walk to the seaside, Mr B’s heavy hefting wasn’t going to be called into action, as the beach was small, windswept, and thronging with more teens than looked feasible for a small town. Great for wind / water sports or posing, we decided, as neither of these play to our strengths, that we’d save lying down at the beach for another time...
As a reward for returning to the site without needing our oxygen tanks, we got back to Evie and treated ourselves to some time in the pool instead…
...we are getting very used to these campsite pools!
On our way back to the site we stopped to have a look at the Aire just outside, run by the Campingcar Park/Pass Étapes network. They are a bit of a mixed bag and seem to be loved/hated in equal measure by fellow campingcaristes for this reason. At their best, they offer, year round: accurate on-line checks of availability; Electric Hook Up; WiFi; fresh, grey and waste water disposal; and secure barrier entry. And if you pay for an upgrade you can book ahead, and leave/re-enter the site for your pre-paid stay. (Unlike the entry-level package and practice in other Aires.) With an average price of €12-14, they can represent an excellent choice, as we found when we couldn’t get on a campsite in the Med once.
At their worst, they can have faulty facilities that seem to take an age to get mended; can be very shabby and poorly maintained, as we also found out on an autumn trip when there was no working WiFi, no fresh water, and the on-site toilet was out of order.
We decided that this one in Douarnanez was fine – but we’d only be tempted if the site was closed, as you get an awful lot more for just a few Euros extra. They are very much a ‘let’s have a look first’ option! Starting off with just a handful of sites mainly inland and in the north of France, their network has expanded (perhaps too much, if the regular gripes about low standards are to be believed). This sign (which Mr B mistook for a consequence of Brexit) shows their expanding network…
As we settled into our pitch, enjoying the view, we debated whether we should be a bit more diligent in looking for the EHU point – we rarely need electric during sunny trips, but as it’s bundled in the ACSI price, we usually make the effort. Except we really struggled to find it this time! The site map showed it as down on the next terrace – so a good distance and probably requiring both of our EHU leads – a first in a very long time. So we put it off I instead!
We drifted off that night under starry skies, anticipating a lovely quiet night’s sleep. Which we did have...until 0615 when Mr B was woken by what he assumed was an early visit by a sludge gulper emptying the nearby sainitaire cess pit… But after another few minutes of what he thought was the pumping of poo, he suddenly leapt out of bed at the sound of sloshing water – yikes – Evie was awash in water, with the noise that Mr B had heard actually turning out to be a pump – but it was our own and it was pumping our hot water all over the floor! Throwing our luckily-to-hand beach towels from the pool visit into the rising water, Mr B turned off the pump switch (also luckily easily done with our 1950s style switch panel) he set to with mopping up, all the while muttering ‘oh no, oh no’ as he envisaged water getting under the Marmoleum tiles – which would guarantee them lifting if left – eek!
After 45 minutes of mopping, when he removed the lid of our ‘boiler room’ to see what had caused the leak, he was grateful that we hadn’t plugged into the mains, as the fault was a failed jubilee clip that had been blown off the top of the boiler under pressure from the pressurised water system! The angle of the discharge was pretty much straight at the adjacent hub for mains and 12v electrics, and although none of it had actually got wet, had the water continued to rise or spread…
After checking the other boiler pipe clips for tightness, Mr B added to his jobs list for when we get back, a complete checking of all the (many) jubilee clips in the entire water system! And as a new ‘camping’ rule we’ve decided to always turn the power off to the water pump at night and if we leave Evie unattended...
After Mr B had completed his daily outdoor morning yoga to decompress, we decided over breakfast that maybe we should hunt down that elusive EHU point, as heating up the hot water boiler (only available when driving or plugged in to mains electricity) would help dry out the wood that had got wet. But where on earth was it? After some persistent searching, Mr B found it hidden/camouflaged in a beautiful hydrangea bush – and it would indeed need both our hook-up leads…
Finding the extra EHU lead had required taking out the crate of ‘electrical stuff’ from Evie’s garage, and when Mr B discovered his stash of just-in-case adapters we never travel without, he realised one was stumping him (even though he had made them all himself!) …
Never one to pass on an opportunity to share his extensive (excessive) planning for all contingencies, having eventually remembered what number 7 was for, he has decided to share the pic above and explanation below, with any reader(s) that might share his approach…
From top to bottom, they are:
1. reverse polarity and failed/faulty earth tester
2. for plugging in at a friend’s who doesn’t have a CEE 16A blue ‘camping’ socket available
3. Schuko connector found on some older sites in Europe
4. reverse polarity connector
5. triple adapter where we might need to share an EHU point
6. straight but flexible CEE connector where we can’t get our plug in for whatever reason
And, strange but true, we have used all of these over the years!
Once Mr B had got over the excitement of finding the EHU point and what all his leads were used for, we headed off to explore the old town and maybe track down a lunch of sardines – fingers crossed! We started our exploration on the west bank of Douarnanez, luckily with its fresh food market still open! Delivering on its reputation as sardine central…
… it also offered live langoustines at only €14.95 a kilo! So, we could do our recipe from Madame at Point du Raz after all...except, by the time we bought some, walked them back up the hill to Evie and the fridge and then walked back and over the river into town for lunch, we would almost certainly be too late, with most of France not really offering a sit down lunch much beyond 1400. In the end, our desire for lunch won out, and as we are only at the start of the langoustine season, surely we’d find some before we returned home?
Our walk along the west bank took us through some of the narrow old streets of the original port, reminding us of many old Spanish towns and villages…
...to the edge of the marina, from where we could see the intriguing Île de Tristan, once home to one of the many ‘sardine barons’ and a packaging factory, but now only accessible by guided tours, and at low tide only…
The coastal path (the GR34 of course!) leads to a small footbridge across the estuary to the east bank, which is now the more visited part of Douarnanez – and where we hoped to have lunch with a view! The ‘route of the sardines’ which we more or less followed was well marked and had plenty of information boards in French, Breton and English – lucky us! The highlights of what we garnered were:
• the town has had a commercial relationship with sardines for over 300 years
• sardines were originally pressed in barrels before canning arrived in the late 19thC
• the factories (which smelled a bit) and the posh houses of the sardine barons, swapped sides of the estuary over the years
• commercial sardine fishing peaked in the late 19thC with up to 160m sardines being processed a year (who counted?)
• the sardines ended up being over fished (no surprises there)
• there is a special relationship with Norway, based on the annual import of ‘rogue’ the cod/haddock roe bait used in fishing (there was a Norwegian Consulate here once!)
But our favourite discovery was the fact that Douarnanez is known as one of France’s famous ‘Red’ towns, when, in the early 1900s, the growing social unrest with the demise of the sardine industry led to the creation of trade unions, an interest in and strong support for socialism, leading, ultimately to the founding of the first French communist town council in 1921! In fact two Douarnanistes were instrumental in the Great Strike of 1924 – go Douarnanez!
Sated with our interest in social history, but still seeking our dream quayside restaurant offering grilled sardines, we pressed on, discovering this possible likeness of M. Aubèry in the backstreets…
...before we eventually found our sardine spot – and just about to close for lunch orders too – phew!
Unable to resist a Ricard whilst we waited…
our simple but absolutely delicious plate of sardines and chips was a real treat…
Enjoying a leisurely (we might have shared a large dessert of crème brulée!) stroll along the quay, we spotted this passenger yacht setting sail on what looked like an amazing trip along the coast under sail – definitely one for another time.
We also spotted this old wall painted advert for ‘Filet Bleus’ which we knew was something to do with sardines, possibly a brand, but we were not sure…
… until that is, we entered this shop with its wall of sardines…
...and we got chatting with the owner, who explained that as well as referencing the famous blue nets of the fishermen (and the regional annual sardine festival in August), from a culinary perspective, it refers to the ‘last catches’ of the season when the sardines are at their best (and fattest and bluest) apparently. M. le Patron (a German by birth) turned out to be a mine of information which, because of his excellent English, we were able to understand more than most of our shop encounters in French! We also learned about ‘algües’ (seaweed) used in cooking/eating and, after Mr B had tried out some of his German by way of making this retail experience as multi lingual as possible (he can’t help himself), we were very kindly gifted what the owner described as some ‘entry level’ seaweed to start our journey into algües-land! (Mr B is of the view that this was actually more to do with him taking a shine to Mrs B than his limited linguistic contributions!)
Passing lots of interesting looking places to eat subsequently, we wandered back to the site to rest, reflect on our knowledge of sardines, and plan our next stage of the trip – the route home – how did that come around so fast?!
Fortunately, our final day was on the dull side, so we had plenty of time to discuss and sketch out a possible route homewards towards Dieppe – as well as catch up on the blog and get some of those pesky van jobs (washing/tidying/toilet emptying/water filling) done!
We ended up deciding that we’d head east in a general direction, stopping first at the nearby medieval town of Locronan and then see where we fancied. We did think we might have done this as a day trip from the site, but as has so often been the case this trip, we just ran out of time! Hopefully Locronan’s alleged difficulty in finding a spot to park won’t stop us tomorrow...
S&J 20.07.25
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