Mrs B had spotted Le Helles campsite in Sainte-Marine, opposite the very busy port town of Bénodet, a little while ago and thought it looked good, so when we heard from our friends Tony and Jonquil that they had booked a couple of nights there before they headed for home via Roscoff, we were very excited. We’d last seen them in Cordoba in 2016 where we had spent a fun night reminiscing over a delicious paella rustled up by Tony.
A lot of water has passed under our various bridges since then, and we were looking forward to a catch up – as long as Mr B could succeed with the advance booking…
Feeling by now like a seasoned, if not very proficient pro, Mr B could barely contain his excitement when he reported back that not only had he been able to book us in for three nights to start with, extending as we wished, but he’d managed to do it at the ACSI rate – at last!
Less successful, however, were his listening skills about closing time for lunch, so we arrived with 45 minutes to kill whilst the staff enjoyed their 90 minute lunch. As with Raguénez Plage, we used the time to have a walk around the site and choose a few pitches that met our by now, very particular requirements! Upon the return of the reception staff however, Mr B was informed that we couldn’t choose, as there was a limited choice of ‘open ended’ pitches. Seeing the disappointment spreading across Mr B’s face, the receptionist showed Mr B the allocated pitch – and, result – it was our second choice! Phew!
Before long we had set up on our nice and airy pitch…
...and taken a walk down to explore the beach, which was a very pretty 300m walk past some allotments…
...through a beautifully shaded tunnel-like wooded section…
...arriving at a long and dune-backed sandy beach…
Needless to say, the next day saw us conduct a proper Babley assessment of the beach, concluding that although it didn’t match the fine white sand paradise of Raguénez Plage/Tahiti Beach, it would most certainly do! And the swimming was excellent – largely by virtue of being quite a bit warmer!
And after a rigorous day of testing completed, we just had to make a similar assessment of the campsite pool…
… which also passed muster!
With T&J arriving the following evening, after a lazy re-checking of our views of the beach in the morning, taking advantage of the higher tide, we started to tidy up and, in Mrs B’s case, start the prep for dinner for the four of us at ours, returning the hospitality of that Cordoban paella. We’d managed to get some fresh Rousette, which Mrs B fashioned into a delicious Spanish style fish casserole, with lashings of garlic and parsley, which was much enjoyed by all of us, along with some lush Rosé. And over a few glasses we chatted nineteen to the dozen about the various events that had unfolded over the intervening years, until we noticed the campsite had started to quieten down – we were up against the curfew – 2300 hours here!
With sated tummies and the warm glow of friendships renewed, we agreed to catch up the following evening, this time eating out. Both couples had spotted a lovely bar/restaurant nearby, at the back of the beach, with a menu that floated all of our various boats… except it wasn’t open on Mondays, after T&J had moved on!
The next day, after another session at the beach, facilitated by Mr B in his usual donkey mode hauling our gear…
...we decided to get Freddy and Fanny out and cycle down to the port of Sainte-Marine, to explore our dining options. Just across the bay from Bénodet, reached by a regular passenger ferry, we were taken by the picturesque setting…
...which included a number of choices for dinner. So, whilst taking a short rest over beer and coffee at one of them, we liaised with T&J by phone, settling on one with a very pleasing range of classic coastal French cuisine. Walking over to make a booking for that evening, Mr B discovered that all the terrace tables were booked (the weather has been fabulous) so we were reassured that we would be OK inside with its air conditioning...
… and indeed we were!
Bidding farewell to T&J the next morning, promising to try not to leave it quite so long next time…
… we decided to explore to the west along the GR34 and combined cycle route to the small village of Île Tudy, set right at the end of a narrowing peninsula with a view across to the much larger town of Loctudy, one of the ports in Breizh that still has sardine boats (more on this later!).
The ride was mercifully flat, and having started under light cloud, we were pleased to be joined by the sun when we arrived at the small quay where foot passengers could get the ferry over to Loctudy…
It’s a very picturesque little village…
...with an iconic view of the lighthouse across the estuary …
...and small outside art gallery, showing the sea in a slightly rougher state than on our visit…
...with a superb long sandy beach…
...complete with an amazing and well-priced municipal campsite at the back of the beach…
The site was almost full – but what an amazing location!
The cycle back was fun – we’d managed to get a headwind in each direction of course – but as we were intending to book at the beachside resto near our campsite, we flew back to make sure we got a table (we did, and at the civilized time of 2030) with Mrs B racing ahead again on the off-road section back through the tree tunnel…
… arriving back at Evie with just enough time for a cheeky swim before getting ready for dinner, passing the allotments again…
Dinner was great fun. La Chaumière had onglet on the menu which Mr B was getting very excited about, as we haven’t seen it that often! And we didn’t see it that evening either, as it was sold out, leaving Mr B with his second choice of artisan sausage and posh mustard mash, with Mrs B opting for the much more interesting whole Daurade with mango and citron vert sauce, after a delicious starter of fish croquettes...
Dessert was fun – we usually share, with the conversation going something like this:
Mr B: “Fancy a pudding?”
Mrs B: “No – but you go ahead…”
Mr B: “How about sharing (insert sweet pudding of choice)?”
Mrs B: “Oh, OK then…”
The ordering of the pudding was a linguistic delight. We both love the French accent and when the waitress confirmed that we wanted “Brrroonie a partager” we decided that from here on in, that’s what we’d have to call a Brownie!
With the sun already setting, and the chill-out music filling the evening air, we agreed that Sainte-Marine was somewhere we’d happily come back to – it’s ticked a number of boxes, and were it not for the fact that we really must make an effort and get to our ‘destination’ of Pointe du Raz, we’d easily have stayed longer!
The area around Pointe du Raz (it’s the Breizh equivalent of Land’s End) is pretty isolated, with our overnight options being staying over in the visitor centre car park for an extra €10 (€8 to park) or a small farm with 10 pitches at €16…
As usual, we chose to decide once we were there…
S&J 06.06.25
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