SUMMER AT HOME part 3

 

For part 3 of my tour around my local area I'm taking you down to the beaches of Tourony and Tregastel as well as the little port of Ploumanac'h.  From home it's a good half hour's walk straight down the hill to the coast and some of the most beautiful beaches you've ever seen.

 

 

One of my favourite beaches is at Tourony which is backed with pine trees and very quiet.  The footpath follows the beach but we love to walk along the water's edge, I can feel my legs getting a good workout in the soft sands!

 

 

Ploumanac'h is just to the east of this and you can see the entrance to the harbour between the rocks.  Every year we go to the maritime festival that is held here on the quay with live music, lots of fresh fish and mussels to eat all washed down with the local beer, cider or wine. 

 

 

Just along from where I drew the festival sketch is the mooring area for the tenders that sailors use to go out to their boats when the tide is in. They made such a colourful display I couldn't resist drawing them too.

 

 

This is a part of the very narrow entrance to the harbour at low water.  We tried to take our boat in there about 18 years ago but were turned away by the harbour master because the water in the mooring area was not deep enough for our vessel. We were very disappointed and had to sail round the headland to Perros instead.  We returned on foot the next day at low water and were amazed at the difference, keelboats standing on legs and flat bottomed ones sitting in the mud and very glad also to have gone to somewhere a bit more suitable!

 

 

The next beach along going west is Tregastel which has fine sands varying in colour from white to golden.  I believe that the prefix 'tre' means sands in the native Breton language.

 

 

Tregastel beach is sheltered by a circle of rocks, one of which is this one called le Dé which means the dice.  My sketchbooks are filled with more drawings of the different rocks than I could possibly show here, they have kept me amused for many years trying to capture the texture and colours of the  granite and will do so for many more years to come too.