We had a good time in September camping close to home and our first stop was at St Cast le Guildo, not far from Dinard on the north coast of Brittany and only one and a half hours drive away. The campsite was on terraces with lovely views across the bay towards the next headland. This is the view through our door on our plot where we spent a week, walking and getting together with our caravanning friends at the start of their own autumn holiday.
I usually gather a bunch of typical wild flowers to put on our table and here is the first selection.
There was a lovely coastal path around the beach at St Cast, lined with rocks and boulders, many of them covered with brightly coloured lichen.
The rock Samphire growing in the cracks was a lovely bright lime green that contrasted with the orange lichen and the dark grey of the granite rocks.
I decided to interpret them in a hand embroidered stitchpic, coloured with inktense crayons then stitched in various yarns.
This is a sprig of Eucalyptus I picked from a beautiful tree we came across in a park in the town. The seed heads are an interesting shape, like little bells.
Our next stop was at Angers, a town we've often driven through but this was the first time we stopped to explore. We found a handy campsite, only 3 kilometres from town with access to the wonderful cycle and footpaths that lead along the rivers and through the countryside as well as into the town. We spent a couple of happy days exploring the banks of the river Maine where it joins the Loire .
The mistletoe covered trees have always fascinated me and after drawing them I just had to make this embroidery using various scraps collaged onto green linen. There's nothing nicer than sitting in the sun after a tiring cycle ride stitching a new picture!
We had a brief stopover at Saumur and took a walk into town in the hot sunshine when we had to stop for a rest in the shade to admire the chateau.
Our final campsite was the municipal at Chinon where we've stayed many times before. We were lucky enough to find our favourite pitch available with this lovely view of the castle clock tower above the trees.
I'll finish with this sunset view of the castle reflected in the river Vienne taken from the campsite, now you can understand why this is our favourite place!
