A Free Night & A Cheap Campsite, Pointe du Bay to Cap Fréhel

Outside of the UK, we don’t bother working out where our next stop’s going to be until the night before. The morning of departure sometimes. We’re finding that even in high season we’re able to do that here in Brittany. At the aire in Saint Jacut de la Mer we’d spotted impending rain for the following day, so opted to nip up to a free spot on the opposite side of the bay to sit it out. I’d ridden around there on my bike and spotted a collection of motorhomes facing out onto the water. They were in an official motorhome parking area, marked with signs (and rules – no ramps or tables and chairs allowed on this one). So they weren’t ‘wild camping’, which meant no risk of ‘the knock’ and a good chance of a solid night’s kip.

It was only a 30 minute hop on good roads lined with tall ripening corn. We arrived mid-morning to find a couple of spaces still available facing out to sea, and slotted into one of ’em (N48.60807, W2.230388). After a quick brew, we took a short foray along the GR34 down to the Plage de Pen Guen, a huge sandy beach with not a soul on it.

GR stands for grande randonnée, the name given to a network of long-distance footpaths in Europe. The GR34 ‘customs trail’ runs arounds the coast of Brittany and looks like an absolute animal of a path – all up and down! Later, after another spell of rain, we ambled along the other way down the GR a while, admiring the view of an inaccessible sandy bay, and the regimented lines of oyster beds under the sea.

The parking area we were in had dedicated car and motorhome areas, separated by wooden posts and a height barrier. Cars could arrive and get the best views, while motorhomes were parked further back. Seemed a great solution to me, enabling folks to pop up and enjoy the view, while also allowing motorhomes to spend the night without annoying anyone. Cars and cyclists stopped arriving around 9pm, and after that we enjoyed a cracking night’s kip.

The following morning we fired up Zagan and rolled off to Super U at Matignon. Some supermarkets in France have washing machines in the car park, as this one did, although all the dryers were en panne (kaput). Knowing we were heading to a campsite and could pop a line up, we threw our washing in anyway and used the 31 minute wash time (very precise!) to get our shopping done.

A quick aside here if I may. We’ve not mentioned much, if anything, of the pandemic on this trip. France has dropped any requirement to prove vaccination status, so there was no need to show NHS passes at the border. While a handful of people are wearing masks in the shops and restuarants, the vast majority aren’t. This Super U had another of those shopping trolley disinfection machines at the entrance, which I’ll be honest, we had fun trying out (squirting all the disinfectant stuff all over the seat, none on the handle, more practice needed). No-one else was using it. At Honfleur adjacent restuarants were packed to capacity, and we didn’t give it a second’s thought.

Personally, my biggest fear since COVID began has been giving the damned thing to my parents. Mum passed away in 2020, so sadly I no longer needed to worry about her, but dad’s lung disease has been a huge weight. A few weeks ago the worst happened and I caught the virus and passed it to him before I tested positive. Thankfully he’s vaccined up to the eyeballs and suffered nothing more than headaches and a runny nose. I, on the other hand, was flattened on the sofa for three days and felt rough for a week. Once he’d gotten through it OK, I think that’s when I decided to draw something of a line under it all. I’m over 50 now, and will get my next booster jab if offered one this autumn. But for me (and I know others feel differently), travelling feels relaxed and fun again, not something to feel guilt or dread about. I’m hopeful it will stay that way.

After entertaining ourselves with all the Breton-themed stuff in Super U (gallettes, blue stripey tops, Breton beer, jars of salted caramel, Breton soup, Breton crackers, Breton milk…), we filled up with gasoil (diesel) at €1.81 a litre (£1.53) and hit the road. Although not huge, the Super U flogged everything: mobile phones, SUPs, photo printing, books etc. It gave me the feeling we were heading into a more remote area of France, where the shops had to serve multiple needs for smaller communities. I like these parts of the world, and so far (admittedly after only a few days) Brittany has that ‘out of the way’, unspoiled feel to me. I’m really enjoying it.

We’re currently parked under pines on the municipal campsite at Cap Fréhel, thanks to blog reader George S for the recommendation (N48.664016, W2.341637). The site’s cheap-as-chips, only €16 for the two of us including hook-up, in high season! It’s a relaxed, rambling affair, a wide expanse of yellow grass and high pines about 500m from a beautiful sandy cove. It’s also about 3 miles of cycle path or GR34 to the Cap Fréhel lighthouse and less than a mile along paths to the town of Plévenon.

Although a few pitches are separated by hedges, on the whole you just plonk your tent, camper, motorhome, caravan, huge self-converted lorry wherever you like. String up your hammock, tie the dog to a tree, offload the bikes, crack open a drink and you’re sorted. No charcoal BBQs though. As usual they’re banned in summer, too much combustable material around. I’ve read the site turns into a free aire out of season, with the shower block closed.

That reminds me. Even though we’ve written a book on motorhome touring (available here from Amazon, hint hint :-)), including a whacking-great all-season packing list, we always manage to forget something (I should point out: if it wasn’t for Ju’s methodical packing I’d forget my pants. In fact I did once). This time, it was our gas stove which we use for cooking outside. We *think* we took the old one out to replace it with a new one we’d been given, but then forget to put the new one in, dunno. We’re on hook-up here though, and Zagan has an external three-pin socket, so we’re using our electric hotplate to rustle up grub outside.

Right, enough rambling! We’re planning to stay here another couple of nights then move west somewhere. Time to get park4night out!

Cheers, Jay