The End of The Earth at Camaret-sur-Mer, France

The skies have been threatening it all day with the air getting sticker and closer, then finally it happened. After weeks of sunny days, the rain fell as we are wandering around the port of Camaret-sur-Mer. We’ve retreated, slightly soggy, back up the hill to the motorhome aire that the town has provided (N48.275328, W4.607888). It’s €10 a night and includes services, and even electricity if you’re one of the four vans (out of 90 who can fit in here), close enough and lucky enough to get your cable connected to the service point.

We don’t need hook-up as Zagan’s batteries get brimmed off each day by driving or from sunshine falling on his solar panel. So, we’ve tucked ourselves into a corner with a view over the grassy campsite next door. It feels a bit like the Monty Python sketch about the British classes here – ‘we know our place’. There are people in their motorhomes in the campsite next door, paying €18 a night. We are in our motorhomes in the aire paying €10 a night. And there are motorhomes parked for free by the entrance to the aire.

From the reviews for the aire on Park4Night, it seems folks give it a low rating due to the people free parking who walk in and use the service point. We stay in campsites, aires and free park, it’s all part of the fun of motorhome life. When we were on a budget, we’d have cheekily done the free parking thing. Now we have a bit more financial security we’re happy to pay for the services provided by the local town – although we do tend to prefer aires to campsites simply because of the lack of rules.

We’ve jokingly said that there is so much to see around Brittany that we’re now only go to places which get three stars on our roadmap. Oceanopolis has three stars, and so does Pointe de Penhir, about a mile from where we are parked. However, it was a comment on this blog from Gina Angeletta that brought us here, and we’re really pleased that we came. Thanks Gina.

A quick stop off in Crozon (another three starer that we might save for another trip) enabled us to do a supermarket stock up while our laundry got done in the E.Leclerc petrol station laundrette. We then carried on west along the peninsular to the end and Camaret-sur-Mer.

After a spot of lunch we set off for a quick look around. Several kilometres later, we got back having discovered standing stones and a ruined chateau within 200 metres of the aire, an amazing beach a bit further on and a fortified peninsular tip that we couldn’t get onto due to a massive wall that was built across it.

Jay nipped out for a run to Pointe de Penhir in the evening, as we hadn’t even made it to the ‘three star’ attraction after being distracted by all the other stuff around. He reported back that it is worthy of its star status, so first thing this morning we set off for a look. The pointe has a big car park and now we’re in September it was fairly quiet with just a few motorhomes and cars. As it’s only a couple of kilometres away the aire we decided to follow our favourite GR34 coastal path, which took us through a German WWII battery where one of the block houses has been converted into a museum to the Battle of the Atlantic.

As we carried on out to the end of the land, the scenery reminded us of our trip to the Lofoten islands in Norway. Huge cliff faces plunging into crystal clear seas, even on a fairly dull day it was all quite breath-taking.

After reaching the end of the land – well as far as we dared go – we turned around and headed back to Zagan for some lunch. The weather kept threatening to break but didn’t so we finally grabbed an umbrella and walked down into the town of Camaret-sur-Mer. It was a pretty little place, but most of the water front restaurants were closed. It seems we were too late for lunch and too early for dinner, and as it’s the 1st September, we are now officially out of season so a few had closed for a holiday. The back streets were full of tiny artist galleries and workshops, and along the harbour wall a fun fair was in the process of setting up.

Unfortunately at this point the rain began, so we started our retreat back to Zagan. I don’t think we gave the town a fair chance today, the weather wasn’t great and neither was our timing, but the sheer natural beauty of the landscape around here has certainly made it worth a visit.

Ju x