2nd July – 5th July – Concarneau
Whom ever I spoke to who had come to South Brittany, they all recommended Concarneau. It is a mixture of a major fishing port, marina, historic walled town and holiday resort mainly it seems for the French. The first day was recovering – not sure why as it had not been that long a sail but perhaps the time away was starting to have an impact. Filled up with fuel by container, walked across to the fishing port for a new gas bottle, washed down the boat. The second day I went exploring. The jewel in the crown is the walled town. It is quite magical, despite being a tourist attraction it has retained a charm about it. Might feel a little different in the height of the holiday season but at the moment it was comfortably crowded – enough to give it an atmosphere but not too much that you were overwhelmed with people. Having walked around the walled town, I then took to the ramparts and completed the circuit of the wall.
Within the walled town there is a fishing museum, tracing the history, boat design, building, and evolution of fishing techniques. Concarneau has a very large fish market iwth an auction each morning at 0630 – no I did not get up for it! But in the marina you could hear and feel the fishing boats arriving from about 0330 in the morning.
In the main town there was a covered market that opened each day at 0830 with fresh fish, vegetables, cheeses and bread. I found one stall which I went back to each day – trying different types of fish, from cod, to hake, to langoustines and some fish I am not quite sure what it was. The cooking technique was the same for each – except of course the langoustines. Frying pan on a low heat, some olive oil and then some added butter with the fish fried in this. It was beautiful. Even the fresh vegetables I bought had an earthly and sweet taste to them that you simply do not get from supermarket food in UK. But it is expensive – affordable for one – but if you were feeding a family of 4, it would be challenging. Good food comes at a price – perhaps something we have forgotten or neglected in UK with our palate just accepting mediocrity.
The other discovery was French Rum! Perhaps more accurately described as Rhum Agricole. The difference is that the latter is made from sugar-cane whilst the former from manufactured molasses. The bottle I bough (at great expense!) was from Marie Galante, a French Island to the south of Guadeloupe, on which it is administratively dependent, and has the advantage of being largely untouched by tourism. This partly explains the high density of sugar cane cultivation: 20% of the territory. It is believed this was where Rhum was first distilled. There are few if any Rhums that I can drink neat – but this is one of them. A lovely sweet taste that needs no mixer – which would ruin the beautiful flavour.
As I was buying so much fish, I treated myself to a couple of sharp knives. A little shop on the main street that just deed knives and tools for fishing. The owner spoke no English at all! But google translate came to the rescue and he understood that I wanted a knife to cut and gut fish and one to fillet fish. Into the backroom he went, pulled out some step ladders and in the top box produced exactly what I wanted.
I slipped into a routine of market in the morning, coffee in the walled town, lunch, bierre blanc and cafe au lait in the afternoon and then supper.
I spent a very pleasant couple of hours being hosted by Mike and Anne-Marie Proud on board Fleur of Pendle whom I had seen in Port Louis. A top tip I picked up from them was the French, German and Dutch tradition of flying the No1 Pennant from the backstay which told everyone you were sailing single handed. On the list to purchase!
This is my last stint by myself. On Saturday Andrew Coop plus Clement Tam arrive to sail back with me to Roscoff and St Peter Port, where Gillian will fly out and be back on board.
Purrfect Tale 