Featherbottom - 204

Trip to the coast of Brittany 7 - Ladder to heaven on the nose of France

We got on to our final destination : the Pointe du Raz, or the Nose of France. This is the west-most tip of France. If you see it on the map, it looks like a nose sticking into the Atlantic. We planned to hike there from a spot a little further down the coast called Port de Bestrée. But before we could start our hike, we were enraptured by a shimmering light show in the heavens put up for our benefit by that bearded dude who lives up there. As I have mentioned in previous posts, it was cloudy and cold and blustery all though our tip, but just at his moment the noonday sun broke through a small hole in the clouds and created this stairway of light. There was no one else in eyesight, so it seemed to have been done just for our benefit...

Here are some more pics of the light show. It kept changing as the hole in the cloud changed shapes with the wind. Let me know if you would like to have hi-res versions of these photos to use as screen savers. I'll be happy to post them.

Featherbottom - 203

Trip to coast of Brittany 6 - Phare du Millier

OK, our first 'real' view of the famed Briattany coastline. Shortly after the village of Poullan-sur-Mer but before the village of Beuzec-Cap-Sizun is a little lane that heads towards the coast, to a popular hiking destination and beauty spot called Phare du Millier or Millier Lighthouse. A cliff covered in heather, the sea bashing and foaming against ancient rocks, seagulls, a stiff cold breeze, a quaint old lighthouse. This spot has it all!

I went camera mad. Here are the photos I too while doing a small hike around the place.

 Here is the lighthouse itself. Yep, that cottage-thing on the cliff is actually a lighthouse.

Featherbottom - 202

Trip to the coast of Brittany 5 - Chapelle de Saint-Conogan and Kouign-amann

Still in the village of Poullan-sur-Mer, we came across this charming 16th century chapel of Saint-Conogan

Trip to the coast of Brittany 4 - Saint Cadoan Par Elle-même

Sorry, no cartoon this weekend folks. I was too busy putting together a proposal for a publisher to draw. Instead, I'll post some more pics from our trip to the coast of Brittany. Featherbottom will be back next week, promise!

After spending the night in the coastal village of Dournenez, we set off next morning for hiking along the coast from a well-known hiking point called Pointe du Raz. But barely had we gotten out of Dournenez that we were arrested by the sight of this magnificent 16th Century church of Saint Cadoan Par Elle-Même (Saint Cadoan by herself), in the neighboring village of Poullan-sur-Mer.

Trip to the Coast of Brittany 3 - Douarnenez

The second day we finally got to our destination, and had our first look at the cold, windy coastline of Brittany. We set base in the small town of Douarnenez, mostly because it was the first place we found a B&B that was open during the Christmas holidays, wasn't too expensive, accepted dogs, and wasn't located in a big ugly city. Having said that, it wasn't such a bad choice. After we dumped our stuff in the hotel, went for a long walk on the quays of the town and along the coast. As you can see in these photos, Douarnenez is not without its charms. It is more of an overgrown fishing village than a town, and has sleepy, peaceful ambiance and great scenery.

Little Eva - 001

Featherbottom takes a break this week, to make way for "Little Eva". Nope, this is not the start of new strip. This is a special one-off strip for my little buddy Eva, whose 13th birthday it was a couple of days ago. Say "Happy Birthday" to Eva, folks!

The 13th birthday is around about the time when that dread term "BOARD EXAMS" enters the life of a little Indian child. Kind, loving parents transmogrify into obsessive-compulsive hyper-ventilating ogres. A happy, carefree child crumples into a bleary-eyed learning automation, a tiny cog in the educational grinding machine. The board exams, by the way, are the rough equivalent of SAT in US, BAC in France and Abitur in Germany, but far more malevolent. I have retained SAT for the English version, because many of the better-off parents have ambitions of sending their kids to the US for higher education, so these poor fishes have to prepare for the board exams and SAT.