Parish Closes

After a stormy night we woke up to more heavy showers forecast. Today we’re visiting three Parish Closes, which are elaborately adorned religious monuments built next a village church and usually surrounded by a wall. Built during the 15th-18th centuries, some took up to 200 years to reach their current state. At the time Brittany had many wealthy urban settlements that profited from marine trading and the manufacture of cloth. The Closes were inspired by Breton religious fervour and the more earthy desire to rival their neighbours.

The three essential features of a Parish Close are a Triumphal Gateway marking the entrance, a Calvary depicting scenes from the Bible and an Ossuary next to the church entrance. These three features are massively ornate with carvings and other adornments.

Our first close was a short walk from where we parked last night. In between the showers the sun came out so we made a dash and managed to see everything. We returned to Kiki by a roundabout route and prepared to leave.

We emptied and filled before settling out on the short drive to Guimilia. Here we had coffee whilst we waited for the showers to pass. The Close, which in this case was paid for by the 130 tanneries in the locality was most impressive. The Calvary in particular was huge and had dozens of well preserved carvings on display. 

Our final Close, a few km further on was St-Thegonnec. This was another impressive display of wealth in the most complete Close of the three.

After lunch we drove northwards back to the coast. En route we passed through Morlaix which has some interesting coloured houses around the harbour. We made a mental note to come back here one day soon. Reaching the coast we followed a very scenic route alongside a couple of river estuaries until we arrived at Plougasnou. Here, perched on the end of the harbour is a small Aire de Camping Car which has superb uninterrupted views across the estuary.

We parked up, noting that there was a sign telling us that everyone had to leave by 08:30 tomorrow morning (we think they’re re-painting the lines) and set out for a walk along the coast.

It was really windy and the sea was crashing in onto the rocky shoreline. We are close to the “pink granite coast “ and the lighter colour of the granite rocks is plain to see. At one point the wind picked up even more so we ducked into some scrubby bushes and managed to avoid a short sharp shower.

We returned to Kiki for our meal and the sky cleared to leave a blustery but sunny evening. After eating we went for a short walk in the opposite direction from earlier. Having walked off our food we returned to Kiki and settled down for the night with a fabulous view of the moored boats bobbing in the sea.