Position:  47:52.23N 03:54.87W

Concarneau, France

We left Sainte Marine on 29^th July after a leisurely start – after the precision planning for the Channel and rounding the various headlands, it has all got a bit easier as the tidal streams are less and there are no tidal gates, and the range is a lot less.  So after saying we would leave at 1000, we actually left at 1200, but no great worry as we were not going far.  There was a fresh southwesterly breeze of 18-20 knots, just what Nutmeg loves, so we had a great sail out of Benodet, round a few cardinal buoys and into Concarneau. 

We tried fishing again on this trip.  We have tried unsuccessfully a couple of times, so tried again with a mackerel spinner.  This time, we got a bite!  The fish was about a foot long, and was not a mackerel as it was silvery and fatter.  Unfortunately it jumped off the hook when I had got it a couple of metres away – which spared us the situation of having to bludgeon the nice fishy to death having got it aboard.  The kids are super-keen to fish, and I have had the conversation with them about how you need to kill the fish when you have caught it, but I think the reality won’t really sink in until it happens.   I noticed we had hooked a bit of seaweed so perhaps Mr Fish was eating this rather than the hook.

Obviously, having read up on all the ports and towns, we were coming to Concarneau for the impressive Ville Close, a town within a town, built on massive granite ramparts in the middle of the harbour and accessible by a drawbridge.  Er, or possibly because the pilot book said that there was a launderette nearby and we hadn’t done any washing since Treguier…

So, with the kids happily wrestling one another in a nearby playground, and Mum buying more prawns for the kids, Dad monopolized the local laverie for an hour or so. 

Bringing the tone down in Concarneau

We did, of course, then have a walk around the Ville Close – we are not full-time philistines – where there are some nice-looking shops and some serious ice cream places.  I would recommend the ice creams here!  I haven’t seen so many tourists since I was last in Trafalgar Square.