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A visit to Quimper (Brittany, France)

July 4, 2018 by Maria Fernandez

Quimper, Brittany, France - www.simonking.bike

Map of Quimper

I simply loved Quimper.

I’d read a bit about it before we left Edinburgh, but I wasn’t expecting to find it so terribly romantic and elegant.

Walking around Quimper

When we arrived, the town was bathed in a beautiful summer light.

Like in Les Sables d’Olonne earlier on this trip, we soon found ourselves on the Tour de France route.

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Quimper, Brittany, France - www.simonking.bike

Simon joining the Tour de France

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Quimper is most famous for its “faience”. That is: tin-glazed pottery.

I have to confess, ever since that school trip to a pottery factory in Toledo (Spain) as a child, I’ve developed a certain aversion to painted dishes.

But that’s just me. The industry has obviously brought wealth to the place. Some of the buildings are magnificent.

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Quimper, Brittany, France - www.simonking.bike

Elegant Quimper in the afternoon sun

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Three rivers run through Quimper: Steir, Odet and Jet. Apparently the name Quimper comes from Breton (Kemper), which means “confluent”.

The first settlements here date back to Roman times. Today, Quimper is the capital of Finistère and has a population of about 65,000.

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Quimper, Brittany, France - www.simonking.bike

The river Odet running through Quimper

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When we arrived on the bus, we first went to our hotel to leave the rucksacks.

It was a nice little place, quite close to the train station. Our room was on the ground floor, and had a table in the courtyard.

The weather was perfect, so we went back out for a stroll, and also to spot a restaurant for dinner.

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Quimper, Brittany, France - www.simonking.bike

A typical old street

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Visiting the cathedral

Quimper cathedral is humongous. To fit it in one photo and I had to keep walking away from it I don’t know how many yards.

The cathedral was built between the 13th and 16th centuries, and the two towers you see are 76 m (250 ft) high. The spires were added later, in the 19th century.

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Quimper, Brittany, France - www.simonking.bike

Saint Corentin cathedral in Quimper

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Saint Corentin cathedral in Quimper is the oldest Gothic structure in lower Brittany.

Like good atheists, we went inside. In that vast magic space you could feel the overwhelming power that religion must have had in the past.

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Quimper, Brittany, France - www.simonking.bike

Inside Saint Corentin cathedral

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Back on the old streets, we walked around without a care in the world, the way French people do.

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Quimper, Brittany, France - www.simonking.bike

Enjoying a walk through the old town

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Quimper boasts some of the best crêpes in Brittany, so we decided to try them.

We hadn’t had any “proper” crêpes yet. We’d only had the ones we’d bought at a supermarket a couple of days before. The ones we ate next to the cliffs.

The fancy crêperie we went to was fine but, to me, food always tastes better outdoors. Even if it’s a supermarket crêpe.

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Quimper, Brittany, France - www.simonking.bike

Too many cafés to chose from!

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Sitting in a cafe on that old street, we chatted about our 4-day walk. The craggy coast of Brittany was less than an hour away on the bus, but it felt like a world apart.

The next day, at noon, we took the train back to Nantes and arrived there three hours later.

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Our 2018 holiday in France

A week in Les Sables d’Olonne (Pays de la Loire): from 22 to 29 June, 2018.

Cycling to the salt marshes north of Les Sables d’Olonne (Pays de la Loire): 24 June, 2018.

Cycling from Les Sables d’Olonne to Sainte Foy (Pays de la Loire): 28 June, 2018.

Walking around Douarnenez (Brittany): 30 June, 2018.

Day 1 walking on the GR34 (Brittany): 1 July, 2018.

Day 2 walking on the GR34 (Brittany): 2 July, 2018.

Day 3 walking on the GR34 (Brittany): 3 July, 2018.

Day 4 walking on the GR34 (Brittany): 4 July, 2018.

A tour of Nantes (Pays de la Loire): 5 & 6 July, 2018.

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I took all the photos with the Panasonic.

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Filed Under: Abroad, Blog, Sightseeing Tagged With: France

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