We were first in the ferry queue at Plymouth this morning, having driven up the evening before and parked up nearby. We had been parked at the port itself, in the long stay car park as directed by a member of staff. However, at midnight another three staff members decided we were not allowed to park there after all 😤🙄 and felt they should wake us up to tell us so. Thankfully we could park up for the rest of the night barely a mile away on the historic Plymouth Hoe. Should have gone there first, restaurant options were much better. Better luck next time.
As we have learned though, being in a dog friendly cabin meant we boarded next to last. However, the main thing was having had our crossing on Tuesday cancelled, then the Friday crossing rescheduled to 2 hours earlier, the resultant crossing was pretty steady despite some enormous seas mid channel. Clearly they know this route well and the big seas were following us.
We docked bang on time at 5pm, with very little queueing cleared customs and surprisingly no dog check French side. We had successfully imported both dogs on the EU pet passports obtained our our last trip 🎉
We had chosen a lovely looking coastal Aire for the night just outside Roscoff, in Saint Pol de Leon, surrounded by 4 restaurants. Kevin had been agonising over photos to decide which to visit since we found the place online. Already talk of extra nights here to enable a proper survey was being touted. We pulled up alongside one other van on the level pitch having paid our €8 to gain entry for 24hrs.
Having had 5 hours on the ferry, we wasted no time on arrival to start our investigation and set off with the dogs for a walk round the bay, passing all 4 restaurants to peruse the menus. The sun was setting across the bay, hardly any traffic, beautiful stone buildings, seabirds wading through the shallows. Friendly locals out enjoying the evening and we were just simply thrilled to be back in France 🇫🇷
We settled on the nearest restaurant for our first night and we were not disappointed. An absolutely phenomenal meal for €37 for four courses (including cheese course, €33 without). Kevin started with 9 local oysters and pronounced them to be some of the best he had ever had (and he has sampled many on our travels and before). They were all full of meat and the red wine shallot vinegar was so nice you could eat it on its own. A bottle of Sancerre to wash it down and back to watch Northampton Saints versus Exeter Chiefs. The only mar to a great day being the narrow loss by Exeter.
In for a Penney 