Day 152: Lorient, France … Last Port on the European Continent

Wednesday, 7 June 2017
At Sea — Bay of Biscay

Stats @ Ship’s Time 9:20p (CEST) … UTC 7:20p (7 June)
Temp: 58.6F (14.8C)
Position: 47.35.47N / 3.52.12W

Afoot and light-hearted, I take to the open road.
~ Walt Whitman ~

It was rockin’ and rollin’ last night in cabin 6090.  But we didn’t feel the motion of the ocean nearly as much in 4053 where we ended up spending the night.  Yes, fumes again.  We were fast asleep in our own cabin when I woke up to the smell of diesel fumes in the cabin.  That was around 10:30p.  I thought I must be imagining it.  But I wasn’t.  Mui was up shortly, too.  He went downstairs to see about getting another cabin to sleep in.  In the interim, I pulled open the drape.  The pilot’s boat was bobbing like crazy in Insignia's wake, waiting to pick up the pilot who had helped navigate the ship down the Garonne River and back into the open seas.  I felt sorry for the men on the boat, but I imagine they are used to it.  By the time we moved down to 4053, the pilot’s boat was alongside.  We didn’t stay up to see the pilot off.  With a sightseeing day coming up, it behooved us to get a good night’s sleep.  And so we did.

We were up at 6:00a — with the help of the alarm we set last night.  Returning to our cabin, we got ready for the day ahead and headed up to the Terrace Café for breakfast with the Gelmans … who would be joining us for a drive into the countryside around Lorient, France … in the country’s Brittany Region.  But where was the land?  It was 7:30a.  Surely with a scheduled arrival of 8:00a we should be seeing land, shouldn’t we?  I commented that we must be delayed due to the rough conditions overnight.  Sure enough … 20 minutes later Captain B came on the P/A to confirm my hunch … our new arrival time was now 9:15a.  In the same breath, he advised that we would be extending our stay in Lorient by an equal amount of time, leaving at 7:30p instead of 6:00p.  Alrighty.  So we dallied over breakfast and enjoyed the scenery once we sighted land.

Lorient is a fairly new town … not because it was recently founded, but because it was bombed extensively by the Allies during WWII.  You see, this was where the Germans had one of their u-boat pens during WWII.  The town, therefore, didn’t offer much of interest to us.  So our plan today was to share with the Gelmans a car that we had reserved from Avis — at the Gare du Lorient [Lorient Train Station].  Our destination was going to be one of the three other towns in the region — Concarneau, Pont Aven, or Quimper.  Photos showed that each had a lot to offer.  All else being equal, we chose to go to Quimper.

U-Boat Pens.  The term u-boat stands for Unterseeboot … literally “undersea boat.”

Insignia was cleared shortly after 10:00a.  We promptly disembarked and walked the short distance to the complimentary shuttle into town — a 10-minute drive once we got going.  The bus took us to a square and from there we walked the .7 miles (1.2 km) to the train station.  We found the Avis office OK, but a sign on the door said that it had moved to the other side of the train terminal.  So, we took an elevator up to a crosswalk, then took another elevator down, and walked outside.  Yes, there was the Avis office.  Mui went inside to complete the paperwork — which took longer than expected because the computers were down.  When it rains … sigh!  Anyway, once he collected the keys, we were told that we’d have to walk back to a parking lot near the old Avis office to collect the car.  OK then.  Up the elevator, across the crosswalk, and down the elevator we went again.  Then it was a matter of finding a gray car with a license plate that matched the key fob.  Whew!  Finally, right around 11:00a we were on the road.

The drive to Quimper took about 45 minutes … with very little traffic along the way.  Another 15 minutes to find a parking spot by the creek on the backside of the cathedral — the landmark we had selected for the GPS to take us into the old city.  Minutes later we were standing in front of the very impressive Cathédrale Saint-Corentin.  I don’t know if the tower was open … we didn’t plan to go up, so we didn’t inquire.  I was so taken by the exquisite stained glass windows that I could have spent our entire time in Quimper studying them.  Some told historic stories … others religious stories … Sonia described them as a picture book story of the Bible.  A few windows were quite different in style — more modern … I liked those best.

When we left the cathedral, we took a meandering walk through the narrow cobblestone streets, window-shopping and checking out some of the chocolatiers.  Eventually we found ourselves at Place au Beurre [Butter Square] … so named because back in the day winter butter (very salty so it would preserve well) was sold in this square.  Here we found four crêperies sharing a courtyard-like outdoor dining area.  Our choice — Crêperie l’Ardoise.  We all ordered salads, which were described as being accompanied by crêpe rolls.  Turns out this meant that a filling was smeared on the crêpe, which was then rolled up and cut into bite size pieces.  I chose a crêpe with an herbed cheese filling; Mui ordered one with smoked salmon.  The butter lettuce was fresh and the dressing quite tasty.  I washed my salad down with a Breton beer.  For dessert Mui and I split a crêpe with a chocolate/orange filling … topped with very tasty mounds of whipped cream.

After lunch, our stroll through the city streets took us uphill a bit and we found ourselves outside the city walls for a few minutes before making our way back down … window-shopping and enjoying the quaint atmosphere along the way.  By this time it was 3:00p, and it was time to think about getting a start back to Lorient.  The ship wasn’t leaving until 7:30p, but Avis closed at 6:00p and the last shuttle to the port was at 5:45p.  Better not to take risks … especially since Insignia would be leaving the European Continent behind.

Left: We see Istanbul used a lot in names of Turkish establishments overseas, but
this is the first time I’ve come across the name of my hometown … worth a photo.

Right: Outside the city walls of Quimper.

Left: The former Jesuit College.

Right: The spires of the cathedral are visible from almost everywhere in Quimper.

It’s a bit steep going down … Mui acts as a second break to slow Boris down.

Our drive back to Lorient was uneventful … until we tried to top off the gas tank at a station not far from the train station.  The InterMarche fuel pumps would not take our chip cards … the machine asked for a two-digit pin … we have four-digit pins.  At least that was our conclusion after multiple tries … the screens were all in French, so who knows if that was the problem.  Just as we were about to give up and go in search of another station, we decided to ask the woman at the next pump if she would use her credit card to buy our gas and we would pay her cash.  She agreed and €15 later we were on our way to Avis.  Everything else went smoothly and we made it back to the ship with time to spare.

We stayed on the veranda for the scenic sailaway.  Then it was dinner with our usual group at the Terrace Café.  Chef Farid had appropriately set the theme as French.  The food was varied and especially good — as it should be … he is French after all.

The Citadel of Port Louis guards the waterway leading to Lorient.

We’re gaining an hour tonight.  That will put us on British Summer Time (BST).  Together with the day at sea we have tomorrow crossing the Celtic and the Irish Seas, that additional hour will be welcome R&R time.

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