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From the cliffs of Étretat to the Brocéliande forest, these places close to home where we would like to recharge our batteries

2020-03-25T06:12:46.093Z


(3/10) - In France, there are lands away from the bustle of the world. Between nature and spirituality, we will soon go there to fill our lungs or rest our ears. Proof by ten.


The cliffs of Étretat (Seine-Maritime)

They seem to have been there forever and that is why we often come back to them. Whether you have a heartache to care for, a soul mate to find or lungs to reinvigorate, the cliffs of Etretat fulfill their purpose. The chalky cliffs of the Alabaster Coast, which extend over 140 kilometers, are nowhere else as beautiful as around the small village of Étretat. They fall here into the sea from the top of their 70 meters. A giant chisel seems to have engraved the horizontal strata in the white mass of limestone. It is impossible to miss the Porte d'Aval, a huge flint arcade hollowed out by the waves, or the famous needle that Maurice Leblanc wanted to dig to better house the treasure of the kings of France discovered by Arsène Lupine. In Une Vie , Maupassant describes "the great arcades of Etretat, like two legs of the cliff walking in the sea, high to serve as arches for ships ...". The imagination gets carried away. So let's go back to it again.

The Poitevin Marsh (Charente-Maritime, Vendée, Deux-Sèvres)

Regional natural park - the Marais poitevin is the second largest wetland in France after the Camargue. © Georges Blond - stock.adobe.com

We would like to be there alone and, let's face it, that is not always the case. Coulon, the star village of the Poitevin Marsh, is sometimes the scene of traffic jams of "plates", these flat-bottomed boats on which cows were transported yesterday, and today tourists. The "wet marsh" is a victim of its success, especially its eastern part, called the Green Venice. So let's get up early. At dawn, the mist still envelops the canals and the "conches" (small canals) dotted with tadpole ash trees, whose gnarled roots maintain the banks. The light pierces the leaves, dances on the water lined with lentils split by the "pigouille" (long wooden pole) of the boatman maraîchin. Only the plow of a kingfisher disturbs the morning silence. As in Venice, footbridges span the milky green waterways. Here, the gondoliers, sorry the pigdlers, know how to set fire to the water (we will be happy to demonstrate this to you). A magic trick like this bocage of water knows how to reserve ... For early risers and others.

Cabourg beach (Calvados)

Cabourg beach stretches its four kilometers of sand under an endless sky. © s4svisuals - stock.adobe.com

Of course, there is Deauville, its Planches, its colorful parasols, its melancholy "Chabadabada chabadabada" ... But there is also Cabourg, half an hour away. The beach of this seaside resort stretches its four kilometers of sand under an infinite sky, which the Norman light enlivens with a thousand shades. A certain Marcel Proust, who made Cabourg (renamed Balbec by his care) one of the emblematic places of his "Research", wasted no time there. "The full tide and the big day raised, as in front of the celestial city, an indestructible and mobile rampart of emerald and gold", observed the writer, installed in the splendours Belle Époque of the Grand Hotel. It is still there, just like the villas of the Parisian upper middle class. But it is by contemplating the horizons of sand, sea and sky in the shade of a blue and white cabin that we best taste Proustian reminiscences.

Pointe de Pern, Ouessant (Finistère)

The tip of Pern, Ouessant. © moonbo - stock.adobe.com

The epitome of the Breton coast… The elements are unleashed endlessly on this rocky point guarded by the lighthouse of the Nividic and its two pylons planted in the sea, like two companions in misfortune. Poor lighthouse, still standing despite the storms that are unleashed with all their might! Here we are at the western end of metropolitan France. Here we are, above all at the end of the world: along this jagged coast, the wind, the fog and the raging waves indulge in barbaric weddings. On windy days, you have to hide behind a rock and watch the raging sea. In these moments, a whiff of spray regenerates you better than a week of thalassotherapy. The sunsets set ablaze this wild postcard, facing due west. A superb walk leads to the tip of Créac'h, whose black and white striped lighthouse marks the boundary between the English Channel and the Atlantic. Imagination is racing in this bitter Finistère. For a bit, we would do well as a lighthouse keeper…

Read also: Wild and spectacular, five good reasons to go to Ouessant Island

The coast of Le Havres (Manche)

Le Havre de la Vanlée in Bricqueville-sur-Mer. © david-bgn - stock.adobe.com

At the end of the Cotentin peninsula, there is of course the Cap de la Hague, the “Finistère closest to Paris” according to Jacques Prévert, who often came to “get some fresh air… " You can imitate the poet and, in this almost Irish landscape, fill your lungs with salty and iodized air. Less known, the coast of Le Havres, which stretches for 90 kilometers along the west coast of the English Channel, contains some marvels: eight in total. Eight “harbors”, as these small estuaries are called, where fresh water meets salt water against the backdrop of wild dunes. Le Havre de la Vanlée is a long tongue of sand and a refuge for 150 species of birds. At high tides, the sea covers the road; bitumen engulfed, we breathe better! In the harbor of Regnéville, we crunch a sprig of samphire, feet in the pitch. In the harbor of Saint-Germain-sur-Ay, we watch the sheep cheer up in the salt meadows. Here, the lights, the landscapes constantly change to the rhythm of the tides, the strongest in Europe ...

Wild coast, Isle of Yeu (Vendée)

The Old Castle of the Isle of Yeu. © sasha64f - stock.adobe.com

Want a change of scenery without leaving the country? From far not too far? Welcome to Yeu, the most distant metropolitan island on the continent after Corsica. You have to have both your eyes when you land here: one for the pretty northeast coast, devilish Vendée with its fine sand dunes and pine forests; and another for the southwest coast, the wildest, our favorite. From Pointe du But to Pointe des Corbeaux, it is a land of granite and sea spray where the imagination takes flight. The Old Castle, a 14th century fortress set on a granite island, seems to come straight out of the Black Island of Hergé. We walk the heath on foot or by bike, disheveled by the wind, intoxicated by the acrid scent of heather and sea iodine. We tread the land of "fras", leprechauns of local legends. Sometimes the jagged coast opens: at the bottom of the cliffs, sandy coves that holidaymakers would jealously guard. Let's reveal some of them: the Anse des Vieilles, the Soux beach ... For the rest, open your eyes.

Also read: 24 hours on the Ile d'Yeu, Vendée and Brittany

The Brenne ponds (Indre)

Ponds as far as the eye can see and an exceptional patchwork of moorland, woods, meadows and heather. © 357680 ANDRE CUZEL - stock.adobe.com

"You would think you were far, far from France, in some desert into which man had not yet entered." In 1846, George Sand discovered a corner of Berry that had nothing in common with Gargilesse. The Brenne ponds were impounded in the Middle Ages to exploit this land, which is too wet in winter and too dry in summer. More than 2,000 ponds dot the Brenne Regional Natural Park. There are 270 species of birds, a host of amphibians and the very rare pond turtle. "For the eyes of the painter or the novelist, this low ground, flooded in a thousand places, this crazy vegetation of useless herbs, which grow in the silt, does not lack character, There is even a certain poetry of desolation in these plains of reeds dried up by the heat wave ”. It is preferably in the fall that we will come for a walk. Early in the morning, or in the last light of day, the Brenne then envelops itself in a veil of mystery. A hint of Berrichonne witchcraft, as the lady of Nohant loved him so much.

Brocéliande Forest (Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine)

The oak of the Hindres. The national part of the Paimpont forest shelters this superb sessile oak, remarkable for its age, around 400 years, and its impressive size. stock.adobe.com

Druids, fairies and korrigans… You have to have a somewhat childlike soul to fully taste the charms of the mythical forest of King Arthur. True to legend, the forest of Paimpont (its official name) evokes a wonderful world populated by the fairy Viviane, Merlin the enchanter or the knight Lancelot. Among the thick undergrowth there are mossy trees, moors and ponds in which medieval castles stood. The Val-sans-retour, the tomb of the Druids, the Barenton fountain and its magic bubbles (the enchanting Merlin would have met the fairy Viviane there)… No need to be a “neodruid” to commune with nature. We recharge our batteries at the sole contact of the trees, old patriarchs to which the Celts devoted a pagan cult: the oak with Guillotin and its thousand years, the beech of Ponthus with sprawling branches, the chestnut of Pas aux Biches ... And even the Tree of Gold, whose branches covered with gold evoke the antlers of a deer.

The oriental park of Maulévrier (Maine-et-Loire)

The oriental park of Maulvévrier is the largest Japanese garden in Europe south of Maine et Loire. © JL - stock.adobe.com

A touch of Japan in the Vendée bocage. Created between 1899 and 1910, this 29 hectare park recalls Europe's craze for Japan from the Edo era to the end of the 19th century. Nearly 200 plant species thrive in an oriental tranquility: magnolias and arched cherry trees, pines and yews pruned in trays, ginkgo biloba and bonsai ... A bright red bridge announces the vast pond lined with mosses, ferns and bamboos. In spring, stylized shrubs are covered with flowers, like Japanese cherry and quince trees. This print decoration constitutes the largest Japanese garden in Europe. We wander serenely, the senses awake, to the mound of azaleas, cut into waves. Nature is only domesticated to better transmit a philosophy. More than a decorative element, the garden is here a sacred art. In November, Japanese maples take on sublime pink and orange hues, and in the morning the pond is drowned in mist. A poet would compose here his most beautiful haikus.

The Crozon peninsula (Finistère)

Anchored in the Iroise Sea, the Crozon peninsula is one of the most beautiful natural sanctuaries in southern Brittany. Patrick Pichard - stock.adobe.com

Finistère of Finistère, the Crozon peninsula is a trident planted in the Atlantic. The ocean struggles with force, and it is with a good windbreak that it is better to survey the moor. The Pointe de Pen-Hir offers the most dantesque shows. We see the Peas of Peas, granite molars, shred the swell from America. On a clear day, the eyes embrace the Atlantic, catch on Ouessant, Molène and the island of Sein. To the north, the Pointe des Espagnols and its 70-meter cliffs watch over the Gulet de Brest. To the south, the Pointe de la Chèvre shares the Iroise Sea and the Douarnenez Bay. From here, a magnificent path leads among pines, gorse and heather to Morgat, a pretty little seaside resort whose beach would not spoil the side of the creeks of Cassis. Going up north, the GR34 walks from the beach in cliffs to the tip of Dinan and its stone "castle" connected by a natural arch. An unforgettable site ... Especially in bad weather.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-03-25

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