This is our trusty people mover that we’ve been getting around in whilst in Brittany.  I’ve been doing the driving and Deb has been our awesome navigator.  So far we’ve seen a number of places that were not on our intended itinerary, but how lucky were we to have spontaneously added such fabulous scenes to our journey without having to plan them?

I think I can say that my driving has improved over the week.  At first I was a little nervous  about driving on the wrong side of the road on tiny, one car laneways in such a big block of a car, but I’ve slowly moved across the lane with more confidence and now I don’t mount the curb on the right hand side as much – which is a thrill for all concerned – especially those sitting on the right hand side.

Today’s adventure is brought to us by Yves Rocher who owns the town of La Gacilly.  “Don’t be gasilly”, I hear you cry, “how can you own a village?”  Well apparently he does and it’s only because of this power that he is allowed to put on this spectacular photographic exhibition throughout the whole town.

La Photo Festival de La Gacilly…

Photos have been blown up to building size and plastered on the sides of buildings…

and in a park area – like this…

The photos were amazing.

The day was beautiful.

And the gardens were lovely.

the town of La Gacilly, especially the older section was just gorgeous and full of arty farty type shops in tiny little buildings, decorated with bunting and flowers…. so many flowers!

It was a great way to see an exhibition.  Well done Yves.

Even though this sign said that there were more artworks to see up this laneway, Sampy just needed a little break from all the village beauty.

From one beautiful town to the next – down the road a little bit was Rochefort en Terre, the doll houseiest (yes, that’s a word), touristy town we’ve come across thus far.  It was ridiculously lovely, but more like a movie set than a village that people actually lived in.  Also – all the shops were shut until a bus load (or 12) of people turned up, then they all magically opened their doors.  It was if they knew…..

This restaurant was just at the carpark – we hadn’t even got into the village yet!

This is the stuff that we had to contend with…

Here’s another sneaky shot of me, just to prove that I was on the trip.  So natural – I’m probably thinking about something really interesting.

We had lunch in the terrace gardens of this restaurant.

Then wandered around the village, trying not to get into any of the obvious shots where they were probably filming.

The French pride themselves on making everything beautiful.  It’s amazing what some colourful flowers and plants can do to a place.

Cuteness overload!

And doors…. don’t get me started on the doors!

I mean, look at this one!

And this one!

And the knockers!

This town also has its own château, because what self-respecting French village doesn’t?

Which at first we thought had possibly seen better days, but this was just the back of it… the front was much nicer.

Where do these doors lead?  What were they used for?

Here’s Deb attempting to be in my panoramic shot of the château – so arty!

and here’s the château – sans Deb

The view over the higgledepiggldy rooftops was quite lovely.

And then a great big sit down was needed – this pretty village malarky is tiring!

It’s just the little details…

In Brittany there is a sweet dessert that they are famous for called Kouign Amann… It’s made from butter and sugar and looks like this:

So we bought all of them!

and then purchased a little apple dumpling cake for afters.