Our Blog - Roscoff, France (2022)

We visited Roscoff last year and thought it was an interesting city. This year, we decided to stay at a gîte (like a holiday cottage) nearby. This one was perfectly-located just across the road from the Laber Beach, so Lucy could play on the beach anytime. It was quite a nice gîte, with nice parking, large yards, and everything we needed for a week there.

They had a nice backyard where we could throw the ball with Lucy.

We had to be very careful with when high tide was, since most of the beach was taken-over by water at high tide. Here you can see the bay at low tide, and then as the tide is coming in, and then high tide. It is really bizarre to see the difference between low tide and high tide ... one basically is an entire mud-bay, and the other is full of water!

Lucy also took to the water in the bay a couple of days, hopping through the low waves. The tide wasn't high enough that she needed to swim, but she does seem to enjoy walking through the water.

And then the sunset over the bay ...

The church in Roscoff, the Eglise Notre Dame de Croaz Batz, was built between 1515 and 1579 and, therefore, is a combination of Breton Gothic and Renaissance styles. We had gone through the church last year, but it was raining and we didn't get very many good exterior pictures. You will see the carving of the boat above the main entrance ... most of the churches have some sort of boat-motif in them, mainly with the inverted-boat-ceilings. There is also an interesting sundial on the side of the church, the inscription reads "fear the last" ... which supposedly is a reference to the last hour of human life and the need to lead a life in accordance with Christian morality.

There is a nave with side aisles, with really nice Gothic pointed arches. The ceiling is made of wood in an inverted-boat design. The ribs and cross-beams are colorfully painted, with dragons that looks like they are spitting out the cross-beams. There are carved figures of ladies around, which mimics the figureheads on the fronts of boats.

The Chapel of the Dying, built in 1701.

The organ case dates back to the beginning of the 18th century.

This is part of the main altar (the right side is being restored, it would seem). You can see the painting in the middle and the very Baroque-style columns on the left side.

The baptistry dates from 1690 and the canopy above it was completed in 1701.

This is one of two "ossuaries" or "bone houses".

I decided to get pictures of this ... I am not a huge fan of fresh artichokes but I like them in a couple ways, specifically when you put the artichoke hearts in sandwiches or salads. I have tried to cook the whole artichokes before and have failed, quite miserably. Here is an artichoke farm, it would seem ... I was actually surprised at how they grow! The town of Saint-Pol-de-Leon, which is just a couple kilometers from Roscoff, is known as the artichoke capital of Brittany. They even have ice cream shops that sell artichoke ice cream (umm...NOT!)

I earlier mentioned high tide vs low tide. Not only does it affect the amount of beach that Lucy has to play on, but it also affects the boats. There is a ferry that takes you from Roscoff to the Ile de Batz, which is just 3.5 km from Roscoff. The ferry goes from the old port at high tide, but at low tide, the boat can't actually GET to the old port. So a bridge was built into the middle of the bay, about a 10-minute walk out, which is where you catch the boat during low tide. It looks hilariously funny though ... there is a bridge to literally nowhere!