Montée du Trieux 5 mai 2012

A rainy day in Brittany - we've had few like this recently.
Sparrow-fart at Paimpol (an hour's drive away) were the instructions, and don't be late because of the tide. So when we arrived at quarter to eight there was no sign of Bertrand, the owner.
We got going about 9 o'clock in the end, when the lock was opened:

The day was an outing for old boats, rendezvousing at l'Arcouest at the mouth of the Trieux for a run down the river in convoy so that people could watch from the banks, culminating at Pontrieux with a bit of a jolly for les equipages

There were a few boats coming with us from Paimpol, including the Rinanbe, out of Dartmouth. Quentin and his wife had sold up their pub, bought Rinanbe, did her up and were living on her while touring France for a year or two. They've spent the winter in Paimpol and thoroughly enjoyed it - and someone had invited them to come along too. She's a lovely boat, with corresponding owners, serving welcome cups of tea (and something stronger out of a bottle) while we had pre-lunch aperos

 This is some of the little cavalcade of boats out of Paimpol

with visibility just a bit bad.

At the wheel is Bertrand who owns La Horaine. She was built to supply the lighthouses along the North Brittany coast, so had to be able to withstand some fairly awful weather.
Yesterday was cold, grey and wet, but luckily not too windy, and la Horaine took it all in her stride.

 Definitely hat, coat, overtrousers and gloves weather.

Mr & Mrs drowned rat are Carol Szewczyk et Colin Godfrey, who thought it would be a good idea to come along.

We tied up with a few other boats at l'Arcouest, outside Loguivy de la Mer to wait for the other boats to arrive, and to settle work on getting up an appetite for lunch (see Rinanby above). The channel here is between Loguvy and the Isle of Bréhat, so we were reasonably sheltered from the wind. However, le Grand Léjon arrived out of nowhere in a great hurry, with a full wind behind and a crew of soggy sailors. She had come all the way up from Legué (St Brieuc) so they had had more time, rain and wind to get thoroughly wet. I didn't have time to get the camera out before she was come and gone (damp gloves, soggy pockets, wineglass... all impede dexterity!)

After a leisurely lunch, (what else is the in France?) there was time for some music and singing, including a barrel-organ recital from one of the younger crew members...

before we all set off down the river Trieux towards Pontrieux, with le Grand Léjon in the lead 

and La Horaine theoretically bringing up the rear. However, the tide was rising very fast, and we were being pushed upriver quicker than most of the others, so we had to heave-to from time to time to let the others pass...

le Grand Léjon

la Pauline all the way from Dahouët (look them up on Google maps!)

The river is really beautiful - we did some serious house-spotting. Definitely a place to come back to one sunny day to explore better.

On a sunny day this would have been idyllic!

The crew of the yawl,  Tolérence had no rowing to do at all - the river swept them along effortlessly. Bet they were cold!

Awen owned by Fred Genty, who's idea this day was, sailed up from Pontrieux to meet us and join in the procession.

Some of our post-prandial manoeuvrings took us alarmingly close (this was closer than it looks) to the rocky shores of the river, especially when the helmsman turned round to dispute something with the others in the cabin.

messing about in boats - its a grand way to pass the time.

We stopped at (under) le Château de la Roche-Jagu for a while

and had a chance to catch-up with Jack le Breton

Finally we arrived at the lock just before Pontrieux.

This lock was a bit crowded, and Rinanbe, who had got left rather behind the flotilla, didn't have room to squeeze in before the gates shut.  Despite the weather there were quite a few spectators at the lock and along the riverside into Pontrieux, to watch the boats arriving.

By now, Bertrand was in great form, displaying his pavillon de Goëlo

in which Pete and I were included.

Carol was taxied-off by a kind soul to pick up the car from Paimpol, while most of us were taken to a hangar in Pontrieux,  which seems to do service as a social centre, car-boot sale venue etc.

The day ended with drinks, crêpes and pizzas, plus music and dancing. Above are les Ouf de Dyjau (really! no 's' after ouf), the above-mentioned Fred Genty at far right.

Finally we enjoyed dancing to a group of young lads from Lannion, who call themselves War-Sav (Breton for 'on-foot',  https://www.facebook.com/warsav). They are a band to watch out for if you fancy dancing the night away in Brittany - at the moment they are still at school, but will surely do well on the Breton fest-noz circuit. They not only play for the dancing, but are all good dancers themselves - a winning combination!  This was a worth-waiting-for end to a long, but enjoyable, day.