Bruce N' Peg

8/31/17 – Alençon, FR

We left San Malo on Monday 8/28 to begin a slow trek to Chartres and Paris. We got as far as Tinteniaç, a small village north of Rennes, in the eastern Bretagne region. The weather was hot and sunny and the amenities at the camping looked inviting. We decided to take advantage of the lovely weather and stay a couple of days. We planned to leave on Wednesday but the weather turned rainy and rather than drive in the rain all day, we opted to stay a third night.
The clear skies returned on Thursday and we set off for a two-day drive to Chartres. While we were mapping out our route we saw the town of Fougeres had an 11th century chateau and we decided to stop and see it. It was a very pleasant surprise.

We found an aire and joined several other motorhomes parking right at the base of the chateau.

One thousand years ago, Fougeres was a promontory fortress sheltered by hills and surrounded by marshes. It was on the eastern border of the Duchy of Bretagne and perfectly situated to be a defender against the French. The current castle (chateau) dates from the 12th century. It is completely enclosed by ramparts and has 13 towers.

Although it is one of Europe’s largest medieval fortresses, we could easily walk around the exterior along the tourist promenade. It reminded us of both Angers and Carcassone, two other intact French fortresses with round towers and high stone ramparts.
There was also a 1000 year old church, St. Sulpice, built in in the mid-11th century just to the south of the chateau. As the town grew so did the church, but the original building still stands. We have seen many churches and cathedrals in Europe that are 1000+ years old, or at least where a Christian place of worship has stood for 1000+ years, but rarer are the buildings that actually have survived 1000 years. St. Sulpice is one such church.

I have said before and it bears repeating: I am not someone who follows any western religions, but I do love the places of worship the western religions raised to celebrate their God. The architecture, history and religious artifacts are impressive. We entered this 1000 year old church and immediately felt the weight of age.

Everywhere we looked we saw antiquity, from the nave whose painted wooden ceiling arched to resemble an overturned ship to the Lady Chapel alter with the statue of Our Lady of the Marshes, which, tradition claims, first lived in the the original chapel of the fortress.

The stained glass windows are probably the newest additions, dating from late 1800s to early1900s, with a few fragments surviving from the 15th Century incorporated in the crucifixion window. It is an impressive interior.
I do love old churches.

Looking at town from chateau

Old horse watering troughs repurposed at flower planters

Houses along promenade

The town itself is typically laid out with small windy streets slipping between old buildings housing cafes, boulangeries, butcher shops, green grocers and individual homes. It is typically French and very quaint.
We saw a few tourists – and no one who spoke English – and there were no tourist buses, so it felt like we had discovered the place. The last time we “discovered” such a place was in Italy in 2008 at Portovenere, a little harbor town near the Cinque Terre. It has since been discovered, but back then there was room to explore the town. That is how Fougeres felt. I suspect some clever member of the local chamber of commerce with soon figure out how to successfully market Fougeres and in the process make the city a lot of money but ruin that which we found so special.

We spent the night in a municipal camping in Alençon, halfway between Tinteniaç and Chartres. It had the most primitive shower/toilet block we had yet encountered. We found our first “squatter” toilets of the trip and the showers had a shower head pointing directly down in the center of the tray with a pull chain to start the water. The hot water took about 20 pulls to even begin to warm up. It was a short and lukewarm shower. I had forgotten about the less than luxurious shower/toilet blocks offered in France and Spain campings and remember that I am now 69 years old and rather enjoy my simple luxuries. I wonder if I could use a squatter toilet at this age and be able to get up out of the squat! Fortunately they are not the only option…and we do have our cassette toilet in the camper.