Saturday 4 October 2014

Morlaix in Brittany

The Viaduct, Morlaix by Carole's Chatter


Today I am showing you some things we saw in Morlaix.  Morlaix is in Brittany in France.  Its Breton name is Monrouleaux.  It is a particularly interesting town.  As you can see there is a huge viaduct which goes right over the top of the town. The viaduct (which is still in use by trains) was built in the early 1860's.  A real engineering feat.  It was heavily damaged by bombs in the Second World War (with 80 people killed)  but was quickly repaired.

Road bridge, Morlaix by Carole's Chatter


Looking towards the river from the Viaduct you also see a really high bridge – it is a road.  It is quite spectacular too but only really of interest from afar.  We tried to find our way onto the bridge over several days only to find once we had, that it felt no different to any other bit of road – there was no outlook from the bridge really.

Port, Morlaix by Carole's Chatter


In between the Viaduct and the bridge there is a Port.  It is actually just about half a kilometre long and boats can only get in or out when the lock is operated.

We were not sure just how often the boats moored there can actually put to sea – there was no chance in the time we were there.  We expected to see more water at some stage but we never saw more than a small non navigable channel.

Port, Morlaix by Carole's Chatter


The port at Morlaix was traditionally a wintering port – which I assume is a nice sheltered place to tie boats up over the coldest months.  There are spaces for almost 200 boats.  The lock is operated 3 times a day – an hour and a half before high tide, at high tide and an hour  after low tide.  It does not operate at night.  The marina is 6 miles inland and apparently it is very tricky to time getting your boat up the river to the marina.

I wouldn't have thought it very appealing to boaties – but there were lots of boaties there.  Perhaps it's a place for boaties that just like sitting on their yachts and partying rather than sailing! 

Not that many appealing restaurants but 2 that we ate at were good - Le Viaduc and  Restaurant L'Evidence - which was very good indeed. I am preparing a separate post about it.

Place Des Otages Morlaix by Carole's Chatter


We parked in the Place des Otages and found a plaque there telling us that it was named this after WWII because the Germans took 60 hostages there on Boxing day 1943 and deported to Buchenwald in Germany from there. Very few ever returned.  The hostage taking was a retaliation for a resistance attack in which wounded a number of soldiers.  When we were there, it was a bit surreal to find some German tourists enjoying themselves – I wonder whether they even knew?

The Viaduct, Morlaix by Carole's Chatter

2 comments:

  1. Hi, Carole! What a beautiful, full of history place. One of my former culinary instructors was from Brittany, France. I don't know exactly his city. Thanks for sharing us this place and also a bit of its history.

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  2. Hi Carole. We went there last week, beautiful Autumn weather. I also saw the memorial to the 60 hostages - very sad, very sobering.

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