Wicklow Wench, Abroad

2006-09-29T03:49:00.000-07:00

If you go down to the woods this month...

For all those venturing out this weekend - might I reccomend this site?
The Mushroom Diaries
You will be surprised what you can find.....the beauty above rejoices in the name of Chicken of the Forest.
Wellies and a basket at the ready now.

2006-09-19T04:43:00.000-07:00

Walk 4: A walk on the wet side.

Transcorff

Well dear walker, this was one of those walks when you cannot avoid it - getting wet. Inside and out. It was a persistent drizzle, and the heat of wearing a waterproof makes you drip inside as much as out....however, this is more than compensated by the life saving properties of hot chocolate on one's return.
Even on a fine day though this one has streams, rivers and mud....check that footware! This walk takes in some wet, uneven ground, goes over some fields and crosses the Scorff at two of it's more productive points.

To start, head out down rue des Trois Freres to Meubles de Poher, and carry on to the major junction marked for Rostrenen, beside the KnapfPack Ouest factory on your left. (and no, I don't know what they do there....)
About 500 m up there is a right hand turn for Langoelan, take this road and you are walking into the Vallee du Scorff. Note the steeply rising rocky outcrops on the left - left when the softer glacial till was washed away millenia ago. Less than 1/2 km on you will come to a lay-by on the right that is signed for the Scorff circuit. Here, walk down through the trees and cross the footbridge.

Moulin A Tan - the Tanning Mill

You can wade across the ford if you wish - we do in summer and it is most pleasant. Here you will find yourself on a wide sweeping lawn, with a five headed lamp reminiscent of the Lantern Waste in Narnia. I was confused when I came here first, but heading left is the proper way to go as this is a randonnee path, and soon a fence seperates you from the garden. This is the Moulin A Tan - it was an old water-driven tanning mill in the days when Guémené was an important market for fabrics. Continue along this path and you will see the Moulin de Nicholas on the far bank. There is a definite race to the water here and this stretch is deep and rushy.
Walking along the edge of the forest, you will see little wooden signs in breton and french - 'sapin' is pine, 'orme' is elm, 'noisetier' is hazel and 'chene' is oak. Others are 'bouleau' - birch, 'hetre' - beech , 'marronier' - sweet chestnut and 'cerisier' - cherry. And some are named intriguingly - 'What am I?' 'Que suis je?'

Going deeper along the woodland path, it takes you through across some little rivulets, so watch your step. This walk is mushy and wet, but wonderful for the imagination. Look at the tumbledown wall and stream on the right - it seems to be a fairy grotto, the half rotted logs take on all sorts of shapes when glanced at quickly and here there are deer that come down off the hills occasionally.....
Aftere a while there is a definite fork in the path - not a turning, and keeping straight on you cross in quick succession three small bridges. The first is large stone slabs, where the Scorff used to be. The next two wooden ones - take care as there is only one handrail on the second - are where the tributary now joins the main river. This is a haven for water boatmen, pond skaters and damsel-flies in summer. Now only a single, blue jay feather floats on a little eddy. Striking on the path takes a decidely muddy turn upwards - initially a bit steep after the forest floor.

Walking through head-high bracken

You emerge into the edge of a field where the bracken - depending on your height - can brush the top of your head. My saturation becomes complete as my legs are slicked and christened by the waving fronds that border the field and forest. This particular day, the field is scattered with old barley haulms, other years it is yellowing corn, or purpling, curled phacelia. The path continues along the headland and comes out on hard-top road. The road curls to the left and down to the valley bottom. Back to the Scorff.

As you walk down this road, watch out for the Smallest House In Brittany, as my trio call it - it really has the appearance of a dolls house - I have wondered at the scale of the furniture that must be in it. Opposite a farmyard, I can only guess it is an extremely well made out house, now converted, or the house of a widowed dowager who was no longer allowed live in the main home.

On our way down we come back to the Scorff and it's main occupation - Mills! There is a tiny mill with a race on the side of the house to the left. And the old Laverie can be found if you look carefully through the trees on the right. It has the appearance of a green temple and the water from the spring in front is quite refereshing.
Old Laverie, Transcorff

Cross the bridge and there is a most impressive and well built mill right on Transcorff itself. This has outbuildings; a huge mill-house; crashing, white-water race (no wheel!) and a beautiful view of the pool beneath. This is the floor of the valley, so walk on up the road to the main road and layby that lies straight ahead. When you are a the layby, look straight across the road - you will see a small gap that leads into the forest on the opposite side. Crossing over, dive into the forest and stike on up until the path hits a larger track. Turn left on this track. This takes you along stands of Western cedar, birch and then open groves of sweet chestnut. The going here is easy and springy, but roots have a habit of popping up. The track ends in a T-junction faced by a field. Take the right hand turn and follow the wall round on your left. You are now in the woods of Crenenan. Stick to the lower track and you will see the valley spreading out on the left, where houses and the roads fade into the forest. This is frequented by other walkers, quad bikes and horses - so you may have company!
The springy woodland track curves and sweeps for about 2 km before Guémené hoves into view below you. Just keep the wall and the valley to your left and you will come to a soft grassy track that opens up between two or three houses, Les Mimosas. You are now above those rocky cliffs that we saw earlier. Walk down and it becomes hard top again and a the bottom of the lane, there is KnapfPack Ouest on the other side of the road, leading to Guémené.
Time for a hot chocolate at La Girelle, methinks.....
2 hours - depending on how long you stand gazing into pools and swirling eddies.

2006-08-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

Fete de Andouille de Guémené

No walks today - well, a stroll with C, B and W this morning - but as it was Fete de Guémené, in honour of the local sausage- here is what it was like......
Never had a slice of andouille? Look here

Guémené main street, midday

Bagad ecossaise - from Brest I think....

Coifs

Breton Dancing

Les Sabots Rouges, bar

2006-08-24T12:24:00.000-07:00

Walk 3. A brisk walk with friends...or the Pied Piper of Guémené...

This morning it is cold! It's still August....it should be breathles with dry heat and dusty lanes, cats dripping off windowsills and dogs too parched to bark...but no, it is brisk, Back-to-School weather, a 'button up your duffle' morning. So in the interests of rude health and sanity I venture forth to bring the Trio on an energetic ramble.
Only - we are waylaid and joined, by one of their friends - whose mother persuades me to bring him along. And he has a friend, whose parents think this is a splendid idea...and they want to join in too. If this continues exponentially, with each walk, I should be bringing the equivalent of the population of France on the woodland lane to Langoelan by next year....
Where to go? A nice family ramble - straight well kept paths, cycleable as Grainne and Phillip are keen biking people, not too much road walking.
We head out on Rue General Brenot - a venerable street in Guémené, known for the dentist, doctor and veterinary surgeon as well as other medical practioners- sprained ankle, abcessed tooth or annual vaccinations, it's all here. Then cross rue des Fortunes and continue up the road marked for Melrand, taking the second road on the left - rue du Docteur. This is pleasantly uphill and gives a fine view over the top of the town. Past the lycee 'Emile Maze', and take the small gravelled lane marked Beg er Lann at the top as it dips into some trees .

The turn to Beg er Lann.

This is shady and the team is warming up. The two lads are looking even vaguely interested in the changing surroundings. Here the road is agricultural and slips into many yards, fields and copses. The wind is fresh, the conversation lively and the road slips by. Swinging round by some houses with a couple of gorgeous brittany spaniels on show, cross over the hard top and continue down past a small stone barn with a beautifully crafted archway - carraige house or store....it looks like it might be being restored.
Here there are cries of warning to 'Attention des crottes!' ('Beware of the poo!') from the twins who are delighted to find bovine and not canine offerings - far more fun to throw sweet chestnuts into ( Splat!!). At the T junction take the rougher left-hand turn and follow this through a dip between fields - look at the bottle brush oaks that have been pollarded for years 'til they are bald below and afro'ed on top - up to where a long corrugated metal shed marks the next turn. Left again ( See? I have you walking in circles, I tell Grainne - I don't really know where I am going at all). Attention, toutes le monde. This is a road, and a junction across tho the sign that says 'Locmalo 0.5'. Not the most pleasant part......
The next thing to capture the hearts and minds are the apple trees that have been planted here in the hedges. Dozens - all different. We try some - there is one that looks like a peach and tastes as sweet as one as well. There are others that are tart and cooking sharp, and tiny multitudinous cidre apples grown for bulk and not beauty. Grown to fill a hedge, to edge a field, hold back soil, provide a screen....and free food to ramblers.

Apples for the taking....

On the corner there is an opening onto a parkland to the left branching left and right. Take the left hand track along the bank. This is basically wild marsh land, full of cow parsley, alders, vetches and reeds and was a muddy track a few months ago - now the commune have gravelled it up - unknown to me. (Obviously been reading the blog and were prepared for this part to be published). This is easier for the group and receives high praise from the bikers...but I miss my secret muddy track, ducking under branches to reach the path and the way the leaves swished back to hide your tracks.....c'est la progress.
Overhead, buzzards scream and wheel, dragonflies skim and the air is now hot and muggy in the waist-high grass. The lads are in the middle of re-enacting '28 Days Later' with the aid of blackberries and we come out into the parking/recycling tarmac of lower Locmalo. Turn left and head past the cemetery, following the small pedestrian track and over the road to the Guémené cemetery.
Now we are back in the town, separations are made, promises to be back for lunch, decisions about what is for lunch and advice on removing blackberry stains are dispensed, dispersed and disbanded.

One and a half hours - watch those road junctions.

2006-08-16T00:02:00.001-07:00

Walk 2. The First Lane....and grasshoppers.

As it is vacance, Crash and Bang(the twins) and Wallop ( Older sister) are accompanying me today - so this walk is do-able by active six and eight year olds. And can be accompanied by flagging adults.
Striking out again from Guemene's main street, facing the Hotel de Ville - take rue Joseph Freres around to the right and swing into rue Louis le Bail. Continue past the church and half timbered corner house turn up ruelle du Moulin, past flowered terraced houses, and down to the curiousity shop of Meubles le Poher on the left.
A side trip - explore the steps beside Meubles and have a look at the old lavoir - a wash house - where clothes were scrubbed. Not a well kept one - but a lovely little tucked away site with a good supply of running water. A darkly-green cavernous feel to this one, tucked behind the houses.
Back on the street take the left turn at the Grand Moulin to Kervair, Kerlouis and Krenanan. This was the old mill on the river and is a historic building with quirks such as horsehoes buried in the wall as hitching posts and a window up near the roof that doesn't quite fit - I always wonder which was discovered first - the shape of the odd stone or the lie of the roof.
The river Scorff rushes noisily and swiftly past this corner, around the petanque court. Bang and Crash scramble down the rocky banks and try to fish with hastily grabbed reed rods and chase metallic blue and green damsel and dragonflies off a fallen tree trunk.

Calling them to hand we continue across the road bridge and heel right, up the steep hill towards Krenanan hill. This is a bit of a grind for the trio - the hill is long and sloping and not near enough to the woods to be interesting yet. But we soon reach the end and head off the road onto the forest track that runs on through light woodland. A little further on the road takes a left and becomes gravelled. This is now alternating between wood and field, a rural lane full of ragged robin, vetches, birds foot trefoil and campion. Crash has a fern wand twice as big as herself and does an impersonation of the Queen of Sheba - with her servant. A one-woman costume drama....
The brambles are thick on this part of the walk and the sun and shelter has made them enormous. The trio are stained with black juice - looking like some dreadful plague of bruises has visited their hands and faces. The track sweeps around to open, dusty, spiky, harvested fields that fall away from the path and behind us , over the woods peeps the grey and white tower of Krenanan church ( another day, another walk....). Their next sport is catching grasshoppers - the air is thick with the tinny marracca sound of their chirrups and the grass snaps with movement as we walk across it....some are even caught - and spring away as soon as the hand is opened.
The weather is warm and sultry, but Wallop remembers last year when the snow was so thick they were falling down the slope into the fields, not being able to see the edge....

On up into the shade again and the track comes out onto hard top road. Turning left brings you down into the hameau of Kerrones. This is a sleepy huddle of gite houses and outhouses, renovations and ruin. Carry on until the sign for Ty Pempoul - here, just before the sign, take a careful turn right as this is where this sunken lane starts. It starts out as a store for firewood and drops down into a cool, green cave open only to the top. It is not one of the deeper ones, but I love this one as it was my first discovery of these inter-connnected lanes. KNowing how to spot them has become an art - and many now lead nowhere, being truncated by tractors and combines. They love this dark underworld and make occasional forays up onto the talu to look up out onto the fields like wood elves looking onto the world of men. The ground, like the best lanes, is soft, spongy and slightly mouldy. Most lanes have retained their damp air, even in this years chaleur. A large beech has collapsed at the middle part of the path, leaving an astonishing gap of sunlight, air and growth.
Soon we reach the road and turn left for Guemene. This is the down side - hard top walking, fast drivers from Paris and keeping well into the side.....but we reach the Scorff, once more the natural boundary for the town, watch a moorhen chick squeak into the reeds. Crash wants to take it home as a pet - ever the sentimentalist, she will cry when the swallows leave and buries the faded remains of butterflies.

Two and a half hours - but we did a lot of grasshoppers and blackberrying.

2006-08-07T12:52:00.000-07:00

Walk 1 - Locmalo-Kerbellec-Locmalo...... and a well kept sunken lane.

Time to get out..the kids are screaming and Dave is cleaning his chainsaw and ignoring their shouts......
So I don my hoodie, pocket the keys and set out up out of Guemene through rue des Hortensias to the Seglien crossroads. Walk up past the Renault garage in the direction of Seglien. Past the outskirts of Locmalo - all neoBreton build houses with shrubbed lawns and mature trees. On into the countryside of straw strewn fields and the start of the forests.
Turn right a the sign for Chappelle de St Eugene and down the road which dips between sweet chestnut and hollies. Stop at the gate of the farrowing field to look over the electric gate at the sows and their pink/brown/stripy/spotted trotting kindergarden. All the sows seem to take care of all the piglets. If one of the sow spots you, all hell breaks loose - piglets running for cover in the hedge and at least two 100kg + sows eyeing up intruders for lunch. How can anything that dangerous start out so cute?
A little further on, I take the forest path on the left, just after a field entrance. There are two paths - both end up on the same road, and the walk continues by turning right when you hit the tarmac again. It's a nice diversion, rather than continue on the hard top.
Turn left at the crossroads - Locmalo is signposted for straight ahead, and turn left again in about 10 metres - past a poubelle. Follow this sweeping, swooping road up and down - past the most wonderful deserted house in Brittany - covered in virginia creeper, with swept down roofs, peeping windows, leaded glass....and no-one lives there.....
Up and into a lane that swings around into a hamlet that has been rejuvenated over the past few years. Take the road boldly, looking as though you know where you are going by striding around the righthand bend and then taking the lane that continues by peeping around the corner of the last house on the right (the one with the three sided courtyard). Then comes a pleasant surprise - a sign saying 'Kerbellec' and a maintained sunken lane!!!! Courgettes and tomatoes have been planted, fuschia and petunia in wood stumps - delightful!
It has been re-opened, tidied up....and given lots of curious sayings pinned to trees in French - all about how it is better to dream than to fret, and riches cannot be measured. ( note - bring Vincent next time - to translate. )
Follow freely and without care - admire the unusual mix of holly and beech, look over the talus to the farmland beyond.
On reaching the road, track right then left on to the continued track - toward Locmalo. This is also delightfully maintained with roses and hydrangea welcoming the walker on entering the town boundary. Continue straight down the road, into the suburbs again - and onto the main street of Locmalo - then a quick hike across the D6 - back to Guemene.
One and a half hours - enjoy.