Moving northwest towards Paimpol along the Côte de Goëlo, the shoreline becomes wilder and harsher and the seaside towns tend to be crammed into narrow rocky inlets or set well back in river estuaries. BINIC is a narrow port surrounded by meadows, with a thin strip of beach and the decent (if relatively pricey) Hôtel Benhuyc, 1 quai Jean-Bart (tel 02.96.73.39.00, www.benhuyc.com; €40–55; closed Jan). A little further on at the sedate family resort of ST-QUAY-PORTRIEUX, the Gerbot d'Avoine (tel 02.96.70.40.09, www.gerbotdavoine.com; €40–55; closed Jan), beside the beach, is the best place to stay, despite the hideous decor of its rooms.After St-Quay, the coastal road shifts inland, through PLOUHA, the traditional boundary between French-speaking and Breton-speaking Brittany. A worthwhile diversion is the village of KERMARIA-AN-ISQUIT, signposted off the D21 from Plouha, with the extraordinary medieval frescoes of a Danse Macabre in its thirteenth-century chapel (daily 9am–noon & 2–6pm; donation). They show Ankou, who is death or death's assistant, leading representatives of every social class in a Dance of Death. An encounter between three living nobles out hunting and three philosophical corpses is also depicted, and there's a statue of the infant Jesus refusing milk from Mary's proffered breast.
Pages in section ‘Côte de Goëlo’: Paimpol.
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