Ten kilometres beyond Plougastel-Daoulas, the abbey at DAOULAS holds Brittany's only Romanesque cloister. It now stands beautiful and isolated at the edge of cool monastery gardens, since its surrounding buildings were destroyed during the Revolution. Since 1984 it has been used as a cultural centre for Finistère, which stages ambitious historical exhibitions lasting for around six months at a time (usual summer opening hours daily 10am7pm; current information on 02.98.25.84.39 or [email protected]; €5.50).From Daoulas the motorway and railway cut down to Châteaulin and Quimper. For Crozon, you'll need to veer west at LE FAOU, a tiny medieval port, still boasting a few sixteenth-century gabled houses and set on its own individual estuary. From beside the pretty little village church whose porch holds some intriguing carved apostles a sheltered corniche follows the river to the sea, where there are sailing and windsurfing facilities. Le Faou holds two good and very similar hotels, both logis de France with top-class restaurants the Relais de la Place (tel 02.98.81.91.19; €3040; closed mid-Sept to mid-Jan), and the Best Western Hôtel de Beauvoir (tel 02.98.81.90.31, www.hotel-beauvoir.com; €5570; closed mid-Nov to Dec & Mon SeptJune). The one snag is that they're not in the most attractive part of town, near the river, but a few hundred metres south in the newer and much noisier main square.
|