A building of sandy stone with tall windows in black frames. The gravel parking lot, next to it a perfectly mowed lawn. Where the lawn ends, the boule courts begin. I can’t remember them being there last time. They look new too. Everything here is very well-maintained. The public restroom is clean, the gardens full of plants in all sorts of bright colors. So we’re here again.

The small parking lot next to the town hall is well-occupied, yet we encounter no other people. I love these empty, clean and orderly places. Especially when they’re so harmoniously integrated into nature like this one. It’s not an exception, but rather the rule in this region, Brittany. A region I love and yet never quite encounter fully. What I love most are the hiking trails. Not only the GR34, which runs along the entire coast, but also the countless other local hiking trails.

The hiking trail Les Falaises de Trédrez (The Cliffs of Trédrez) is a mixture of both. The section inland is part of a local hiking trail. It’s a beautiful path that begins and ends at this parking lot. It leads past lush fields sown with various types of grain whose stalks dance peacefully in the wind. Long avenues of dense shrubs and trees separate one field from another. We walk through them until we emerge and get a clear view of the sea and the long, winding rocky coast. Here we are on the GR34.

This rocky coast is one of the largest wilderness areas of the Côtes d’Armor. It’s about 4.5 km long, and we cover most of this distance on our route until we reach the point where we leave the coast and climb a steep hill. Here we dive back into the interior, leaving the sea behind us with every step as the sound of the water grows quieter and quieter until it finally falls silent. From a paved road we turn onto a wide field path. Again past fields and meadows.

The freshly tilled fields here expose the brown earth in which the seeds of the new grain have not yet found their way to the light. The sun has made its way through the dense clouds and now shines with full force. In the distance I can make out a sandy beach on the coast and the light blue sea in which the bright sunrays glitter. And just a few minutes’ walk further, the spire of the Église Notre-Dame appears above the treetops. That’s also our destination, the beginning and end of this wonderful hike.