Roscoff- Pirates and Onions

Sunday 20 July

Roscoff is a beautiful Breton town full of elegant granite houses with Mediterranean flora and delicious sea food.

Sacked by the English in 1375 they eventually got their revenge as corsairs – privateers who attacked and seized mostly English merchant ships (most likely where we got the idea for attacking the Spanish). 

In the 16th century the town grew very wealthy as a trading centre for Flanders, England and Atlantic Europe – particularly for salt, cloth, olive oil, brandy and wood – most of the old architecture dates from this lucrative time.

The delightful church of Notre Dame de Croats Batz was built in 1515-49 from the profits of the linen and canvas trade – it is one of the only churches to have bas reliefs of ships carved onto it- and cannons bristling from the tower!

Inside there’s a tremendous wooden barrel ceiling, obviously built by shipwrights,

And a beautiful 15th century alabaster Passion of Christ made in Nottingham – demonstrating the close links Roscoff has always had with England.

Mary, Queen of Scots passed through here in 1548 as a 6 year old on her way to be married to Francis, the French dauphin – poor child…

Roscoff became famous for the ‘Onion Johnnies’ with their famous pink onions, grown since 1647, – an important defence from scurvy for the many seafarers who set off from here. The trade peaked in the 19th century when bicycling, striped Bretons took their produce door to door in England.

Mark found some local flavour:

In the 1960s they built the deep water harbour and Brittany Ferries was launched in 1972 – ferries now go to Plymouth and Cork. We went to the ferry port to go through Schengen customs – no stamps now, just biometrics – well they did the photo but the finger-printer wasn’t working. The poor chap was not impressed with the new technology! 

Due to the high iodine content in the sea water here (thanks to the kelp), Roscoff is a pioneering centre for thalassotherapy – good for rheumatism apparently.

We had an excellent meal of local fish and seafood in town and feel relaxed, looking forward to a shorter sail to Aber-Wrach tomorrow.

None of us mentioned the 3rd place play off (six-quatre!)

Sending extra love to Esme.