Sweet and Un-Savoury in France | EXPLORING Pont Aven

Sweet and Un-Savoury in France | EXPLORING Pont Aven

Good morning. Bonjour. Welcome to the most beautiful village in the whole of France. The most beautiful village in the whole world, I’d say. It’s stunning. Absolutely stunning. So, today we’re in Ponttoven, which is in the lower part of Britany. And it’s absolutely amazing. There’s bridges across the river and uh and restaurants. Restaurants. There’s walkways across the river. Yeah, it’s absolutely stunning. Absolutely amazing. There’s some uh medieval buildings, I’d say, as well. Yeah, some beautiful shops and cafes and um galleries and everything as well. I’ll show you this way. So, Ponttoven, if you’re Welsh, speak Welsh or you’ve got some knowledge of Welsh, you would know that the word pont is often used on towns with a bridge. And a a or a is Welsh for river. So it’s river bridge. Although I think the um we’ve been to the Welsh one, haven’t we? We have. Yeah. So in the middle of the village now. So lots of um cafes. Isn’t that Yeah. To Mar. So yeah, they’ve got quite a lot of outside seating. They’re not all crepe. Some of them are good. So, it’s really, really pretty over here. What a lovely place to have a meal. Absolutely amazing. as these bridges here. It looks like the the bridge the water’s either being managed or um it splits into two just to manage the amount of water cuz it is quite quick here, isn’t it? So, we’ve come up to uh a pretty little bridge. So, I think the port’s just up the way with the the boats, the river boats. But what I’ll do, we’ll show spin you around and you can have a look without us spinning the way the view. Mhm. So, we’re just about to have a walk over this uh looks like a really old bridge, doesn’t it? And there’s loads of uh small boats. So, we’ll have a walk around the marina. I think anything where the river comes through it is going to be amazing. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a definitely a photo opportunity through here. It’s incredible. Lots of people walking around now, right? So, as you can see, voila. Yeah. It’s not wood, is it? It’s like concrete. Yeah. So, the uh this is concrete. It just It looks like wood, doesn’t it? From a distance. I suppose that’s why it’s lasted so long, really, without rotting and falling through. It’s just like a wedding. Good cows pipping their arms. It’s lovely. Actually, we’re at the port. Just take you through these uh woods. These rocks are impressive. Centuries worn. And then under the shade of this tree, we’re on to the slipway. Looks like it’s low tide at the moment cuz the still wet here. There’s Beck. Say hi. So, Portoven is very famous for its art. So, there’s lots of art um displays, shops, galleries, galleries throughout. Um all free to enter and have a little walk around. Artists have been coming here for years. In fact, Paul Gogan, I think that’s how you say it, came and did a famous painting of a watermill in 1894, no less. So, this port is kept absolutely immaculate. Not a drop of litter. Right, we’ll have a little walk down here to the boats. Houses look uh beautiful. And certainly, if you lived in that house, that would be a view you’d never get tired of. Obviously, this river empties into the sea, doesn’t it? In that direction, I’d imagine. This is without doubt the nicest town. Nicest I’ve ever been to. Not just in France. And not just the pretty the vibe as well. Yeah, it’s really nice. It’s not overly tourist, but we we’re not exactly in tourist season, are we? No. But it’s not overly tourist. Midm over there. Yeah. So, there’s some restaurants across the way, isn’t there? But it’s all Yeah. Plenty of places for food and drink. So, here’s the bridge. I don’t know what it’s called. We’re uh there’s a different view for you. It looks like you can hire out uh this uh tricycle to take you around the uh town in luxury. What’s that? Got ice cream on the back. Yeah. It’ be good, wouldn’t it? Would be good. Who wouldn’t want to live in that house there? I know you’re thinking the Adams family. You say you’d live in any of them there. Yeah, there’s quite a few there’s quite a few steps. But why was we saying earlier that um if you moaned about the steps that means that you couldn’t appreciate the view ever? So what stop you doing five steps and just stoping for a minute? Yeah. Having a having a piece of baguette there and pan of shakala boxes on the wall, haven’t you? Snacks as you go. Encouragement. Yeah, that what that tart. Was it Brazian tart or something? He had what was it called? Flan. Oh, pisian flan. Incredible. So, we just tried one. It’s like um it’s a little like an egg but totally different. Similar to a vanilla similar to vanilla slice, I thought like it. Yeah. But but but it was about 2 in thick of the custard. So a fluffy custard. Oh, it was amazing. Yeah, it’s amazing what they can do with shoes now. Is it make pastry out of them kind of stuff? So sometimes when you’re in France and you see signs, you don’t really understand what they mean. So you have to look them up. However, this one, I mean, to be honest, you got to be bursting if you can get that kind of uh aren trajectory, but obviously, yeah, don’t don’t uh urinate there. There’s no need to. There’s toilets. Um municipal toilets, isn’t there? Yeah, they’re going to just say cafe. Cafe. We’re on the hunt for some coffee, I think. Yes. There’s another gallery here. We don’t kind of um decide whether we’re going to eat out, do we? We kind of uh see how we feel. As Mark loves to explain, you can’t see how you feel. You can’t see how you feel. You can feel how you feel. Feel how you feel and look at how you see. Can’t you see how you feel later? Well, it’s a stone building, so that’s very old. gallery where money is. So, what we’re thinking going to have a cup of coffee. We’re going to go inside, I think, we all seated. [Music] That’s the sun for a little bit. Also, you get people smoke sometimes outside, don’t they? They do. We don’t We’re not We don’t smokers. Just us inside. Everyone’s outside. Are you happy? [Music] Cappuccino. Times two. I’ve got cappuccino. What’s happened to the top? Well, as we know, what I like to do is do this. Push all the chocolate into it and give it a stir. Then you don’t have a cappuccino. You have a mix up. That’s how it’s supposed to look. Yeah. Look at that. I’ve actually had a drink. What you done with yours? Mixed it up. Close out the bath. Nice. Is it nice? Nice. So, I’ve already visited these toilets uh and done a still, but if you notice, they uh hang out over the river. So, I’d imagine that pre sanitation. Yeah. Everything will just drop into the river. We’ve seen some like this before in Wales, haven’t we? Yeah. So I was just in the uh main street just in the cafe over there. Cafe in the center port to come down the steps. So what’s unusual in France is the you get these urinals with no doors on which but don’t really see it in the UK. Um so it’s not really can’t really see anything can you to be honest. It’s not really seen as a There was just you on in the street at one of the tents we went to, wasn’t it? Yeah. Park unless you turn around fast. I think it’s all right, is it? Probably. Uh, your modest is covered, isn’t it? But at least the uh facilities are available. There are stalls as well, obviously. That just takes you around to the back. You need to go to the toilet. I see. Luckily, there’s a door on yours. There was a door. Yes, that’s a winter. There’s your door. What did you say? This looks like the main street. Yeah, it does. Uh town square is up here, isn’t it? I’ll probably fall off the curb in a minute. Looks like I’m holding on to you for me to be steady. Yeah, in this case I’m not. But uh yeah, there’s lots of beautiful uh galleries again. Artisty type shops. Yeah. And then obviously lots and lots of things to do. Cakey shops we call them. What do they What do they sell in there? Cakes. Oh, okay. Well, I’ll spin you around and you can have a look. Yeah, we got the village square over there. A pension dei hotel and restaurant. As we said, there’s quite a lot of galleries here, isn’t there? Yes. Beautiful. Uh colorful. Those are, aren’t they? Yes. Really nice. Tell you what else there is over here. Yeah, biscuit. Don’t know how to say but so most people would have heard crepes or pancakes where I come from. Um but you can also get savory pancakes and in the area of Britany where we are. It’s quite uh famous for galletes and uh if you come from a stoke or you live in Stoke, you it’s very similar to a um what are they called in Stoke? I can’t remember. Um yeah, but they’re buckwheat um which I’d never tried before. Um to be honest, they’ve not got a very strong flavor. Yeah, they’ve not got a very strong flavor, but it’s basically a savory pancake with a filling. Coming up to the most stunning most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in these restaurants on it as well. It’s beautiful. So, there’s a little bit of a lovely walk along the river here. We was only going to stay here probably for this morning, but I think we’ll stay later. What’s the tree there? Um, it’s lovely gardens. So, we’ve got a choice here. We can go was it alosh back into the street or we can go this way. So, nice and uh shady here, isn’t it? So, we saw this house earlier. So, this house, it’s got its own path down to the river. So onwards we’ve come across a lovely church. So we’ll have a look in the church before the uh the coach party follows us. You should tag along on the tour. You can speak German. So be like that. So we’re in the church of uh Ponttoven. It’s Liss St. Joseph. Church of St. Joseph. Some lovely stained glass windows. Not sure what type of churches. We didn’t really go into that much. We just love the the architecture and the history, the peace. And it’s a time to slow everything down and remember. 23° in outside. Feels like 26. I just love the way that the the light comes through the stained glass windows various times of the day of a Maria. Flame is a symbol. There’s a place for uh can light a candle for a loved one, say a prayer if you would like to. There’s a old font. Not all font. That’s different. All font. Need it to stand like on font. To do candle. So you’re going to light a candle. So would you like to do the do this quite often, don’t we? Looking for the dearest option. So put your money in there. It’s all electronic. Look. Yeah. about himself. So have a look down. Brilliant. Okay, we’re at the Legly St. Joseph which is the St. Joseph’s church here in Pontean. Just show you up to the the top. The lovely spire bell tower as well. The spire is very typical. Really French, isn’t it? Seen a lot of them like it and they remind me of Lra Familia in Barcelona that we went to. Yeah. Yeah. That’s something else, isn’t it? Yeah. But um one thing I’ve noticed with all the churches we’ve been to here, they’re all open. Yeah. Which is very inviting and very nice. But yeah, not locked. Don’t get that back home. We’re about to be run over by a stand. But yeah, back home if you go to a quaint little village, maybe in short or something. They’re often they’re often open. In turns, they’re normally shut, aren’t they? Yeah. Yeah. Which is a shame. It is a shame, isn’t it? But this was beautiful again, just like the little village it’s in. Yeah. Okay, so we’ve come across uh what looks like the uh village square again, but we’re going to try a different route. So, it’s a peticeri where we can get our par and our uh we love our uh bread, don’t we? Some lovely uh food places. Yeah, I saw the back street boys. Marlene most of the old buildings, isn’t it? Yeah, there’s a gallery there. Another gallery. They’re all tucked away, ain’t they? These galleries. There’s a telephone tower. If you’re worried about whether you can get Wi-Fi here, so we haven’t been down this bit. We’ll have a walk up here. Not very often you see uh those cars either. We haven’t seen many. Yeah. Nice car. It’s a Ford GT if you don’t know. It looks lovely, doesn’t it? It’s in a couple of Porsches, haven’t we? Yeah. Yeah. Lovely color as well. That red is, isn’t it? Nice. Haven’t seen many nice cars. We’re in 12. We haven’t got one anymore. Maybe have a walk back to the van and have a bit of a rest and then we’ll come out later on when it’s a bit darker. What do you say? We’ll look for the toilets as well for you. So, we’re going to get a uh baguette or a path as usual. We need to get some. Yeah, we’ve we’ve been going mad on the bread and cheese, haven’t we? I don’t know what’s down here. Let’s have a look. It’s a bicycle route. Yeah. Can’t work it out if it’s part of this house. It’s a fireplace. Oh, no. You can’t come this way. We just come I’ll just show you. Just come down. It’s just down to the water’s edge basically. At some time in the past, you could get up the other side up those steps. There’s a series of uh we just behind me this way. So again, there’s some open urinals there. So it’s probably like a cinema, more expensive for seating, cheaper stand up. managed to get on all right with me GCSE level uh French. As long as you know the basics of things and you can point to things. Country is the most important, aren’t they? Yeah, you’re just going to risk our lives. I didn’t realize you could get out onto these rocks. I should go a bit farther. So, I’ll show you around. Obviously, it gets a lot rougher. There’s the back over there. Not coming over the here. I don’t think would be very wise. That’s where we stood earlier by the restaurant. This bridge is actually not over the river. It’s inside the river. And it looks like there’s some the footings there look like they’ve been in there for centuries. You can separate. Oh, I’ll lower you down by your ankles. So, I think we’re going to bring you with you through here and see if you agree. Is this the most pictures village that you’ve ever seen? At least on a bit of YouTube video, having been here. Um, would you like to come here? Comments if you’ve been here. So, we chose to park here last night. Um, €6. You just put your number plate in there. Um but it there’s no facilities. It’s just well there’s rubbish bins. Um it’s just basically you park up car park really. But um we use these if uh might want to have a drink so that we’re not parked on a car park. We might have to move from that sort of thing. So I’ve used a couple of uh these type of airs which is basically just a car park. Like I said, quite cheap.

This week we’re back on our France 2025 van tour, and we’ve landed in what might just be the prettiest town we’ve ever seen — the stunning Pont-Aven in Brittany 🇫🇷✨

With its cobbled streets, charming art galleries, sweet-smelling bakeries, and picturesque bridges, Pont-Aven completely stole our hearts. We soaked up the atmosphere, sampled delicious cakes at a café, and even stumbled across a wedding celebration winding through the streets — complete with horns, cheers, and all the chaos you’d expect! 🎺💍

We explored the port, wandered the back streets, and learned about the famous painters who once called this place home (you might’ve heard of Paul Gauguin 👨‍🎨).

As much as we didn’t want to leave, we only have two weeks on this tour — so next stop: Carnac! But not before we found a perfect little budget-friendly park-up so Mark could enjoy a drink or two without worrying about driving. 😄🍷

Expect the usual banter, travel inspiration, and a bit of vanlife chaos as we continue our journey through Brittany and Normandy.

🧡 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe to follow the full tour across France and beyond.

▶️ Catch up on the tour so far ➜ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv0mkVAjj-LJ-dyYz9Jaqbrjq9ezFkymD

We’re Mark & Beck from KnightsVanventures — sharing our travels in our tiny orange campervan across the UK and Europe!

#VanlifeFrance #CampervanLife #DIYVanConversion #FordTransitCustom #VanlifeUK #KnightsVanVentures

🔷LINKS🔷
🟡Buy us a coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/knightsvanventures
It will be much appreciated as every little helps.
PLEASE help us grow by subscribing
🔴YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGzTOc64J1uuU1TiQ1EohBQ
🟠Instagram https://instagram.com/KnightsVanventures
🟣TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@knights.vanventur
🔵Facebook https://www.facebook.com/beckknight1978

🔷VIDEOS you may like🔷
https://youtu.be/q4M43noMwUM

Thanks for watching
👋 Mark and Beck 🧡

0:00 Intro
1:07 Middle of Town
1:58 The bridge
3:12 The Port
5:45 The Parisian Flan
6:30 French Signs
7:37 Cafe
8:54 Toilets
10:15 Main Street
12:10 Bridge restaurants
13:03 Church
14:28 Light a Candle for loved ones
16:20 Town Square
16:43 Back Streets
17:11 Nice Cars
18:50 Water stones View
20:13 Park Up