La vie en rose!
ADRIAN CAFFERY is in the pink on a family holiday in a part of France famous for its boulders, beaches and wartime intrigue
THE surreal Pink Granite Coast is as beautiful as it is rugged and must be one of France’s best-kept secrets.
Miles of colourful, misshapen boulders, some up to 20m in height, are stacked on top of each other, often balanced at seemingly impossible angles.
Three hundred million years in the making, it is one of only three coastlines in the world made from pink granite – the others are in Corsica and China.
This stretch of northern Brittany is just a short hop across the English Channel, yet appears to remain mostly undiscovered by Brits.
There’s no guide book to speak of, little information online and we seldom came across more than a handful of our countrymen each day.
We were staying with Eurocamp at Le Ranolien holiday parc, just a stone’s throw from the start of the most scenic stretch of the coastal path.
Take the right hand path and a 20-minute clifftop stroll brings you to a wide, family-friendly beach – one of two in the bustling town of PerrosGuirec.
Go left and you start to explore the mysterious Pink Granite Coast in all its glory, the like of which you’ve probably never seen before.
There are plenty of strange rock formations to look out for, including those that resemble a shoe, skull, rabbit, dragon, bottle, witch, mushroom and pile of pancakes.
One of the most sought-after is ‘Napoleon’s Hat’, which has a place in history. On August 3, 1944 the BBC broadcast the cryptic message ‘‘Is Napoleon’s Hat still in Perros Guirec?’’ to warn the Breton Resistance that the second D-Day invasion had begun.
You can also have fun letting your imagination run wild. We ‘spotted’ a squirrel and a Muppet’s head along the path, whilst elsewhere on the coast was a shark, a turtle and an elephant drinking from the sea!
A lighthouse, reached by a bridge, blends in perfectly after it was rebuilt in pink granite following its destruction during the Second World War.
The coastal path also offers views to the Seven Isles, which are home to France’s largest seabird colony – 27 different types including puffins.
One of the islands is named Bono, like the singer in U2, which amused me as the band once recorded an album called Live At Red Rocks.
After about 40 minutes, the coastal path brings you to the beautiful cove at Ploumanac’h, which in 2015 was awarded the title of France’s Prettiest Village.
A 12th century shrine on the beach marks the spot where the Welsh evangelist St Guirec first set foot in Brittany, and at high tide it’s surrounded by water.
With hydrangeas in abundance, the picture postcard look is completed by a Disney-esque mock medieval castle on an islet across from the cove.
It’s where the Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz wrote Quo Vadis, the saga of Ancient Rome which won him a Nobel Prize.
From Ploumanac’h, it’s a 15-minute walk back to the holiday parc, passing an interesting sculpture park featuring abstract and figurative works in granite.
The granite boulders are also scattered across inland areas, and Le Ranolien is designed around – and takes advantage of – the geological features.
This is most evident at the fabulous pool complex where piles of rocks are used to support the two water slides as well as the staircase leading to the top. And play equipment has been installed around, inside and above another jumble of rocks (which, by the way, also resembles an elephant).
In both cases, it is so cleverly done that you imagine the rocks aren’t real.
There are four outdoor pools of different depths plus a large hot tub in case you get chilly, although they were always mercifully warm during our August break. There are also two covered pools and an indoor splash zone, making for very happy children whatever the weather.
Other family-friendly facilities include multi-sports pitches, table tennis courts, a games room, a cinema, a bouncy castle and kids’ clubs.
But when not at the pools we preferred to explore the stunning coastline some more.
Besides the beaches in Perros-Guirec and at Ploumanac’h, there are several Mediterranean-style ones at Tregestel, a 10-minute drive from Le Ranolien.
Gently shelving, almost wave-less and surprisingly warm, this is where my eight-year-old daughter got her first taste of ‘wild’ swimming.
There are islets to wade across to at low tide and plenty of granite features to explore, plus the remains of a 1960s shack built under a huge overhanging boulder.
Another fine beach can be found a little further down the coast on Ile-Grande, an island village connected to the mainland by road.
A memorial next to Pors Gelen reveals that Royal Navy officers secretly collected intelligence documents from the crescent beach during the Second World War.
On returning to La Renolien each evening we enjoyed dining alfresco, taking our pick from the two restaurants, the pizzeria or the takeaway. There was always a family-friendly atmosphere and after clearing our plates Mum and Dad sipped wine while watching the children play.
And our choice of wine? Why, rosé,