Le Faou Travel Guide

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This impressive statue, in the square in front of the Town Hall and opposite the Hotel de Beauvoir commemorates Monsieur et Madame de Pompery who were responsible for introducing new agricultural methods in the region between 1830 and 1880. It was unveiled by their son and brother at the Le Faou agricultural show in 1884.
Here, it seems, was a woman well ahead of her times, who knew her oats from her onions!

Finisterre is very definitely a "seasonal" destination.
In my opinion far too many places of historic interest, other tourist attractions - and eateries! -close in or at the end of September.

On our recent October visit we enjoyed beautiful, warm/hot sunny weather, it seemed more like high summer and there were still many tourists about..

This small local history museum is one of the places we would have liked to visit but it opens only from Tuesday to Saturday 10h-12 h/14h-19 h, Sunday and Monday 15h-19 h, in July-August.
Outside these times visits can be made "by arrangement" - not a lot of use if you are travelling through.

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This small town has a larger than usual number of attractive old partially timbered houses in relation to its population.
Even though this method of construction was banned in 1561, because of the risk of fire, the ones seen here were mainly built at the end of the 16th and early 17th centuries. So the inhabitants of Le Faou were of an independent nature!
The High street is a mixture of ancient and modern buildings and several of these buildings are used as commercial premises, as no doubt they were when first built when it was common for an artisan or shopkeeper to conduct his business on the ground floor and to live upstairs with the family.

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We stopped here for lunch in May 2008 and had the 14 euro menu. And again October 2009 Plat du jour 8euros 50.
It is a very small restaurant which was full on both occasions, and apart from one other couple we were the only "foreigners". On our first week-day visit it seemed a local meeting place where everybody knew each othere and were known to the staff. Slightly different on a Saturday when the customers included more men than women.

Just to enter the place was like taking a step back in time - like I remember bistro style restaurants in the '60's. Crowded, even a bit cramped, full of pictures and interesting objects.
Floral table covers and net curtains. Good aromas from the kitchen. Food was hearty rather than fine - plentiful salads and sea food platters, fried white fish, omelettes, soups and casseroles.

We said would go there again and we did!

The restaurant, named La Vieille Renommée, in Hotel Beauvoir where we stayed in July 2007 was particularly recommended to us.
It seemed an odd name for a restaurant and we did not discover its history. Was it perhaps once run by an old lady who was a very good cook?
Or is it named in honour of the Noblewoman whose statue stands in the square opposit the hotel?

When we went down to dinner the restaurant was already filling up and the few remaining tables were reserved. Good job we had booked when we checked in to the hotel. I have mentioned in the hotel tip the rather eclectic elegance of the restaurant decor.

We had been told that it was rather more formal than most rural restaurants are these days and it was! A good job too that we had at least changed into smart,smart casual.

But it was well worth the effort . We both had a sea-food concoction with a delicious creamy and flavoursome sauce to start, and I had a baked trout to follow. As we were on the special D.B&B deal we had desert and cheese. Deserts were either artistic creamy type creations or fresh soft summer fruits with cream or home-made ice cream. The cheese selection came on an antique trolley and was excellent.

A really good meal in a relaxed but stately environment. As part of the deal very good value for money; Menus otherwise a bit above average .