"As close to Eden as you get on Earth."

The Camping Car park in Pont Aven is well positioned, on the edge of the village a few minutes walk down a steep hill to the historic centre. It's sizeable with space for over thirty vans and it was almost full. If you are planning to visit Pont Aven during the summer months then it's probably best to avoid the weekend. For us now, a question of being wise after the event.

In fact we had no particular desire to revisit the place, it was the Pont Aven Camping Car Park's proximity to the country lanes around the estuary that brought us here. On the map it looked like an ideal starting point to explore this beautiful wooded landscape. In fact faced with the reality of the steep hill down to the village and the traffic choked streets we decided that the aire at nearby Nevez provided a better starting point, so we moved there.

Here too is an old stamping ground. The village is a kilometres or two from the Domain de Kerlan campsite that we used on many familiy holidays to Brittany. In fact we used the site for so long we watched the place develop from the ramshackle 'Camping Ros Pin' in the 1970s into the much improved 'Le Spinnaker' in the 80s, before being reinvented as 'a Haven Resort' in the following decade. When we passed the gates it all looked very familiar, now run by 'Siblu' who acquired the Haven brand some years ago.

Our destination was more workaday, a simple free aire on the outskirts of Nevez. Perfect for an overnight stay, but not for longer, the service point was a construction site. The village of Nevez seemed much posher looking than the last time we were here a couple of decades ago. We remembered it as a somewhat workaday place with dun coloured concrete faced buildings, all a bit dour. Everything has been brightened up, with white-washed facades and bright blue shutters; a couple of places opted for a more startling pink or dusty blue look; flowers beds and shrubberies are dotted about cheering up the main street and the small square in front of the church. It all looked well cared for and more prosperous. I found it heartening, progress is possible!

For years I regarded the wooded countryside of l'Aven estuary between Pont Aven and Kedruc as one of the most beautiful places I had ever visited, exuding a profound tranquility, 'a haunt of ancient peace' as Van the man once put it. However, in the intervening years since we were last here we have travelled to four continents, touched base in both hemispheres, and since 2014 travelled for almost four years in total, visiting 15 countries in Europe. We have seen fabulous things, both natural wonders and thought provoking works of human culture. Would this scrap of forest on the banks of a small river in Brittany still feel quite so magical, I wondered, given all the marvelous places we visited over the past few years?

We were heading for a very particular spot. The 'bois du Hènan' is a a small area of broad leafed woodland on the western bank of l' Aven's ria, situated just at the point where the valley broadens out to form estuarial mud flats. 

Mostly the area is ancient woodland, including four ancient springs, but one area was developed two or three generations ago into an Arboretum. Now fully matured, magnificent specimen deciduous trees mix with the native limes, sycamores and beeches. The result is nature perfected, an arboreal Shangri-la.

A small, simple chapel nestles in a clearing. Even after all, our wanderings this still feels like a very special place. 

The building dates back to the fifteenth century, but you get a strong sense that the spot has been venerated far longer than that, especially the woodland springs. 

Such places feature strongly in Celtic myth and legend andthere is something about le Hènan that tempts even hard headed rationalists towards flights of fancy. I began wittering on about Lothlórien; when Gill Whatsapped a couple of photos to Matthew he observed the the area was "as close to Eden as you get on Earth." For someone who likes to remind me when my musings take a bit of a 'cultural turn' that he espouses a strictly materialist view of history, this was indeed a rare affective outburst. I felt delighted that somewhere that we had taken him as a child had remained with him as a treasured memory.

As for me, the experience also took an uncanny turn. As I have said in a couple of recent  posts I have not been feeling well for weeks. While I was sitting in a tree stump next to one of the springs, just looking at the play of light on the weedy water and watching how the light breeze made the leaves shimmer suddenly I felt much better - energised perhaps is the best way to describe it. I am not saying that some magical spirit of the woods healed me, but I do think connecting with nature can be a profound experience and have a restorative effect. I haven't taken to hugging trees  just yet, but I don't think the people that do are wholly deluded.

In one respect our visit to le Hènan' was different to previous ones. We cycled here rather than coming by car. It meant we pedalled through a maze of small lanes to get there, in itself a more delightful experience. On the way back to the van we took a different route to visit some strangely shaped giant boulders. 

Brittany is full of natural curiosities, it's wholly understandable that previous inhabitants wove myths and legends around them. 

We may congratulate ourselves that now we are less given superstition and myth , though five minutes scrolling through TikTok or Twitter might dent your confidence that we have progressed at all.