France / L'ile aux Moines
Eyes Wide Open

You probably won't get what you expect from visiting L'ile aux Moines. In fact, you won't get any of what you're looking for...if it's fine dining, shopping or lying on a pristine beach. The best reason to go to this little gem of an island in the Gulf of Morbihan is to snoop around. That's all. Just start walking, with eyes wide open.

It's a house & garden tour of your own device. Some of the homes are 300 years old. In stone & granite. Heavy, old monsters, reeking with history. Battered shutters. Lace in the windows. The setting for a gothic novel.

Now step this way. On narrow streets you'll also see some sweet stone cottages, with enclosed gardens, bursting with color. And odd-shaped buildings that have been erected to fit the contour of the location. Like pie-shaped or ultra-narrow.

Tortured looking evergreens are everywhere. Naturally trained according to the whims of a constant wind. Southern magnolia trees (Magnolia grandiflora) tell of the tropical microclimates where they thrive. Huge, old specimens with fat, creamy blossoms in June. Growing next to towering eucalyptus trees, their stems heavy with fragrant gray leaves.

And the flowers. This is Holly Hock heaven. Also, saucy hydrangeas in pink & blue. Foxgloves. Butterfly bushes (covered with you know what). Unusual kinds of geraniums. And stone wall crevices, spilling forth with sedums & alyssum. It's a riot of color. The French are masters of this palette. Everyone appears to love their gardens. The overall look is wild, but behaved.

June is a great time to take your house & garden tour. We can't imagine it gets better than that month, considering the beauty of it then. But whenever you go (May through October is the season), don't be a daytripper on L'ile aux Moines. Stay overnite. Be sure to walk around after the last boat goes back to Port Blanc. A beautiful quiet blankets the island come evening. The summer light lasts past 10 pm, so there's plenty of time to wander around before dark. And get up early to catch the early morning sun as it first touches the flowers.

There's not much in the way of accommodations, but our choice is Le San Francisco (Fax # 33-297-2635-59). A grand, atmospheric old mansion of massive stone, with only 8 rooms. It's a little old-fashioned & not at all luxurious, but the people who run it are very friendly. It's a good place to hunker down for the night as the wind blows. Book early for the "Izenah" room (after the original name of the island). It's the best in the house, with a balcony overlooking the harbor.