House between the rocks (Plougrescant, France)

We did our second road trip to Bretagne specifically to see the house.

This house wins the ‘coolest house in the world’ competition hands down. The house is exactly what it says it is, a house between the rocks.

So: [ROCK]house[ROCK].

The house is called Castel Meur, and is off the coast of Plougrescant, Bretagne. It’s a private residence, so you won’t find signposts with little drawings telling you where it is. You just have to peer around every corner and sooner or later you will come across it.

You can actually drive up quite close to the house (a field away), and get a great view. Aim for “Le Site Naturel du Gouffre” on Google Maps.

There is a succinct history of the house on this site. It’s in French, but that’s what google translate is for.

Excuse my picture, my camera battery had died and it was Blackberry to the rescue (no wonder they are going bankrupt).

Le Palais idéal (Hauterives, France)

There is nothing ideal about the palace of Ferdinand Cheval. That doesn't stop it from being utterly magnificent.

Ferdinand ol' chap took 33 years to build this palace, using rocks and stones he picked up during his day job as a mail man. He started off with stuffing the stones in his pocket, then upgraded to a basket, and when that wasn't doing the job, he invested in a wheelbarrow.

Clearly the wheelbarrow worked, because the palais, whilst no Buckingham, is huge. It incorporates different ideologies and faiths. It has, amongst other forms of architecture, a hindu temple and an islamic church.

I realised after that i was so fascinated by the construction of the palais that i had clean forgotten to get a picture of the palais in its entirety. Of course, that's what google images is for. For now, my paltry pictures below will have to do.

The Cube Houses (Rotterdam, the Netherlands)

Last stop on the road trip (ROAD TRIP!!) was Rotterdam. This was a city i had wanted to visit for ages, ever since i saw the video from the Beautiful South song. Before we left Brussels, A cautioned me that Rotterdam was really nothing like the video.

Although there were no open fields in sight, nor brazilian dancers, nor scuba diving men, i still loved the city. Its skyline is very Miami-esque.

The Cube Houses in particular were out of this world. They are built on a bridge/overpass, and are very eyecatching. After all, any building that looks like it could topple down at any moment is eyecatching.

The next time i visit Rotterdam, i'm going to make it a point to go inside and see how on earth the flats are laid out.

Part I - 9. Cubic Houses (Rotterdam, Netherlands)