Le Cadou is a small hamlet about 15 minutes outside Sizun and on an old Roman road from Brasparts to Sizun and beyond. We parked outside the church and enjoyed a circular walk from the village (the first part of which is illustrated here.) We had walked out of Le Cadou before and this time only repeated the first part of the walk, up the hill out of the village on the Route des Carrieres (the road of the quarries).
The path rises out of the village, through pine forests and on the top of the hill there are wide views, including a tiny Chapel of St Michel in the distance.
This time, instead of turning left on to the Route de Comte we continued to the road, turned right along tracks in the heather, and eventually walked up the main road (quiet) into the village.
The Church of Saint-Cadou was built during the 17C and 18C, and the calvary is dated 1744. The area made its money from slate mining and the church was able to be enlarged during the 18C with the increased wealth from mining. This is a ‘reduced’ enclos – there is no ossuary, and no apostles in the South Porch, but the site is walled.
And on way back to Sizun we made a short detour to see St Eloy which, unfortunately, was also closed. St Eloy (Eligius or Eloi) is associated mainly with horses, and although there were the usual curious figures on the outside of the building I couldn’t find the saint himself! This church has an outside stairway all the way up to the Bell Tower – the only one I have seen.
Quite unexpectedly we found this WWII grave in the churchyard. Flight Sergeant Jacobsen volunteered to fight with the RAF and disappeared during an attack on troop trains in this area. His ‘active’ operational flying began on 5 May 1944 and he was killed flying his 18th operation, having flown fourteen in the previous three weeks, on 22 May.
Another enjoyable and interesting day in this part of Brittany.
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