The town is in a steep valley, and is the tidal and navigable limit of the Aven, mainly because of the number of mills that were built here. Quite a few yachts moor here, and there are some beautiful houses on the hillsides overlooking the small harbour. Unfortunately the tide was always quite low when we were there.

Behind the main street there is a network of footbridges and paths over and along the various branches of the river.

Toilets built out over the river

The town square with a bust of Gauguin

Pont-Aven is probably best known as an artists’ colony. Today there are more galleries than we've ever seen in one place. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was home to the ‘American School’, but the best known resident was Gauguin. The streets are full of interpretation boards showing his works. One of his most highly regarded works, The Yellow Christ, was painted in the church at Tremolo, a short distance from Dick & Pam's house.

I've looked at lots of websites about Gauguin and this painting. There's loads of stuff about the symbolism and use of colour, but none of them mention the basic fact that figure in the church is yellow (this hasn’t come out very well in my photo, and it’s also probably faded a bit in the 100+ years since he did his painting).

Interestingly, if you assume Gauguin set the picture on the site of the church (and the landscape looks about right) then Dick & Pam’s house is just below the wall that the man is climbing over.