Pleumeur Bodou, Brittany

I visited this area many years ago when my father was working for the GPO and was involved in the collaboration between Britain with their telecommunications site at Goonhilly Downs, France at Pleumeur Bodou and the USA. It culminated in the launching of Telestar and the first transatlantic TV broadcast.
We explored the large museum of telecommunications  and went to a light and sound show inside the Radome, which explained the engineering and history of the site (all in French). The Radome was designed by Plunnett Milton. After two prototypes, the final radome (the current one) was put up at the end of July 1962.The radome shell of Dacron of 1.7 mm is inflated under pressure of 4 millibars, more during storms. The jacket weighs 27 tons and receives six tons of paint to the Hypalon regularly (every 5 years) for maintenance. Inside is the antenna (satellite dish) and all the workings to rotate and elevate the dish. The control cabin is still there. 
The sky was just right for the day, starting with blue skies and fluffy clouds and ending with storm clouds, which produced rain just as we left. These are monochrome conversions using Lightroom on my very small travel computer so I am looking forward to tackling them with Silver Efex etc.

In the morning we also visited Chateau de Kerduel; the Chateau was preparing for a large antiques fair but we had a pleasant walk in the grounds.