We intended to get away early this morning but were having such a lovely chat with our host, Lynne – well, you know the story !! Keeping with the pattern of recent days, our first stop (Huelgoat) was only half an hour away! We decided it would be a good idea to have morning tea (if you can call beer and crisps morning tea!) before starting our walk. However, in our efforts to find somewhere discreet to drink a beer at that time of day, we ended up walking half-way round the rather large lake that is right in the middle of town! Nevertheless, we found a quiet spot with a good view of the town across the lake. We then proceeded to finish our circumnavigation of the lake to end up where we started! We ... read more

We were sad to leave Véronique and Pont Avenbut as always, there was the anticipation of a new place to experience. We didn’t go far before the first stop! Quimper (kam-paihr) is only half an hour down the road from Pont Aven. It is the administrative capital of the Finistère Department. We really liked the atmosphere and the way it feels like a real, lived in city – not a tourist spot. Although, there are tourist shops, they’re scattered amongst ordinary shops and the tourists are mingled with the locals. Oh yeah, but they do have a choo-choo tourist train! The Cathédrale Saint-Corentin de Quimper is very cool – a little reminiscent of the Notre Dame (on a smaller scale). It’s big enough though, to make it hard to take a photo of the whole thing ... read more

Today was the day for exploring the local area. Just south-east of Pont Aven is Doëlan, a small fishing village that spans both sides of its river – so it has a Rive Gauche and a Rive Droite just like Paris. As the tourist blurbs say, it really is the archetypal fishing port. We managed to get there quite early so there were not many tourists and we were absolutely taken with the place. There is a walking trail along both sides of the river and also along the coast where you can walk, basically as far as you like in either direction – it just goes on and on. We only walked a short way along the coast as we were getting hungry. Sadly, the few restaurants in town were all full by the time ... read more

Pain au chocolat in hand, we headed to the 9th to visit Musée de la vie Romantique. This house was owned by the successful 19thcentury portrait artist Ary Scheffer. The house was frequented by many artists, writers and musicians such as George Sand, Chopin, Delacroix, and Liszt. After Scheffer’s death, the family donated the house and some of his work to the people of France. One floor is devoted to George Sand and includes a recreation of the drawing room from Sand’s country house. On display are casts of Sand’s right arm and Chopin’s left hand! We hadn’t realised that Sand was quite an accomplished artist in her own right. She developed a technique for creating imaginary landscapes (which she called “dendrites”) using paint-blots to inspire her imagination. While in the area we passed by a ... read more

It was great to wander down to the local shops (literally one minute's walk away) again this morning for supplies. For us, a big part of the enjoyment of Paris is getting to do this - it's so different from our normal life. Today we started using our 2-day Paris Museum Card. This card gives unrestricted access (often via a special entrance that avoids the queues) to over 60 museums/monuments in and around Paris. First stop for us was the Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme, which we've wanted to see for a while. Among other things, it highlighted for us the long but troubled history of the Jewish people in France. There is a lot of information explaining the basis of the Jewish faith and detailing the meaning of special celebrations such as Hanukkah and ... read more