Brits in Brittany

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After a silly 4am start, we arrived in Calais at 9am to wait for Mike (Nick's Dad), Lucy (Nick's sister) and James (Nick's sister's husband), we eventually caught up with them on the motorway hard shoulder after Mike had tried to go round the roundabout the wrong way - whoops! Partially because I didn't know my right from my left!!!!!

Having chosen 'car park Saturday' as the day to travel (the worst weekend in France to travel hence the motorways being called a car park) it was no surprise we spent a good 2+ hours in traffic jams. We got to our gite in time to get to the local village, Guemene-Sur-Scorff, for dinner in a gorgeous little restaurant run by an English couple, it was a traditional French affair with Fish and Chips for me! This was quite a coup as the owner of our Gite had said nothing would be open and there was only a Boulangerie open on Sunday where we could get butter and bread. Thankfully having lived there for 16 years he really did not know his stuff as there were 3+ restuarants open in the local village and a supermarket, butchers and a couple of Boulangeries open on Sunday. We did not have to survive off a pint of milk, some butter and bread to feed 6 people after all!

Our first day was spent chilling at the Gite and a BBQ in the evening to make the most of the lovely weather. Heidi had fun jumping in the pool entertaining all, feeding the goats and Nick had fun exploring the empty lake, which in the Gite's photos had been full with a canoe to explore, heh ho - creative marketing and all that! We had a laugh with Mike as convinced him that goats climb trees (as they do in Morrocco) but they can only do this as they wear crampons, when I went on to explain that this is only in the winter due to the snowy conditions I could not hide my laughter anymore!!! Poor old Mike 😊

On Monday we explored Pontivy which took about 1 hour as there was not too much to see and it was quite dead. I was determined to have a crepe and so we made our way back to Guemene-Sur-Scorff to a traditional little Creperie where we all enjoyed a traditional crepe and tea cup of cider, Mike enjoyed his omelette. Polly and Chris turned up on Monday night at about midnight after a close call with some crazy French farmers who thought they were robbers - bit scary when they had shot guns and had been drinking a lot! All Pol and Chris wanted were directions!

Our next day was a lazy day spent at Lac de Guerledan, a beautiful little spot with a small beach, a lake to have fun on and woods to walk in. We hired a pedalo, and Nick did an impression of a whale breeching - namely a moonie with his white bum breeching, it gave us all a fright! Whilst getting ready for the BBQ in the evening Mike befriended the owner's dog and asked Nick what it was called. Nick answered "He's called Merde (sh*t in French)", Mike's knowledge of French is not huge and continued to play with the dog "Here Merde, you are a good boy Merde" - Nick and I were in fits and could not keep up the pretence for too long, Merde, sorry Sebastian did not seem too bothered, maybe that was because he got fed all the scraps from all our meals!

We spent Thursday at the biggest yearly market in the local village that was a load of stalls selling a load of rubbish, but in a quaint French way. The evening was enjoyed at the village's best pizza restaurant, I made sure we booked a table as there were 8 of us. We got to the restaurant (that could seat about 50) and it was dead, oh well we thought maybe it will fill up and there will be a bit of atmos. It didn't and there wasn't. Even a group of 4 people were turned away as they were too busy. Turned out there was only our waitress on duty who also cooked our 8 pizzas!

Our last two days were spent at Carnac Beach, a fantastic town with loads of different beaches to choose from. We all enjoyed splashing in the sea and Heidi loved it! Hector thought it was ok too, especially eating the sand - yum yum! Our last night together with Mike, Lucy and James, was spent having a meal at home, cooked by Chris and playing Cranium - Mike made us laugh drawing an actual Creative Cat instead of the word he should of been drawing on the Pictionary round, no wonder I did not get it! Heidi enjoyed a ride with me in Aunty Pol's Mazda MX5 - we took a quick drive down the road with the music turned up high, it was great fun, we had our arms in the air waving to oncoming traffic - a completely irresponsible mother but we were both smiling, I want a soft top as well as beach hut!

Our last evening was spent in a traditional French restaurant on the way home from the beach where Heidi and Polly had winkles for the first time (I declined!), it was good to have some traditional French nosh. Our journey home was a slow 14 hour job as we encompassed a 2 hour traffic jam where we only managed 10 miles. Heidi and Hector were so well behaved though which was a joy.

All in all, a brilliant summer holiday that was enjoyed by all, I especially loved my lie ins - thanks Aunties !!!

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