Brittany with Kids: Sand, Surf and Shirts

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I must admit that I had a bit of an ulterior motive when I agreed to a vacation in Brittany. It is something of which I am not proud. Indeed, I am almost ashamed. I mean, it seems awfully shallow to want to go to a place just to get a shirt, doesn't it? But that has been the one thing that I have always associated with Brittany...that blue and white striped Breton sailor's shirt. I have owned several versions of this shirt throughout my life. So, my inner snob warmed at the thought of being able to get a "real" Breton sailors shirt from Brittany.


Imagined conversation #1

"I love the shirt" random stranger
"Thanks" me, demurely
"Where did you get it?" stranger persists
"Oh, I picked it up while we were in Brittany" I say casually.
Stranger looks extremely impressed.



See, I told you it was shallow. But to be honest, it wasn't really the only reason I wanted to go. It wasn't even the major reason. The major reason was that my husband had been sailing there the weekend before and was planning to stay for the week, as he had another race starting the following weekend. As sappy as it sounds, I missed him. And the boys missed their father. And I was getting cranky. Still, I felt a twinge of guilt that my second reason for going was not the draw of the beaches, or the beautiful scenery, or the culture or the glorious seafood. Nope, in my heart of hearts my second reason for wanting to go was a shirt. Vain? yes. Shallow? yes Unusual? Somehow I don't think so. But whatever the secondary reason, we booked tickets for early on a Tuesday morning.

The trip did not have a fortuitous start. The Friday before we left, Lucas got a fever. It got up to 102.5, which is very high for a child who almost never runs fevers anymore. I called SOS Medecin, who came and said Lucas had a red and inflamed throat. He prescribed some antibiotics and Doliprane. Now, I love the fact that when one sees a French doctor, he or she will always write a prescription for something. OK, maybe it is not completely necessary but it makes me feel like I haven't wasted my time and money. However, Doliprane is utterly, completely and without a shadow of a doubt useless. It is the French version of Tylenol but I swear it does NOTHING for fever...at least with my kids. I had more evidence of this on the following Sunday, when Seb got a fever of 102. We gave him Doliprane and after about an hour, it was up to 103.9. I called SOS Medecin again and gave him Motrin. God bless ibuprofen. It came down to under 100 within an hour. The doctor once again prescribed antibiotics.

So, two high fevers the weekend before we travel. But both had gone down significantly by Monday night, so Tuesday morning we set off to the train station: me, Lucas, Seb and Stella (the boys nanny from San Jose who was back from traveling through Europe). Surprizingly, the train ride was fairly uneventful. Both boys were wonder children. Lucas watched Polar Express with me. Somehow this really pleased the train conductor, who would walk by, look at the movie for a couple of seconds, beam and then move on. Seb slept most of the way. Once we made it to Julien's great uncles' apartment, I had a chance to stop and plot out our time. While initially I was afraid that the kids would be bored in such a remote location, I shouldn't have worried. Brittany, as it turns out, is quite kid friendly. Below are some of the favorite activities that we found.

The Beach

Somehow, I always under estimate the draw of a beach. I tend to think of it as 1) sand and 2) water. But for a kid, a beach is so much more. It is teeming with all sorts of swimming things, creepy crawling things, flying things, things that don't do any of the above but can be imagined with a variety of magical properties. This beach, in particular, was a virtual cornucopia of all of the above.

"Our" beach was near the Gulf of Morbihan. We happened to be there at a time when the difference between high and low tide was extreme. So, at high tide, we had a fairly small beach to play on. But at low tide, the water receded so far that all the boats were beached. This created thousands of little tide pools that were filled with tiny crabs, minnow type fish, and sand bugs. There were also probably thousands of little inexplicable mounds of sand everywhere. We spent lots of time examining these and pondering what sort of ghastly creature made them. On the second day there we met a Granpa on the beach who was digging up.....worms. Ah, the mystery explained. He was kind enough to speak English with the boys and explained that he never bought meat. He would get up in the morning, dig for worms and then go fish. When the tide was low, he would go out to the rocks to collect oysters and mussels. As the tide was low, we decided to see if we could find some ourselves. Sure enough....and we didn't even have to walk far. There were several metal structures a few hundred feet out in the sand that seemed designed as homes for shellfish. So, if we had had the appropriate tools, we could have just picked out our lunch there. But despite a heroic effort on the part of Lucas, the shellfish in question simply refused to detach. So we decided to cheat and go buy some from a local seafood dealer, which turned out to be a really fun kid activity in and of itself.

Purchasing Fresh Seafood from a Local Dealer

Once again, I underestimated the appeal of this activity. When we decided to go out and buy some oysters and mussels after being thwarted in our attempt to harvest them, I asked Lucas if he wanted to come almost as an afterthought. I assumed he would want to stay and play, but no, he was very enthusiastic about the prospect. When we got to the seafood market, it actually reminded me a bit of the kids section at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. OK, minus the "hands on" aspect. But there were tanks and tanks of different sea creatures...including a type of crab called a "sea spider". This was spell binding for Lucas. We probably spent a good 45 minutes here, as Julien picked out the seafood and Lucas ran from tank to tank, tormenting the inhabitants. He would have been happy to spend another hour just looking at the crabs and lobsters and mussels and plankton...and asking his 3000 questions. We ended up having to drag him away, but averted a meltdown by letting him hold the bag with the purchased (and already cooked) sea spider.

The seafood turned out to be amazing, although Lucas would have none of it. Seb was interested but is a bit too young. The down side is that all the adults over ate and sank into a food induced coma for about an hour after the meal.

Boat trip around the Gulf of Morbihan

The second morning of our trip, we decided to take the boys on one of those tour boats that takes one around the Gulf of Morbihan. We found one that was only 2 hours long, and that seemed about perfect in terms of time. BUT, when we got there, it turned out that we couldn't get tickets for the 2 hour cruise there. Even though the boat was there, the company that offered tickets for this particular excursion was not. As I did not feel inclined to search around the village for tickets, boys in tow, we asked what else was available. It turned out that there was a 4 hour available. Julien had some trepidation about this but we decided to do it anyway. I would have had more if I had understood the conversation. I had thought it would be an hour to get to one of the islands, a couple of hours on the island and then an hour to get back. As it turned out, it was actually a little over 2 hours to get to the island as we did a complete tour of the gulf first, then returned to two ports to pick up more people, then off to the island. Once I discovered this, I began to steel myself for at least a category 4 meltdown from someone.

Happily, I was wrong. The boys, like many boys before them, discovered the appeal of the boat and the sea. Both Lucas and Seb had a fabulous time running around in the sun and the wind and screaming. I am not so sure that the other passengers enjoyed it as much, but what the hey. The back of the boat was nicely contained, so that Seb could run there without much worry. The front of the boat, on the other hand, had a "walk the plank" area with stairs that ended in fall off the side of the boat. Julien, Stella and I spent a lot of time destracting both boys from this area, with varying levels of success. At least no one managed to jump off.

For the people who were not chasing thier kids around, there was also a tourguide (who seemed to love the sound of his own voice a bit too much) giving commentary in French. As I was a bit too busy, I opted for buying a "program" of sorts. It was also in French, and was quite odd. It seemed to be a story about fairies and how they were angry at men for destroying nature ...not sure exactly how this fit in with the tour but it was interesting nonetheless.

Once we made it to the island, everyone was hungry so we stopped at the first seafood place we found. Of course, the boys had no interest in seafood but the waiter happily provided multiple bowls of the crackers that Seb seemed to find irresistable. Lucas was just happy to get ice cream and cake at the end. But for the adults, the meal was incredible. We all had oysters (although not even in season) and mussels. We spent so much time here that we actually missed the first boat back. So we made our way to the beach to kill an hour or so, which was glorious even if the water was freezing. Lucas, in particular, seemed to enjoy a clothing optional approach to this beach...despite his fear of things with pinchers.

On the way back, both boys fell asleep. Sebbie was in his Ergo on Dad's back and Lucas had his head in my lap. They woke up only briefly when we got to the dock and then dozed again in the car. They both woke up whining, with a strange sort of psychic acuity, just as we reached the biscuit (cookie) outlet store. Yes, they have cookie and pastry outlet stores here. So, there was a quick stop to refuel with cookie bits and ice cream. Then it was back in the car, sticky but happy.

The Markets and Grocery Store

Early in our trip, we went out to the open air market in Auray. This was similar to many of the other markets that I have seen while in France with the exception of one thing....bagpipes. Due to the Celtic influence here, the music has a very "Scotlandy" feel. So whether or not you would like this will be directly related to your ability to tolerate that sound.

There were quite a few stalls to hold the boys in thrall. Unfortunately, many of these would fall into the "attractive nuisance" category. You know, stalls filled with a cornucopia of plastic crap that is destined to fall apart after about 10 minutes of play. The only good part about this is that anything you buy WILL fall apart in 10 minutes....so you don't have to pack it on your way back. Lucas became obsessed with this towel portraying a firebreathing dragon, despite the fact that the shop owner kept trying to get him interested in something else. In the end, we succumbed and bought it. In truth, it really was a cool towel, and he used it as both towel and blanket during the rest of the trip. For the adults, there were stalls with music, arts / crafts and, of course, food. There were also clothing stalls carrying "the shirt".

Speaking of "the shirt", this was one of the first things that I purchased when we got to Brittany. It turned out that they actually had some nice, thick ones in the grocery store, of all places. Julien seemed to think they were of decent quality, and as he is the sailor, I trusted his judgement. So I bought one for me and one for Lucas. However, when we got to the market there must have been 4000 variations on this shirt in one market stall alone. It came in short sleeve, long sleeve, winter weight, summer weight, and every conceivable color combination. They had stripped shirts for every size of adult, teens, children and infants. It was a bit overwhelming. Stella bought one here but I didn't really feel the need. I had one and the shirt was already beginning to have less significance.

To sum up the markets, it is good for about 30 minutes of whine free kid time. After that, the "I want" monster kicks in and you will need to beat a hasty retreat.

Carnac ≠ Kids

This was one of the few things that I wanted to see in Brittany. Carnac is famous for having roughly 3000 prehistoric standing stones. The stones themselves had been hewn from the local rock and were erected by the same type pre-Celtic folks who gave us the bagpipes. The local legend is that the stones, which are arranged in perfect lines, are actually a Roman legion what was turned to stone by Merlin. Apparently Merlin was not too fond of the "Rome in a Day" tours either.

So after we visited the market, we took a drive by the stones. I must admit that I found this a bit disappointing. My vision had been that of showing the boys the stones and watching them run around them and perhaps play on them. There are standing stones of an equivalent age in Inverness, Scotland which are completely open to the public. In fact, I spent a memorable evening there on New Year's Eve 1999. However, this was set up a bit more like Stonehenge, in that it was roped off and you could walk around the stones but you could never actually walk up to them and touch them. There is a real magic in being able to touch something this old. But when it is roped off, I might as well be watching it on the Discovery Channel. In this way, it felt very "museumy" to me. So we just drove around them for a while. It didn't really seem worth it to drag everyone out of the car. I doubt I would go back to this. In truth, it is not super kid friendly. It didn't feel particularly adult friendly either.

So, is Brittany More than the Requisite Blue Striped Shirt?

I can answer with a resounding yes. I must admit that our stay in Brittany seemed to expand my cultural boundaries, if no one else's. While I DID buy the shirt, my impression of Brittany has changed substantially. Now I think of it as a cross between the Outer Banks of North Carolina (where I spent my summers as a child) and Scotland. Think Scotland but warmer and with better food. Like Scotland, and North Carolina, there seems to be a lot of folk lore and magic associated with this region. I seemed to encounter references to fairies, druids and Arthurian legend at every corner. We weren't really there long enough, nor had I prepared enough, to really explore this, but on our next trip I will do so. Lucas loves all things magic and knights so, with a little homework, this could be an even more fascinating trip for him.

I am considering a trip back in the blustery fall, when my sister and her husband come to visit. After all, if nothing else, she will want the shirt.

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