Blogs from Brittany , France, Europe - page 16

When my 5 week stay in Rochefort was over, I had about 1 week left in France and I wanted to make the most out of it. I was more confident with my grasp of the French language and I realized spending those 5 weeks in Rochefort had been a good idea. I really wanted to visit St-Malo and Mont St-Michel in Brittany and afterwards go to Caen from where I could visit the beaches of the landings of Normandy. Before going to St-Malo and Mont St-Michel I went to Brest to visit and old friend of my parents, Jean-Yves Cypres, whose children I had visited in Laval, about a month and a half before. To get to Brest from Rochefort took several hours, with a combination of 2 trains and a bus. I hadn't seen ... read more

Mon Sep 23 Guemene-sur-Scorff is a lovely little town where our friend owns a house to rent. See www.brittanyescapes.com for more info. Walked around town. Unfortunately nearly everything is closed today, but we did find a cafe. Had noisettes (small espresso with milk). The only other customer, a Scotsman, was drinking beer (10 am)Climbed up pathway to old bell tower for view over town.Back home for lunch. Drove to Kernascleden to see chuch with wonderful frescoes. To St Fiacre church with amazing wooden carved screen. Tue Sep 24 Off by 9.15. Stopped in Pont Scorff to visit a special art gallery--some very unusual displays all for sale: jewellry, clothes, paintings, etc.Drove to town of Pont Aven. It had many mills at one time because of the river being restricted and divided. Great market. Almost bought some ... read more

We think we have overcome the hard bed and roll together fairly successfully getting a better night’s sleep. This morning was a bit overcast with a misty look about the day but promise of better to come as the day wears on. The plan today was to travel a much shorter distance by car out to the coast again after spending some time taking in the old city area of Dinan. We had a challenge before we could leave the apartment this morning though and even Gretchen’s DIY skills couldn’t overcome the problem with the warped front door. For the last two nights we have had to push the settee across in front of the door because we couldn’t get the door to lock and in fact it was only just closed on the latch. We ... read more

From C to D – Caen to Dinan We said yesterday that we were following the alphabet with the successive places we are staying at. Well this isn’t quite true of our accommodation for the next 4 nights because it is actually located in Lehon, a suburb of the medieval town of Dinan. Nevertheless it is making it easy to find a title for each day’s blogs as sometimes it is hard to think one up at short notice. As the countries of the world have got their act together and banned smoking in all sorts of places including hotels and public places we have noticed a trend that has developed that at times has subjected us non smokers to an even greater amount of second hand smoke than we were subjected to previously. One of ... read more

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! ... read more