On holiday

 

This is a story of our trip to spend time with Sam, Sas and Ben in Brittany.  We drove north in fairly short stages, staying in hotels for a couple of nights on the way.

I have just finished reading Allison Weir's excellent biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and have realised that our route up the western side of France is through the heart of her domaines - the motorway is for a time called the Aquitaine, with bridges and service stations to match.  and from the start on past Bordeaux we have also  followed the track of the Canal du Midi.  The Canal is nourished from lakes created alongside in places like Saint Ferreol near Revel which we recently saw while visiting Barry.  So place names and landmarks recall two worlds which have been part of the recent background of our lives and which are now accompanying us on our travels.  We have been incredibly lucky with weather - spring has sprung with pink judas trees and bright yellow rapeseed fields lining the motorways, and it is so warm in the day that Mary had to buy summer clothes, though in Brittany the nights are chill and north-westerly wind is also cold.

The first night was in a hotel, the Rabelais near Niort (a place frequently in Eleanor's itineraries) and the second was in Landernau, from which we drove for a sight of the sea.  Finistère is not highly commercial, and fairly sleepy.  And a long way from the rest of France.  I realised that the Pointe de Penmarch, for which a brand of sardine we often eat, is at another corner of this peninsula, but too far for lazy octogenarian holidaymakers to drive, although we were tempted by a splendid museum of sardines and tinned goods I saw advertised.  The Breton language is strange to look  at (on all the signs)

We are having a lazy time with Mah Jong in the evening and  (for those who walk faster than I) a stroll to see the local scenery, but basically it is a lovely relaxing week with Samuel, Saskia and Ben.  Nice lunch in Brest once we fought our way past huge tramway roadworks, nothing people from Montpellier would be surprised by.  Discovered bijou bakery in the local village Bourg Blanc on the way back from Brest.

Later in the week we went to one of the nicest restaruant meals we have had in ages, at the small and unpretentious Peck & Co