Gites South Brittany

Between the unseasonable weather and my on-going convalescing we have been un-characteristically house-bound of late. Looking on the bright side it has meant that Paul has been able to catch up with some much needed DIY about the place. We are still waiting for the permission to erect our shed, but we have now installed 3 water butts – giving us a total of 600 -700 ltrs of water for the garden. We bought a pump which fixes onto a hosepipe and gives very good pressure even at several metres. The boules pitch has, at last, got a wooden border around – the French rules allow for a boule to be bounced off the sides in order to sneak past an opponent's boule, which adds another facet to the game.

We have also acquired some "traverses SNCF" (railway sleepers) to edge our planned vegetable plot, or "potager", which will be situated next to the shed (eventually!!).

Yesterday was the date of the local "Kermesse" (school fête). This began with a sit down meal (outside – we declined in view of the weather!). Next came a "défilé" (parade) headed by the local "Fanfare" (brass band). The school children ("maternelle et primaire") followed in costumes depicting the sea – "baleines et requins" (whales and sharks) for the "Petite et Moyenne Section" (Nursery), "des pirates" for Years 1 - 3 – GS (Grande section), CP (Cours Préparatoire) and CE1 (Cours Elementaire 1) and fishermen/women for the remaining three year groups (CE2 , CM 1 + CM2 – Cours Moyen). There then followed a dance by each class (only 3 classes in the school!) to sea shanties. The usual school fête games were then played – French style – bet on a guinea pig race to win either a rabbit or a guinea fowl for fattening! Personally, I find it rather cruel the way they treat the poor animals, which they seemed to hand them over very roughly – you only had to look at the terrified expressions and the fact that they did not even try to escape due to being rigid with terror! Needless to say, I didn't buy a ticket. We did, however, come away with a slightly better raffle prize than the last 2 years – 2005 was a washing-up bowl, 2006 a cheap brollie .... 2007 a 30 cm terracotta pot for the garden!