Life is better in Brittany and Normandy

Our house in Brittany is very near to the Rigole d'Hilvern. It's a 'cut'... a mini canal if you like. But it hasn't been navigated by any boats. Our neighbour did tell me though, that when he was a boy, he and his dad regularly caught Pike at the top of the lane. And, even though it winds for 62.5 kilometers (only 25 or so as the crow flies) it has no locks (as a feat of engineering - it drops just 3mm in height for every 10 metres of its length) and these days not much of its length holds water Many of the pedestrian bridges that cross it have rotted away leaving just the stone buttresses, pillars and iron railings. But it still manages to attract thousands of walkers and riders every year, both equine, pedal powered (and occasionally our neighbour on his trials bike) via hundreds of access points as it winds its way under roads and tracks past hamlets and villages between Lake Bosmeliac and Hilvern near to Pontivy (Napoleon's northern Ga...

We bought a house in central Brittany in 1999 for just £12,000GBP . And it's the best move we haven't yet made! I should explain. For family reasons we still yo-yo between Sussex and Brittany. Initially the house was nothing more than a project to which we would probably retire at an undetermined point in the future ••• I don't think we realised quite what we were getting into. Not just from the amount of work that we had taken on... but how enjoyable it could be as a bolthole before it might become our permanent home. Obviously we liked the house sufficiently to buy it (who wouldn't for 12 grand?) and we knew broadly that Brittany was a very pleasant region of France - having been on a couple of scoots around. What we didn't know was how well placed we would be for all that the area has to offer...proximity to the coast, lakes, rivers, the Nantes/Brest Canal and the historic cities, towns and villages; their architecture, earthworks, culture and entertainment...