Life is better in Brittany and Normandy

We bought our own house in Brittany in 1999 with 3,000m2 of land, 2 barns, a ruin or two and a well for just £12,000 ... I know! Ridiculous isn't it?! But even today there are some extreme bargains like ours still to be had. And it's not unusual to find houses at half the price (like for like - if there is such a thing) that you might pay in the UK. And life over there is great...Property and local taxes are lower than the UK. Water is quite expensive and every domestic supply is metered (which is a good thing - especially for couples r ather than large families ). But if you buy a house with its own well you can install a pump and, by connecting the house to the pump, bypass the water service provider - so that your supply can be 'free'. (you certainly wouldn't want to water a larger garden from the mains). Electricity is on a par with UK - Gas similarly (but most rural properties must use bottled gas which at least you have to buy before you use it - so great for...

Maybe you're like me... The first time I drove through France I was amazed at how few people seemed to be around. It's something that, having had much more experience over there now, and in Brittany in particular - I have come to like and enjoy. It's almost like having your own 'private' road network. Often we have driven some fairly long journeys - as much as 70 miles and yet seen just a handful of cars. If you give it any thought... and you probably would if you were used to driving around over there ... France has an almost identical population to UK and yet is two and a half times the size of the British Isles, therefore having at least two and a half times the road network... so quite understandable that you should bump into fewer cars... You'd think there was less chance of that happening too. Mmmmm... yes but I have seen quite a few 2CV's pointing up telegraph poles... (in fact I must have a look for that photo). More surprising, bearing all this in m...

We have been lucky to be in Brittany often enough at the right time of year to know that the Son et Lumiere at the Abbey of Bon Repos, in the Cotes d'Armor, during the first two weeks of August is habit forming. And, if we are over there and don't go to the event it definitely makes for an incomplete trip and some downtrodden, despairing looks when we know what we are missing. We'll do our best to see it again... When the weather is good this is one of the best experiences on the planet! The townsfolk of Gouarec in the heart of the Cotes d'Armor hatched the plot around 25 years ago and now the 'show' (it's not a big enough word).... The French do it better ... 'The Spectacle' has grown to be an important date in the local as well as national/international tourist calendar. Four hundred actors (it's several generations of those townsfolk who pull off heaven knows how many costume changes)... 50 horses, a pack of hounds; all, plus a host of...

This evening we had Moules with French Fries and a large beer just as the sun was setting across the Bay of St Brieuc. At the bottom of the slipway beneath the lone restaurant the beach, at low tide, reveals thousands of stakes driven into the sand. When the tide is at its lowest nimble tractors weave around with natty attachments that strip the harvest from the rope wound staves... The tractors dump the mussels into enormous trailer/bins which are then towed back to the head of the beach. Higher tides are dealt with by amphibeous landing craft which perform the same task but the fishermen keep their feet dry! Between April and October (except on Tuesdays) La Moulerie de la Baie at Planguenoual, Jospinet, on Brittany's Cote de Penthievre opens its doors to present Moules served in many ways... restricted only by your imagination... For the feint hearted there is also steak and chips but that's the only 'non-moule' offering... and to drink? Well of course there is Wine...

I think it's a peninsula wide thing... if not, country wide. Anyway trotting is certainly a big thing in Breton culture. We came across it in a naive and I suppose a typical foreigner, 'incomer' kind of way... We had decided that we needed a break from renovating. A whole day off! Wow! We would take a picnic; a baguette plus a random selection from the fridge... garlic sausage, cheese, some salad stuff, a bottle of wine, sparkling water, some fruit... even a corkscrew and, this time, knives and forks... well a knife anyway. Usually when work on the house just got too much; too long without a break, we would head off at about four in the afternoon to round off the day with a bit of RandR... a walk around the nearest lake or something, or up and down the towpath of the canal. But today we were doing it properly. Initially it was just ..."OK, where shall we go?" With a bit of initial... "Beach? Lake? What do you want to do?" passing between us ...