Life is better in Brittany and Normandy

For a bloke who was restricted to travel on horseback or, at best, but probably a whole lot slower, by Palanquin (look it up... I had to) King Arthur and his retinue (Lancelot, Guinevere, The Lady Vivien, Sir Girwain, Merlin - et al)... well, they sure did get around. Although, if you believe the other places that legend would have us believe he made an appearance - as I mention in the title... Tintagel, Snowdonia, and Cadbury Camp, then he was probably good at levitation and teleportation too... He probably landed just up the road from here having been guided in by the standing stones at Carnac. And don't get me going on "was God an astronaut!?" We're getting on with our exploration of Brittany (picking up again nicely thanks) in between renovating our modest money pit in the Cotes d'Armor... Well, we recently had a look at the forest of Broceliande... and the Brittany end of the Arthurian legend.  I have to say that, with regard to this part of ancient his...

  I have wanted to do this for years! Picking Walnuts and then pickling them! Unless you have access to a Walnut tree in July you're a bit stuffed. I haven't ever seen unripe walnuts for sale in any shop. We haven't had any Walnut trees to call our own, although we have been given a very small sapling. It's planted in the garden now and, if I'm still alive when it bears fruit I shall regard myself as extremely lucky.  On walks along the dried up canal just a couple of hundred metres up the hill from the house (the Rigole d'Hilvern)... turn to the left at the top of the lane where it crosses the canal and it's the first tree on the right. I don't know how we've managed to miss it... but, in our defence, it is well tucked into a beech tree and sits under its branches - quite well hidden. As soon as I realised we had one almost on our doorstep... I looked up a recipe and, having found it, went out and picked what I hoped would be 2kilos to match...