Life is better in Brittany and Normandy

I've been banging on for years about what a great bargain we stumbled across 19 years ago when we picked up our house in Brittany for just £12,000 plus fees - so about £16,000 in all. Obviously we have spent a few quid doing it up BUT it still hasn't cost us any more than around 80k in total including the purchase price. Of course it has been our 'holiday' home (sometimes anyone within an arm's length when they say "have a nice holiday" is in danger of a swipe... I'm thinking here of my wife rather than myself) and, because we don't live there year round, we have spent many times the cost of the house on ferry crossings... but "Has it been worth it?"   You bet it has!! and sometimes spending most of one's time over there renovating is not everyone's idea of anything approaching a holiday! Saying this does sort the men out from the boys (in this day and age you're almost bound to upset some people with a choice of...

Our time spent in Brittany, when it comes to RandR is spent alternating between two lakes which are pretty much equidistant from our place ... the biggest, proves to be quite a draw in the summer. Not surprisingly being 12 kilometres long, it has plenty to commend it. But - in a Breton way - it could never be called oversubscribed with those wishing to swim, scuba dive, walk, ramble, cycle, sail, water-ski, fish, windsurf, canoe, jet-ski or even enjoy a dinner cruise. All of these pastimes are there and all are used and indulged in but it's never 'full on'. It never gets so busy as to get anywhere near uncomfortable or crowded. There's a lake a short walk from the end of the garden The second lake about 6 kilometres long and a wee bit skinnier has far fewer amenities but somehow  is more attractive for us at least... more exclusive supporting open water swimming, canoeing, pedalos (the pizza restaurant at the southern end of the lake has boats for hire in su...

Our satnav is not programmed to understand Breton. How very unPC! Tom-Tom are clearly not up to date (or should it be 'down' to date) with 15th century minority languages. However, once we had been lucky enough to encounter a native, local to the area, walking his dog, about a mile or so from - Berouan in the Morbihan - all became clear. There it was in full colour on our own dog-eared, hardly ever used and unfortunately small scale map (smaller communities are hardly ever marked are they?)... Anyway, we had almost made it without help because there was a shrug and perplexed look from our new acquaintance...(well he did wave a little later).   Turn right about a kilometre before you get to Caden from Malansac and there you are. The trouble is we had to drive into Caden to find out how far out one kilometre is before we could work out which would have been the right lane to turn down... None of the names on the signposts rang a bell. In any event the town's folk o...

Not quite Autumn (officially that is) but the Swallows are fewer and those that are still around are beginning to think about the long flight South and the Virginia Creeper is turning red a sure sign that the weather is about to turn. The Maize field that surrounds the 12th Century, La Commanderie at Yvignac is beginning to look as though it should already be harvested… It's honey coloured now, but the Bretons (probably the French everywhere) use it only as animal feed and so it lingers, extending the golden look in the fields until maybe mid October. The crops, here surrounding the house’s own 1,525 square metres garden, alternate each season with Maize, Wheat, Oil Seed Rape… brilliantly yellow at its most vibrant. That’s the one that best probably sets the house off against its surroundings. It’s vibrant and lush. A fully renovated 4 Bedroomed stone house amidst open countryside for 340,000€... Amazing? It is! In a house hunt when the world is your oyster ther...