Petit Bretagne - Part Deux

1st August 2007

After a repeat of the previous days breakfast, we headed south towards Josselin. We parked directly below the castle. What a magnificent Chateau it was. High up on a rock face overlooking a canal with three huge towers (facing us anyway!). We wandered up the hill to get a closer look but discovered that Josselin had a sleazy underside... an English bookshop. Ugh! An English bookshop is always a sign of too many British tourists visiting a place. The town itself was attractive and we had an alright lunch in a touristy place but we made the mistake of going on a tour of the Chateau. The tour was in English and we were surrounded by British tourists and thus had to put up with screaming kids and babies whose parents were too selfishly obsessed with enjoying their own holiday to bother keeping them in check (or worry about the fact this tour might bore the kids to death).

The tour was conducted by a French girl whose limited English made the tour fairly dull. She wasn't helped by the fact that the Chateau was itself incredibly dull and the tour consisted mainly of explaining how old the carpets were and who bought them rather than telling the amazing history of the place (sieges, a brutal attack by the English). The most exciting part was when she mentioned that rich people had been forced into one of the towers during the Revolution... before promptly moving on to what the initials carved under one of the windows stood for and completely fairly to tell us anything about such an exciting and historically important moment in the castles history.

We took a "scenic" route home (i.e. my navigational skills let us down a tad... ;) ). Had a lasagne cooked by Jim in the gite for dinner.

2nd August 2007

We had a lazy day. What else are holidays for??

3rd August 2007

We headed west to Dinan. What a gorgeous town! We wandered around the streets, Jim impressed me both with an amazing parking feat and by asking for insect bite cream (for Ian) in a pharmacy in perfect French. We had lunch in the Cafe L'Armor. I don't think I can express how much I loved the Pizza Americaine that I had. I believe if you had to make me choose between eating that pizza or Charles Dera I would have a difficult time making up my mind!

We followed up the pizzas with some delicious ice creams.

Headed home via a Champion hypermarche and had a Breton delicacy "Soupe de Poisson". Fish soup. Twas DISGUSTING. Yuck.

4th August 2007

Jim wanted to go to a French market so we headed west to the delightful little town of St Brieuc, which had some very delightful market boys. Mmm... bought some cider and some paella for dinner.

As we left town Jim foolishly asked if anyone wanted to do something and I made my much planned move... I wanted to see some polar bears and the Rough Guide said some could be found in Oceanopolis in Brest (a fair old journey away). Randomly... Jim agreed. So off we drove and after a few navigational errors (and a few hours of driving) we made it to Brest town centre... to be confronted by two signs for Oceanopolis. One heading west and one heading east. MOST CONFUSING. Using logic we worked out we needed to head east and soon found ourselves parked up by the huge modern building.

We went inside and marvelled at the aquarium exhibits (Dear Constant Readers will notice I tend to visit aquariums a lot...). The temperate zone had seals, small sharks and very inquisitive evil looking fish (video to follow some time!). The tropical zone had probably the biggest aquarium I've seen (and the one in Bangkok was fairly massive!) filled with allsorts of fish, and sharks! HUGE SHARKS. And a massive sawfish. And a turtle. And rays. And I loved every second of it. Ian seemed more impressed with an exhibit where you can play with remote controlled boats.

We had lunch in the brasserie on site. Amazingly good. I had a salad for starters, a well done faux filet.... very good, especially considering it was part of a tourist exhibit!

Then finally, with much fanfare, we arrived in the polar zone. We walked in. We watched the penguins play, we saw seals frolic and we searched high and low for polar bears. There weren't any. There used to be but not any more (the Rough Guide was only printed a month before the last presidential election so it's only about 3 months old!!). Sob. Much fun was made of Jason by Jim and Ian. :(.

But it was an amazing place... really great.

Went back to Moncontour, Ian and Jim spent the evening swatting flies. Fun. ;) I'd finished all my books by this point and took to desperately reading promotional leaflets that had been left in the gite.

5th August 2007

Our final day in France. Despite my Eurotunnel training, which indoctrinated me into understanding the entire country of France closes for Sunday, we headed out in a desperate search for an open hypermarche so Jim could get an escargotière (for making escargot). Did we find one? Non. Did we travel all the way to Rennes, the Breton capital, in search of one? Oui. Did we go home and watch Buffy afterwards? Oh yes...

For dinner we headed back to the Hotel De Ville area in hilly old Moncontour. Everything was bloody open! Even the patisserie... on a Sunday evening. The opening hours in France are confusing... We choose to eat in a restaurant called The Frog and Rose-Bofe. Any Brit or French person reading this should know what that means!

We started to ask questions in French of the lady we found inside, who promptly said "I speak English as well" in a home counties accent. She was the chef and talked us through her menu.

I had goats cheese toast salad to start and duck with orange and ginger sauce for main. Both were absolutely amazing, and if any of you go to Brittany I demand that you visit the beautiful village of Moncontour and visit The Frog and Rose-Bofe in the village centre.

We returned to the gite, very full and did the cleaning. Ah the fun of a holiday home.

6th August 2007

It was time to go home. We set off early in the morning, sad but pleased to know that if we ever did go back there was a hell of a lot of stuff still to be seen. The drive back was uneventful (except I tried sango Diet Coke, which is diet Coke with orange, at a service station. Nil point).

We stopped off at Cite Europe. Found an escargotiere. YAY! Sadly also came back into contact with British people en masse again (Cite Europe shopping centre is the main stop off point for British day trippers). :( I love Britain. I just hate the English, rude and disgusting the lot of them.

We then headed to Dunkerque, got put on an earlier ferry without paying extra, smuggled Ian back into the country like the criminals we are, and put up with the English bad parents all the way home. Dropped some beer from Cite Europe off with my family and then drove to Greenwich via horribly congested, badly managed roads.

7th August 2007

Home... but still off work! Woo... spent day in the cinema with Jim and Ian. Saw Harry Potter and the Never Ending Franchise Part 5. I really am not a fan of the Harry Potter stuff but it was alright. The actors are all grown up now and I can start to see certain qualities in the movies lacking from the first few... totty.

We took a break for dinner at Noodle Time (changed hands, now rubbish, shall never return) and then headed back to see Transformers. You know I loved the movie, I've seen it before. But Jim and Ian also loved it with Jim remarking: "This is the best movie. Ever."

Petit Bretagne - Part Une

Bonjour Dear Constant Reader! I have returned to you from a marvellous holiday in Brittany. I am most sad to be back here in Britain, should of just stayed and got internet access in France. Much better than here! So here is the obligatory holiday diary. Pictures will follow shortly...

29th July 2007

Even though we weren't due to leave the country until the 30th we did our fair share of travelling! Jim and I headed to Hemel Hempstead and picked up Ian (via a McDonalds breakfast... mmm). Then we headed down to Kent and the town of my birth, Snodland, to pick up my Nan. We transported her to Maidstone to the Maison De La Debbie Debs and were soon joined by Leigh and her husband. Jim, Ian and I moved on from there to Folkestone and bought travel guides and phrase books for the trip.

We wandered back to the car park full of the joys of holidaying when the worst thing possible happened... the car wouldn't start. The day before we were due to drive through France and the car breaks down! AH!

Not twenty minutes later a nice fellow from the RAC arrived and we found out the battery installed in the car was not the battery Jim had installed about a year ago. We think it might have been accidentally swapped at it's last MOT. AH! So we managed to get the car started and on a Sunday found a garage open (Cheriton Road Kwik Fit, merci beaucoup!). Thankfully less than an hour after breaking down we were on our way again with a very happy car (and my not so happy credit card).

We headed to Lympne and my family's home. Whilst my brother played his new drum kit with our cousin Louis and Ian, my sister made Jim and I go to Sellindge (another former home town) to see her latest horse, Chalky. Joy...

Upon our return to Lympne we found, randomly, my auntie Martine, uncle Nick and cousins Rhys and Fran had turned up. Thus an evening of family chat and curry eating ensured in front of my family's giant television... talk about a home cinema... moi? Jealous? As if!

30th July 2007

Early the next morning we made the short trip from Lympne to the Port of Dover and checked in for the ferry. As we went through the British Frontier Control we were pulled over and after the guy there discovered that not only were Jim and I partners but Jim was also Ian's father we were taken away to Shed Number 3 for further investigation.

We were met there by a far too cheerful female Immigration officer who cheerfully asked us if were carrying anything illegal before rummaging through our bags. She then disappeared to be replaced by a Kent Police Officer who questioned Jim over whether we were attempting to kidnap Ian. After also questioning Ian (which scared him quite unnecessarily) and talking to Ian's mum we were begrudgingly let go with a half hearted apology for troubling us. I hope when Ian's mum takes him to France in a few weeks Jim gets a similar call or I shall be writing a strongly worded letter about sexism and homophobia at the Port of Dover.

Anyway Jim and Ian didn't seem that bothered about it and Jim kind of reminded me not to let it spoil our holiday so I settled in for a peaceful ferry journey on the Norfolk Line to Dunkerque. Peaceful except for the hole in Jim's wallet for paying 25 quid for breakfast for three people! RIP OFF!

We drove down from Dunkerque to the small village of Moncontour in Brittany. The trip was amazingly quick and the French roads are a bloody amazing thing to behold. Fast, clear and road work free. The Pont de Normandie (the Normandy Bridge) was awe inspiring.

The gite (French holiday home) was huge! It had a large garden with a wonderful stone balcony. The front room was huge and the kitchen bigger than our front room in Greenwich. We loved it.

We went out to explore but discovered France is closed on a Monday. The village was deathly quiet with no one anywhere to be seen and the area around the Hotel De Ville (town hall) closing for the evening. We managed to get a meal in Le Cauldron Magique, a medieval themed restaurant. No not like a crass Americanised place, it just served medieval style food with some bunting as decoration. I had an awesome melon salad as a starter, with organic roasted chicken and vegetables for my main and a tart de chocolat for dessert. All delicious.

We headed back to the gite for a much needed sleep.

31st July 2007

Jim and Ian headed down to the local patisserie early in the morning and we had a huge breakfast out on the balcony. There was melon (I had gotten a taste for it!), croissants, pain au chocolat, ham, cheese and some classy Lion Bar cereal (very good!). YUM!

We headed out to St Malo a town to the north east of Moncontour and on the coast. What a beautiful place the old town was. Completely walled in with wonderful small meandering streets everywhere and beautiful beach. We wandered the ramparts, had some drinks in the Cafe L'Adambir, had a horrible lunch (mine was an egg and ham galette [the local form of savoury crepe]) in some touristy restaurant and ate chocorange ice creams as we wandered the streets.

Jim and I both bought paintings off of some local artists. I love them both.

We headed back to the gite where I attempted to read outside but was promptly soaked by Ian's water gun. Ian was promptly soaked by Jim and a washing up bowl. Mwhahahaha...

Had a meal in a local restaurant... escargot (snails) to start, faux filet (steak) for main and a chocolate mousse for dessert. The faux filet was rare so I loved it but Jim and Ian didn't and they quickly looked up the French for "well done" when we got back (bien cuit for those interested). The mousse was judged nicest dessert ever tasted.

1st August 2007

This is getting very long. I'll do the rest tomorrow!