Warning - old post! Nous avons retourné from Brittany!

A post that should have been posted a month ago! I feel like I am just resurfacing and finally getting stuff in order!

Bonjour mes amis,

Nous avons retourné from Brittany, all relaxed after a week eating cheese, drinking preposterously cheap beaujolais and rampaging around medieval ramparts.

The ramparts of St Malo.

We stayed in a tiny hamlet called la haute houssais in a gite on a farm. I didn't know what a gite was initially. In my understanding it appears to be a bit of a barn transformed into a little apartment with a wood burning stove and a beautiful garden full of camomile and mint to turn into tea. There we were terrorised by local chickens and a multitude of skinny cats, one of whom I nearly brought home. Only the thought of how either Chops and Spoons or Misha would react stopped me.

La Haute Houssais

This kitten! Nearly ended up in Stockholm...

Beautiful Gite.

We started every day with croissants from the local bakery on our terrace, and then ventured out into the surrounding Breton countryside in Nicole the Renault Clio (on the wrong side of the road, in the wrong side of the car. Eeeeeps!). During the course of these ventures we had numerous adventures.

On the first day we explored the ramparts of Dinan, the nearest town. We took a detour, crossed a gothic bridge and took a walk which ended up at a beautiful ancient abbey. Along the way we passed some kind of mad jousting tournament, on boats rather than horses. The aim seemed to be to row at each other really fast, spurred on by a 'Last of the Mohicans' style theme tune blaring from surrounding speakers, and whack a guy off the other boat with a fishing rod. The surprisingly large crowd went wild every time.

Last of the Mohicans jousting from the safety of a very high bridge.

Other day trips took in a melancholy chateau, a 1930s seaside resort and even a quick jaunt to Normandy to visit mont-saint-Michel. The churros, whilst perhaps not traditional fare for French monks of old, were delicious and sustained us on our fight through the legions of other sight-seers.

Mont-saint-Michel. Busy, but astounding.

A couple of days we ended up staying closer to the gite, due to the fact that I inadvertently drugged myself, making me unfit to drive. My hayfever was really bad, and I accidentally took drowzy anti histamine two days in a row before realising why I had literally no energy.

My favorite bit was Friday afternoon, when after a few days of either inaccessible beaches or inaccessible sunshine at the opportune moments, we stumbled across a beautiful sandy bay with a castle and turquoise water in the late afternoon sun. I swam and swam until it got too chilly and I got too hungry, and then found a cafe in nearby St. Malo to eat a galette with scallops and leeks. Om nom nom.

Rich tells me his favorite bit was waiting for three hours at Southampton airport. The only airport in britain without a Boots. I think he's joking... Yes, apparently his actual favourite  but was a walk we did in the forest owned by the people who owned the farm and the gite. And the amazeballs vegetarian BBQ we had afterwards. It is possible, don't scoff my bacon-mad friends. It's amazing how much of this post (and that week) focuses on food.

As you can probably tell, we loved every minute. And now, with autumn already in full swing in Stockholm, it seems like a distant dream!

Some more up to date news soon!
Byeloveyoubye,
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