Brittany

Brittany is a department in the north west of France.  Geographically it is a peninsula with the English Channel on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.   The location (and some may say isolation) of Brittany may help explain the uniqueness of Brittany.  For Brittany is a part of France with a culture all its own.  Part French, part Gallic, part Who Knows?, Brittany maintains and uses a local Celtic language and has customs and traditions that are unique in France.

Where better to go and explore?

Our visit to Brittany was a one week affair with dual personalities.  The original plan was for Lori, Lynnell and the 6 kids to share a week in a rented house while Dale and I saved our vacation time for later in the summer.  And this is how the week started.  Due to unforeseen problems however, Lynnell and her four had to leave sooner than planned, so Brian came out a few days sooner and made a short vacation of it.

Part 1:  Kids and Beaches

For the week's adventures, we all rented a large house.  This house was located on a working farm and was recently remodeled and expanded.  The interior was roomy and comfortable--another wonderful find.

After moving in and making the beds, we all headed to the town of St. Briac for dinner and dancing.  No, not the five course meal and ballroom affair, but hearty galettes and dancing in the steets to Celtic music.  Galettes are thin buckwheat pancakes folded over and around fillings of ham, cheese, egg, vegetables, or just about anything you can think of.  Simple and filling, galettes make a great meal.

The summer in Brittany is the season of festivals, one type of which is called a Fest Noz.  No, I do not know what Fest Noz stands for, but I do know it means live music, open air grills, and traditional dancing.  The dancing is an interesting affair.  Large circles of folks holding hands and moving in circles with complex hand and foot movements.  Juli loved every minute.

Our big goal for the week was to enjoy lots of beaches and that is what we did.  We were a little hampered by the weather since it was a little chilly but once the afternoon sun had warmed things up, it was  enjoyable.  We first went to the closest beach (the kids were getting a little, uh, impatient with getting there so we went to the closest one we could find.  This was on the peninsula of St Jacut de la Mer and we had a fun time splashing a little and then discovering the joys of poking around in tide pools.

 

The next beach was at St Cast le Guildo.  This time it was traffic that drove the kids insane.  We got behind a circus caravan going through very tight village streets.  How many times can one hear "Are we there yet?" and not go insane?  We finally made it to the beach, which is right downtown and found that Perri wasn't allowed.  Grrr.  We got back in the car and drove around until we found the one parking spot in town that was in the shade.  And only a few blocks from the beach.  Lucky us!  This was a really neat beach--with very fine sand that actually felt soft to walk on.  The kids a great time figuring out how to ride their boogie boards and the girls collected crabs and had a crab funeral, laughing all the time.  Poor Bob (the crab), we will miss him...

 

Back at the gite, we had fun playing ping-pong in the garage and the kids had a great time playing ball and swinging.  We also had our very own dolmen in the field behind the house.  This was a tomb of large stones built by the prehistoric residents, about 6,000 years ago.  We also were asked to save all our table scraps to feed to the hunting dogs, rabbits, and chickens.  I never knew chickens ate carrot peels--but they do!  We also went and watched milking time.  The farm milks about 50 cows.  We also celebrated Juli's birthday at the gite.  She always seems to have her birthday on the road.  I guess that's what happens when you're  born in July.

 

We took a whole day to explore Cap Fréhel.  We started at Fort la Latte which is a 14th century stronghold on the end of a rocky point jutting into the sea.   Everyone enjoyed the freedom of climbing all over the structures and Juli appointed herself as tour guide.

 

After grabbing lunch on the road we found our way to Sables d'Or les Pines (Golden Sands by the Pines).  It was a beautiful beach, sand stretching for miles.  After climbing down what felt like a mile of stairs from where we parked the car at the top of the cliff, the sky turned black and we were caught in a drenching downpour.  The baby had a plastic cover on her stroller and Lynnell had actually thought to grab a couple of umbrellas and we just huddles under a plastic backed picnic blanket.  After 5 or 10 minutes, the rain stopped and the sky actually turned blue.  We were all soaked and made a bee line for the  ocean because it couldn't be colder than standing in the breeze.  We got another good session of digging in the sand and playing with the boogie boards and even had a chance to try out Juli's new kite before the sky started getting black again...  so we took the hint and went home.  Unfortunately, this was also the finale to our beach adventure as two of the Irvings came down with something and so they decided to call it a vacation and headed back to their home.

[Continue to Part 2]