October 30th to November 4th
Our friends, Mark and Julie bought a small mud-built farmhouse 6-7 years ago that they have been slowly converting into holiday accommodation. It is situated in Brittany just out side the town of Plumiere. Our original plan had been to see them within the first months of our travels coinciding with the half term holiday so that we could take Millie. Of curse, we had no van to travel in and Millie didn't want to come as she was going to miss Halloween and firework festivities with her school friends. Mike and I, still kicking our heels back in England, decided to fly over to see and help them in their final (well nearly) push to get their home ready. We flew from East Midlands to Dinard airport with Ryan Air. For all the bad publicity Ryan Air get we found the flight very efficient. Providing you read Ryan Air's small print and make sure you have your boarding cards printed on one side of A4 paper and that your luggage meets their exact size requirements you really can keep the costs down. Our flight was on time and with no 'checked' luggage we were off the plane and out of the airport within 10 minutes. However Julie and Mark who were picking us up had met a 'deviation' and had got completely lost in the small roads of rural France and were an hour late picking us up. But never mind. It was good to see them and we drove into St Malo for supper. St. Malo is a wonderful walled town despite being a major ferry port. We visited the supermarche first to pick up food and drink supplies for the week. (best buy 3 bottles of decent wine for just over 5 euros) and then went into the centre of the old town for mussels and frites finishing with the Bretagne specialty of crepes et beurre.
We arrived at the house in the dark (awaiting electrical second fix), Mark arranged the lights and Julie lit the woodstove and we explored the house. Downstairs was one large room divided by the stairs into kitchen and living area. The house was beatuifully decorated in pale grey, with panelling around the walls and exposed beams. Upstairs there were two good sized bedrooms and the bathroom.
The following day the weather was good so we decided to work outside. The men did external painting and Julie and I started to clear the land of large boulders that had been revealed when the area had been flattened ready for the lawn. (Note who was doing the heavy work!) I was also concerned about the mess on the back border of their land where they had had had a hedge removed and dumped. My concern was that as there was so much soil in with the remains of the hedge it was beginning to resprout. I think had it been left it would have started to regrow and cause a bigger problem in the spring. Julie and I decided to tackle this area and soon we had a good bonfire going and we spent the rest of an exhausting day dragging out parts of the hedge and feeding the fire. The bonfire went on to last the whole time we were in France. The following days were spent indoors painting skirting, doors, bannisters etc and whilst the painting was not completed before we left, Julie and Mark were very pleased with what had been acheived by the four of us.
On our last night with them we drove to Josselin. This town was beautiful, a large chateau high in the town over looking a large river. We had a supper in a small French restaurant and it was a lovely treat after we had all worked so hard. Saturday morning we were up early as Julie and Mark had to be in St Malo to get their ferry back home. Our return flight was not until Sunday so they dropped us off in St. Malo and we spent the whole day walking and exploring the town thoroughly. Thank goodness the weather was dry and sunny. We reached our hotel at about 4pm and fell on the bed and slept for an hour giving our aching legs a chance to recover. There was no restaurant in the hotel and so in the evening we walked into the commercial centre and had a pizza and glass of beer. Sunday we had to check out at 11 am, but our flight was not until 8pm, so we left our bags and went to explore another part of Bretagne. Looking at the map we saw we could pick up the Brittany Coastal Path by walking through Saint Severan. Again the weather was kind to us and although it was blustery it was sunny. We walked for a couple of hours through a beautiful park, picking up the coastal route and then stopped at a beach-side cafe for a drink. Continuing our walking we saw various 'places of interest' as well as beautiful coastal views. Our next stop was the boulangerie where I successful ordered sandwiches in French, we ate these in a bus shelter as a sudden shower arrived and the park did not seem such a good idea. The shower was relatively short-lived so we were able to work our way back to the hotel without getting wet.
A taxi took us to Dinard for the flight home. Again another efficient flight home but there was one thing that perplexed us whilst we were waiting for our plane to arrive. Sitting in the departure lounge we saw a large plane from Azerbaijan land. Dinard is such a small airport, why on earth would a plane from that part of the world land here? We never found out, the only people who got off were the pilots, I don't think it had any passengers. After 30 minutes on the runway it was moved off to another part of the airport and we never saw it again.
Oh and the van? Roger had phoned to say that he needed a few more days to check the vehicle over so we would not be able to pick it up on our return. C'est la vie!
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