So, here are some of the things we have been up to in the past couple of weeks:
After lying down in a darkened room for a night following our 'Jeux sans frontiers' (which will have a post of its own soon), we took off to Le Croisic, where our friends Michel & Chantal have a holiday home. We spent a lovely few days in their company and also that of Chantal's mother and their eldest daughter Sarah with her 2 children, Melville (2years, 4 months) and Olympe (3 months). We were able to spend time lazing on the beach, and Chantal and Sarah even managed to have a swim, although the water didn't look too inviting (green stuff floating put me off).
Le Croisic isn't far from Guerande where the salt is collected, and near there is the village of Kerhinet and La Grande Briere, which is an area of canals (not unlike an unspoilt Norfolk Broads). The village is a conservation area, and all the houses are in their original condition.The roofs are covered in reeds, so give the appearance of being thatched, but as reeds are abundant in the area, they use them instead of straw.
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The interior of a cottage as it might have looked at the beginning of the 20th century
Our son Daniel arrived towards the end of July to spend a week with us prior to holidaying with a group of friends 'gallivanting' around Europe.
We always try to take time off when he is staying, and we started his visit off in style, with a visit to La Promenade in Le Petit-Pressigny. Now, discerning readers will know this is a Michelin starred restaurant and I was promised a meal there as a birthday present (from Daniel). Circumstances prevented us from going at Easter when he was over for my 'do', so we re-arranged the meal for last Friday. We were a happy bunch, as we were joined by Tim & Gaynor (who have a house in Le Petit Pressigny - lucky things) and Nick & Janet who have never been to the restaurant and took the opportunity to come along. We all had something different from the menu and it was excellent. I think Gay is going to put something on her blog (lapetit-presse@blogspot.fr) as she took lots of photos!
We had just about recovered from our meal on Sunday, when we went to La Celle-Guernande for their Brocante. The village is very close to Le Petit-Pressigny and there are over 400 stalls. Some of the stalls had stuff on them that I thought ought to have been given away, but remember the old adage - 'One man's rubbish is another man's treasure - or something along those lines! We did buy one or two things but managed to restrain ourselves from buying anything which might get put away in the barn because 'it might come in useful'.
That brings me just about up to date, other than we finally managed to visit the Zoo park de Beauval and will post another blog about that soon.
