Recently returned from a week in France, staying with Tab's dad in rural Brittany, not too far from Lannion. It's a very nice old stone house, next to the remain of an old textile mill that closed down around sixty years ago. Parts of the old mechanism still remain, including the hub of the water wheel that was used to drive it. There's a bit of woodland around the house, and a stream runs through this - the source of water that was once re-directed to drive the mill.The first time I came here, a couple of years ago, the only source of heating was the big open hearth, which we would load up with big stacks of logs and sit around through the evening, drinking wine and listening to the animal sounds coming from the darkness outside. At bedtime we would creep up the creaky wooden stairs to our freezing beds and wrap ourselves in blankets to wait for sleep to overtake us. This time around, we had central heating, which made for a more comfortable, if slightly less authentic, rural France experience.
Finlay enjoyed crawling around the house, investigating new hidey-holes and things to knock over or chew. We visited beaches like Port Blanc and Tregastel, where giant granite boulders litter the water like a spilt bag of marbles in a wide puddle. We walked along the river at La Roche Derrien and browsed the markets at Paimpol. I tried using my limited french here and there with some success. Can't wait to go back again (next time in the Summer!).
Spent the rest of my free time doing good, proper man chores like digging mud from the driveway and felling trees with chainsaws and tow-ropes. We had a couple of tree-falling-on-car comedy moments but no disasters!
Back in the UK now, and work is busy, home is busy, life is busy!
