For some time now I've been meaning to do something with my original "Living in Brittany" website, I started if off with good intentions to provide both information and a running blog or diary, however after a while the blog became unwieldy because I was just basically adding to a text file rather than having a structured setup which is why I moved to here.
However, I have now given it a complete makeover and turned it into a strictly factual site. It is in it's early days yet but the way it is structured means that I can keep adding to it for as long as I like so should just get better and better.
For anyone interested just click on www.living-in-brittany.co.uk to go straight to the site. Any comments or additions I would be pleased to add to it and attribute, there is a contact form within the site.
I cannot believe that I have let the whole of the summer go by without an update, I think the only thing it implies is that I am enjoying my life here and have been busy with other things.
As some of you know I've taken up fishing during this year after a break of probably at least 40 years, it is very therapeutic to sit down by the water's edge on a nice day fishing and even better when I manage to take home something worthwhile like the 4.5lb rainbow trout here.
I have a favourite spot at Saint Michel near Brennilis that I like to go to and even when I don't catch anything is it still enjoyable and something I shall probably do for the rest of my life.
Cooked in the oven in tinfoil with butter and black pepper it is beautiful.
The whole way of life and things that we do over here are so different than we used to do in the UK which gives a whole new slant on things. I think I've mentioned before that it is like going back 50 years in time.
This weekend has been a good example, on Friday we went to a small town called Commana. The whole town was closed off to traffic to allow an annual street market and horse fair. It is supposedly the oldest horse fair in France. There were street after street of stands set up selling pretty much anything you could name plus a "Vide Grenier" which actually means "Loft Sale" or a bit like the UKs car boot sale.
Apart from the horses that were being traded, sold and showed there was loads of small animals for sale, everything from ducks, chickens, goats, pigs, rabbits and ferrets.
We went to a local bar and had coffee part way though and all in all and a lovely few hours just wandering around taking in the sites, even the trip home was nice as we stopped off to look at some ducks on a lake.
On Saturday (yesterday) we went with some friends for an evening at Paule, a small town/village around 30 mins drive away. This was what I would call a quite typical way the French people in this area enjoy having an evening out. It was held in the local "Salle Polyvalente" or multi-purpose hall.
The hall had a stage and was set out with long tables covered in white tables cloths, there was an entrance fee of 10 euros for which we had bread, Moules and frites ( mussels and fries ) and a tarte tatin ( an upside down apple cake ) plus coffee. There must have been well over 100 people in there, I have a feeling we were the only English,although It didn't make any difference as we chatted in pidgeon French and sign language to the people sat on the table around us. A nice bottle of Rose wine at a very reasonable 5 euros helped it down very well.
While we were eating and afterwards we were entertained by a musical chorale group " Chantaccord " who sang sea shanties, I counted 27 of them on the stage, here is a short excerpt.
As you can guess all of this is completely different to our way of life when we lived in the UK, that is not to say It's better just different and certainly a whole chapter of our lives that would have passed us by If we hadn't taken the plunge and moved.
I'm feeling a little bit better about our garden produce today. As I said in the previous post the potatoes are suffering from blight with the leaves starting to go black.
Although I would have liked to have left them in the ground longer to get a bit bigger I decided that I would be better off digging them up now on the assumption that If they have blight they are unlikely to grow anymore and perhaps it could affect the potatoes themselves.
As you can see I have a healthy amount of potatoes coming out and to the left the leeks and T
turnips are doing OK as well.
I shall learn from all of this and next year will perhaps stick to putting in crops that I know have done well this year plus I hope to get a load of horse manure onto the ground before winter.
I have to say I am somewhat disappointed in my gardening efforts this first year over here, we seem to have a whole host of things that are preventing us from being self sufficient. The one thing I am determined to do is to learn from it and try different things and ways next year.
First of all I got sucked in by the beautiful warm/hot weather we had in early March, around 22/23c some days. I started on the garden far too soon, I shall take more notice of my French neighbours next year and delay starting anything much before late April.
Our peas, broad beans, parsnips, garlic etc are not even Worth mentioning!
Another thing I have come to realise is that the row of big fir trees I am lopping off have sucked all the goodness out of the ground, I desperately need to get some manure on the ground in the Autumn and try and get some goodness into it.
A problem that I am going to have more difficulty with though is the deer, last night they grazed off the tops of nearly all of the strawberry plants and half of next year's growth of the raspberry's.
On the plus side, although I haven't got Mandy's problem of trying to keep up with the harvest, we are at last starting to take produce from the garden most days. The turnips are doing very well and are being picked every day whilst young and lovely to eat, we have started to eat carrots and should have enough to keep us going throughout the summer and maybe the Autumn. Although the potatoes are now starting to be affected by blight, due to the lousy weather I suspect, I dug the first of them today and they are looking not to bad.
As from today the 1st July it is now a requirement under French law that all drivers have to carry a single use breath test kit in their car at all times. Here is a short YouTube video showing it's use.
While it is law from today it appears that there will be a period of grace up to November the 1st until it will be enforced.
I cannot believe that these kits that only cost 2 or 3 euros can give an accurate reading and personally I think it could result in some people relying on them when in fact they shouldn't be driving.
I may be cynical but it appears that Mr. Daniel Orgeval, the president of the road safety lobby group that was responsible for persuading persuaded the previous government to adopt the law is also a senior director of one of the only two companies licensed to produce the kits!
After a break of at least 40 years I have now taken up coarse fishing again. Apart from the local lake here in Huelgoat which is within walking distance from my house there are 2 other lovely lakes, St Michel and Drennic, both of which are only about a half hour's drive away, in addition there are loads of rivers and canals so I will have no shortage of places to explore.
In total it cost about 200 euros to get started, I bought a carbon fibre rod plus reel, line, weights, hooks, floats etc
Included in the price was a yearly licence which covers the whole of Finistere apart from the Category 1 lake of St Michel and Drennic, There was an extra 20 euros to cover those which I bought at the same time. Apparently there are loads of good sized trout in both of those lake so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I did hear somewhere that there are carp up to 50lb in our local Huelgoat lake, I'm not so sure my first effort matches up to that!
This is adding a whole new dimension to my life, just sitting by the lake fishing on a still peaceful evening with the ducks flying in to settle down and the swans coming by to take a look is a good enough reason in itself even If I never land a big one!
It's been quite a while since I've updated on here so I'm busy looking for excuses, of course I could easily blame it it on a lovely 2 week visit by my brother Roger, and my sister in law Margaret, but as he will probably read this I shall blame it on the weather instead!
In addition I can blame the weather on the progress in the garden, in truth that is part of it coupled I think with the tall fir trees sucking all the goodness out of the ground for years. I have to say I am more than a little disappointed in it particually given the amount of effort I've put into it this year. I shall put it all down to experience though and will try to get some manure from somewhere in the Autumn to turn in to improve things for next year. The broad beans have been a total washout and the peas are not much better. Some of the root vegetables may come on but I'm not hoping for too much now.
I have made another start on cutting down some more of the fir trees, it is a bit of a long winded job as I have to move the scaffold pretty much every tree and the clearing away and cutting off all the branches and twigs etc takes the biggest amount of time.
It has been over a month now since I submitted French tax returns and I have had no communication from them, I would like to think that I have filled them all out correctly and the longer it goes without hearing the more chance there is I think. Wish me luck!
After waiting what seems an age, we had a phone call this week to say that the workmen would be arriving the next day to install the wood burner we ordered at the beginning of May. They arrived at 9am and were cleared up and gone 3 hours later, I was very impressed. During that time they had to sheet off the room for dust bore a hole through the concrete capping slab on top of the chimney, bore another hole through the ceiling in the lounge fit a chimney pot and cap install a flue liner assemble and install the wood-burner including fitting an internal flue to the ceiling height, fitting a collar at the top and plaster boarding and skimming where the flue went through the ceiling and clearing away all in 3 hours for 2 men. I was most impressed and can thoughrally recommend the company
Cheminees Lencot,
ZA Du Launay,
29600 St Martin Des Champs
Tel 0298 620191
www.cheminees-lencot.com
All I have to do now is to keep enough logs cut and split to see us through the winter!
