Rochefort-en-Terre

In Brittany there are 22 Petites Cités de Caractère - small towns of character - and on Sunday, we went to visit one of them: Rochefort-en-Terre. It's about half an hour's drive from our base in Brittany and we had visited it a few weeks ago but spent the whole time wandering around in awe that we forgot to take any pictures, so we had to go back for another look, this time with cameras at hand!

The weather forecast had predicted temperatures of 29 to 30 degrees, so we all decided not to bring jumpers or cardigans. Unfortunately, the sun was hiding behind the clouds and it was rather chilly when we got out of the car, with only body heat and Mummy's scarf to ward off the cold!

We set off and soon forgot all about the cold because Rochefort-en-Terre is just so beautiful. At every turn, there was another charming street, another beautiful house, another burst of colourful flowers.

We followed a way-marked path that leads along a 7.5 km walk that takes in the surrounding forrest and countryside before bringing you back into the town.

The forrest walk was so quiet and peaceful and very lush and green.

There were lots of fun things to do along the way!

The path took us alongside fields of crops.

By now, the sun had come out and it was hot!

Some horses taking shelter from the sun.

We had some pretty serious house-envy along the way! We all agreed that this one was our favourite.

A couple of hours later, we arrived back into the town, and after some restorative galettes, we strolled around, feasting our eyes.

Among the many cute little shops, our favourite was that of a local sculptor who makes her pieces from wire. Birds, shoes, cow's heads, skulls, flowers, jelly-fish - all constructed from bent wires, and the result is both delicate and arresting.

We walked up to the castle at the top of the town and had a look around the grounds, inspecting the well:

 and the little chapel (check out the apparition of St Conor of Sandymount at the window):

...before finally heading home.

The Walk (by Rowan)

On Sunday we went on a walk.It was a very nice forest walk in a place called ''Rosh furr on tare.''The walk was 8 killometers long.The start was in the forest, the next bit was beside a river, and the next bit was forest again.

 


It was really fun, Daddy played a monster game with me,

and I saw a lizard!It looked like this:

When we got back to the village we had lunch. For lunch we had galettes. They were really yummy.

Rowan😄😀😁😂😃😅😆

 

A Lovely Creperie (by Freya)

One day when we were in a village we saw a creperie .

It was very nice . we ordered a galette with apples and nuts and honey with goats cheese .


LOVE FREYA   XOXOXOXO 🍯🍏🍎🐈👧

Village Life (by Karen)

The quiet life continues...
Most days, we walk to the village to buy bread, post the odd postcard, or have a coffee at the Tabac. Le Roc de St Andre is a pretty quiet little village, very agricultural - lots of houses in the village seem to have backyard chickens; we hear the roosters from several gardens as we walk past. Also, depending on the time of the day, you can hear some fairly loud moo-ing coming up to milking time.
Here are some pictures of the village:

The Church of St Andre which stands on the top of the hill overlooking the bridge below. In the second picture, if you look closely, you can see St Andre himself looking down over the river.

This is the view from the church of the bridge below crossing the river Oust.

Across the road from the church is the Boulangerie where we buy our bread (and on occasion some delicious tartelettes des fraises!).

The main street where there's a handy corner shop for buying milk and other conveniences, as well as the village restaurant where galettes and crepes feature largely on the menu.

The post office.

The tabac is on our way home and a good place to duck into for a coffee and a Coke when you get caught in a sudden shower of rain!

All is going well. Life has slowed and become quieter, which is just how we like it. And the girls (and Saoirse) are settling into country life.

Tout va bien!

The Michelin star restaurant (by Rowan)

One day Mummy, Daddy, Freya and I decided to go to a little sea side village called "Vannes" - you pronounce it "van".We were meaning to just park the car, eat in a restaurant and stroll along the sea front. But it just so happens that that day was the feast of the Assumption,and that is a holiday in France! So all the car parks were full! Even the smallest street was filled up!😒😢😣😥😫😯😪

Mummy phoned three  restaurants but they were all full. Eventually she found a little restaurant just outside Vannes which had a table for us.It also had its own little car park which was much nicer than the ones in Vannes.🚗🚙🚘🚛🚚

 

The restaurant was called "le Pressoir"and it had a  Michelin star!💥 Now "le Pressoir"was a proper Fancy restaurant with three starters and that sort of thing.For our first starter we had a tomato covered in pepper , a mackerel pate cracker , a piece of toast with Parmesan ,and a pastry with mango sauce, 😋😋😋🍱🍱🍛🍛🧀🧀🥪🥪🥐🥐🥗🥗🍞🍞🥓🥓🥞🥞🍕🍕🌮🌮🌯🌯🍖🍖🥡

I know some of that stuff sounds disgusting but it was actually really nice! 

The next course was another starter. It was this really nice potato soaked in black sauce with creamy stuff inside it and fish eggs.!

The last starter was melon cut up into balls and put in spicy sauce with flowers. I didn't like the sauce but I ate the melon. 

Next we had the main course which was chicken with vegetables for me but something different for everyone else.

Finally we had dessert which was profiteroles. Mummy and Daddy got THREE DESSERTS!!!! Not fair!!!!!!

By the time I was finished my dessert I felt like I was going to explode!

When we left the restaurant we were all so stuffed that we didn't want to look at Vannes anymore so we just got in the car and went home.

                                                                     Rowan                                                                                         😋😆😃🤣😀😁😂😅 

The cows (by Freya)

When me Freya went to the

village with my mummy Karen . On the way back we saw COWS .They were very funny

Love Freya 🖤🤍🙂😀🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄👩‍🌾👨‍🌾🍔🥩🧀🥛🍼

French wine in France

Drinking wine in France is a bit overwhelming. We have been here for almost a month, but yesterday was the first time I went to a wine shop to buy wine. Not that we haven't been drinking wine, it's just that the selection of wines in the supermarkets is fantastic - aisles and aisles of French wine, ranging from a few Euro to 20 Euro, very few above that price. When shopping, I'd seem to spend most of my time staring at all of these wines, like a kid in a sweet shop, paralyzed by choice. We have had sumptuous Sancerres, beautiful Cote de Beaunes and jolly amazing St Josephs.

However, that logical part of me was voicing away inside, saying that I should have a system to all this wine buying and drinking. So, I decided to pick a region of France, and focus on buying wine from there. As Bordeaux is a large region, and generally represented on wine lists in restaurants around the world, that seemed like a good place to start. A quick Google and I'd found a wine shop in Malestroit, a town 10 minutes away, so off I went!

 

It's great to talk to someone who is passionate about the topic. In this case, the topic was wine, and the owner of the shop was a great help. I walked in, and said that I didn't know much French, to which he replied he didn't have much English. A can of Kilkenny on one of his shelves gave me the opportunity to identify myself as Irish, and then we were happily off chatting about wine, with no apparent language difficulty at all. Bordeaux is largely divided into two regions: the left bank, which generally produces wines with Cabernet Sauvignon as the main grape, and the right bank, in which Merlot tends to be the dominant grape. So, he advised I start with one from each bank. He said 2012 was a good year, and I was soon happily on my may home with a Medoc from the left bank and a St Emilion from the right bank. When leaving the shop, I noticed a row of large industrial vats along the side wall. Upon asking, I learned that they were (of course!) full of wine. Red, white and rosé table wine for everyday use. I guess the locals show up with their barrel and get it filled for the week!

Drinking wine is serious business, not simply a case of glugging as much back as you can before waking with your eyelids glued together the next afternoon. So, Karen and I did a side-by-side comparison of the wines, looking at the wine, smelling the wine, and even drinking the wine. We compared thoughts and notes, and although both wines seemed to taste better the more we had, we agreed that the winner of this, our first wine tasting in France, was the Médoc.

Life is good!

Bags and Bins

Another week here, and I'm beginning to get used to things. I no longer have to chant "drive on the right" repeatedly to myself every time I'm in the car. Ploermel, the local town, is twinned with Cobh in Ireland. The Marie flies the Irish flag beside the French flag - very welcoming of them! The church has a war memorial monument outside, and standing proudly at the top is the Gallic Rooster that Johnny told us about.

We didn't go to a market this week, but I'm noticing nice differences about the supermarkets. They have compostable bags for the loose fruit and veg, and they have tubes full of different things - nuts, muesli, dried fruit. You measure out what you want into a paper bag, and weigh it to get a price/barcode. Nice ideas, both, for cutting down on packaging.

The bins are different here too. There are communal recycling spots - at the side of the road, like our smaller bottle banks - and you bring your glass, paper, card and plastics there for recycling, free of charge. There are other roadside containers which you put your general rubbish/black bins into, so no-one has the black/brown/green wheelie bins like we have in Ireland. I guess this makes it easier to collect rubbish and recycling, the truck doesn't need to go to every house, but wonder how it is paid for.

We had a nice dinner in the hotel in Ploermel during the week. They girls were on their best behaviour, excited to be in a 'fancy' restaurant. We all had a great evening, and the plan is go to further afield next time - Vannes, a nearby city on the coast - has three Michelin 1-star restaurants. We must try one!

Settling In

Quiet country living continues.
We have settled into a routine of working, eating, exercising and relaxing. It's all wonderful.
Here are some pictures of the house.


The entrance, complete with obligatory hortensias:

Outside in the garden, the table where we eat al fresco with a view of the main house beyond:

The sitting room:

Saoirse has found a favourite sunny spot:

Rowan at her desk:

Our bedroom upstairs with the little table by the window where Conor works:

Freya in the girls' bedroom:

Conor cooking:

During the week, we spent some time in a bookshop and came away with the best French cookbook ever!

Tout va bien!