En Bretagne — Part 1

31 May 2019 Sunny Bridge 5 Comments

I’m now installed in the super-cute little house I’m renting for the next month.

Home away from home — simple facade hiding LOTS of charm!

Front door leads into the living room, with the bedroom on the left. It’s basically a U. In the photo below the kitchen is on the right, bathroom on the left, living room next to the kitchen, bedroom where I stood to take this photo–wrapped around this perfect, private little space, with doors leading out from all of them. Love it!

So now I have a few minutes to tell you about our adventures in Brittany, or as it’s called here in France, Bretagne (the end rhymes with lasagne). We were headed to the Gulf of Morbihan, where Pascale had planned various excursions to see ALL of it, including islands in the middle. Thanks, Pascale! All of it was well worth seeing. Way too much for one post, so here’s Part 1.

We packed up and headed out from La Rochelle around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday the 22nd and made it to Vannes in time for lunch at our first of many traditional Breton crêperies. We walked through the base of the tower out to a stone-walled terrace.

La Tour Trompette, Crêperie, Vannes

Pascale at lunch La Tour Trompette, Vannes

Jacky’s flambéed dessert

The most impressive part, though, was les toilettes — the tiniest, wedge-shaped, stone-walled, low-ceilinged, claustrophobia-inducing WC, too tiny even to take a photo, except of this sign by the tiny sink:

“In this place was the cell of those condemned to death”

So, yeah, note to self: It could be worse.

I sure wish I had been participating in FitBit challenges, because I would have rocked it. I logged roughly 17,000 steps a day Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Wednesday and Sunday we were driving there and back, and I still managed 12,500 on Wednesday and 8,000 on Sunday. Wednesday was high because the lunch stop in Vannes included a walk around the town . . .

Translation: Vannes and his wife

Vannes, France

Then Wednesday evening we also walked to dinner, twenty minutes from the hotel down to the port in Auray. And back, of course . . UP.

Auray – down to dinner and back up to the hotel!

But in the company of friends, even that wasn’t too bad! My lesson for the day: life can be hard, but it can also be beautiful. Pascale and Jacky’s next door neighbor apparently agrees:

France, New Adventures

Château de la Roche Courbon

27 May 2019 Sunny Bridge 4 Comments

Pascale, Jacky and I have been taking advantage of every moment. We returned Sunday afternoon from our five-day adventure in southern Brittany, (the part that sticks out on the northwestern corner of France). I will tell you all about it, but I’m not even going to begin that yet!

To keep it chronological . . .

Monday, the 20th, Jacky drove us forty-five minutes or so southeast of La Rochelle to visit the Château de la Roche Courbon. Click on the link (then on the Union Jack flag for English) for more about it. If you’re not that interested in reading more of the history, you can just trust me it was interesting and gorgeous.

Here are a few photos, a little gift of beauty for you. Enjoy! (Remember you can click on any photo to make it larger.)

Château de la Roche Courbon, France

Château de la Roche Courbon

The family that has owned this amazing place for several generations still lives here and opens it to the public for all kinds of events, in addition to the regular tours.

The story of this château and its gardens inspired me by its history of determination. It was built, improved, then abandoned, then suffered various reverses, then was restored. At some point over the centuries the gardens were amazingly built on marshland. What?!?No worries for drought, but of course various complicated drainage issues had to be expensively addressed in the 1930s and again in the nineties. The gardens are actually now supported on deep piles driven through the marshland down to bedrock.

Panoramic view of the gardens from the upper terrace/balcony

I love this image of driving a pile down through the muck to bedrock and the resulting beauty that is possible. Makes me think of the encouragement of the psalms.

Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress. I will never be shaken. Psalm 62:2 NIV

I patiently waited, Lord, for you to hear my prayer. You listened and pulled me from a lonely pit full of mud and mire. You let me stand on a rock with my feet firm, and you gave me a new song, a song of praise to you. Psalm 40: 1-3a CEV

Wishing you abundant beauty to share, anchored on bedrock to see you safely through the mud and mire!

France

Among Friends in France

20 May 2019 Sunny Bridge 4 Comments

I’ve made it back to La Rochelle and am being well cared for by my friends, Pascale and Jacky.

Although I broke the trip into two parts, it still took its toll. I had a lovely evening Thursday with Tom and Meg (David’s brother and sister-in-law). The next day Meg and I went out for a delicious lunch at a local cozy Italian place before she took me to the airport for my overnight flight to Paris.

It’s the “overnight” part that makes it tough, not great conditions for restful sleep, but enough about that. I’m here! I slept ten hours the first night and nine last night, both mornings waking at a very reasonable 7:15-ish, so am well on my way to being acclimated to local time.

The weather I left in Colorado was FABULOUS, so I hope you Coloradoans are enjoying it! Here, it’s cooler and rainier, although the rain let up yesterday and today is only cloudy. Pascale and I took a long walk around La Rochelle yesterday morning, as I was anxious to reacquaint myself with my home-away-from-home. Tour Saint-Nicolas is currently closed and under renovation, so I’m glad I’ve already climbed it multiple times (see here and here and here).

Later, after a delicious Sunday lunch, for which I was not allowed to lift a finger, we took a little drive (yes, I slept through all of it) to Fouras . . .

A little beauty from May 2019 – France

. . . where some SERIOUSLY hardy souls were actually swimming!

Here’s how we were dressed . . .

Pascale and Maya

Jacky

. . . and we were not overly warm. The wind was BRISK. Still, it was beautiful.

It is so good to be back among friends in a place so dear to my heart. We talk a lot of other times we’ve had and laughs we shared with David. Of course, we all wish we could have enjoyed more time with him, but are so very grateful for the time we did have together.

It is not length of life, but depth of life. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Now we will make new memories to share in days to come.

New Adventures

Better Than Portlandia

13 May 2019 Sunny Bridge 4 Comments

Time is flying! I can hardly believe I head to France this week. There have been so many tasks, getting the house ready for the people who will be staying here in my absence, and of course, getting myself ready to go. But I thought I had better write a quick post about our fabulous Easter weekend in Portland before I missed doing it entirely. This is likely to be one of the last, if not the last, of Chelsea’s fun trips before her baby is born, so we took advantage of the long weekend to pay a visit to Doug and Kristl.

We got there Thursday afternoon and had a chance to walk around a bit before Doug got home from teaching. Spring in Portland was a bit ahead of Colorado (and DEFINITELY ahead of Minnesota), so we soaked it in.

Thursday night, Doug’s band often gets together to practice, so we had a bit of an impromptu concert . . .

OF COURSE, we went wine tasting–Chelsea along for the views only. Sorry, Chelsea!

Brittany

Brother-in-law Doug and me

Courtney

. . . and no, Doug is not double-fisting it. He’s holding my glass while I snap the photo. Didn’t want it to look like the mom-to-be was swilling wine! Here’s the view . . .

We had brought along a picnic from Grand Central Bakery . . .

Grand Central Bakery, Sellwood (Portland, Oregon)

. . . where I accidentally bought the last three quiches out from under the people in line ahead of me, who were asking about them while I was paying for them with another clerk. Sorry! I didn’t realize. (Not THAT sorry. They were amazing!)

The weather was a bit rainy Friday, so not quite picnic perfect, but Bergström Winery–one of the other wineries we visited–has changed its tasting procedure, so we were forced to come in and sit at a table and have our picnic while we tasted their wines. (Perfect!)

And because Doug is an all-caps EXTROVERT, of course he (and Kristl, who is NOT an extrovert, but is very gracious) hosted a bunch of people Saturday night. Here are Chelsea and Brittany helping prep the appetizers . . . .

By Sunday, we were all happily exhausted, so had a low-key day. Doug and I took Courtney downtown for a quick dash through Powell’s (one of my all-time favorite bookstores) and then to catch a train to visit a friend in Washington, since she was so close. Brittany, Chelsea and I headed home on Monday. Brittany had been to Portland several times before, but the time went by so fast, I don’t think I even had a chance to show Chelsea and Courtney that the quirky image portrayed in the show Portlandia exists for a reason. Exaggerated, but still. What a fun place.

The last time I had been there was the last road trip David and I took before his diagnosis, so I had a few weepy, nostalgic moments, but overall, what a joy to be able still to share beautiful places and happy times with dear ones. I am so grateful for that.

Wishing you many opportunities to enjoy beautiful places and happy times with your dear ones as well!

Next post from France if all goes as planned. Stay tuned!

Movable Assets

Monthly Archives: May 2019

En Bretagne — Part 1

Château de la Roche Courbon

Among Friends in France

Better Than Portlandia

Adventures in Wanderlust