Living in Brittany

We bought a really interesting water"filter"  which is connected  where the water enters the property. It consists of a resinous substance originating from  trees and filters anything bigger than 20 microns.It not only makes the water much cleaner but removes that toxic chlorine smell and also takes out nitrates,iron and manganese and makes it pleasant to drink straight from the tap so no need to buy bottled water  which isn't very environmentally friendly  transporting water and its also can leach dioxins from the plastic when exposed to sunlight. The best  characteristic of the water is when you have a shower it feels like bathing in a light oil as the waters "wettability" is increased  and you only need to use half the amount of soap/shampoo  or otherwise you end up with a mass of bubbles on your head. We have already have had to stop the dishwasher and bail out all the froth and bubbles as it wouldn't empty ( also half tablets for dish and washing machines )

And the final selling point  ( I feel like a vendeur selling products )  is that your skin feels really soft as if you have used a moisturizer ( I'm guessing have never used any in my life ) but the installer told us his daughters eczema problem  had cleared up after 2 months of using the water and it comes back when they go on holiday but clears up at their home again.

I had a really funny experience this week driving back from Kees and Karen's place, they live in the country and a 1km later I saw 3 little pigs  ( well they were sows ) so I backed up put on the hazard lights and went looking for the farmer, who of course was out by this time I had found around 30 more sows wandering around. Luckily I saw a neighbour  who operated the gate while I rounded up all the pigs. It took quite some time as they are very intelligent but they were against a man of experience. Someone has to give me a compliment the neighbour just said au revoir  and not a word of thanks.

For various reasons most our children ended up in the Catholic school system which is semi-private ( the fee is 150€ a term and the school meals are more expensive ) but our youngest  Xav has done most of his time in the state school. I don't think there is any difference in educational standards its just  in the state sector you lose about 2 weeks each year due to strikes so the teachers set a good example. A couple of weeks ago they had a one day strike protesting against the director's decision to close down a course CERP ( a vocational course )  in "technicien  d'usinage "  and merge it with the  Bac pro "systemes electroniques numerique". After this disruption which didn't go  down to well with the students there was a lot of grumbling  and resulted in the boarders  (most lycees have some students who live in as its too  far to travel each day )  escaping at 6.30 in the morning and organising a " blocus"  ( lockout ) so the next two days were spent picketing the school stoping students going in and the Thursday and Friday were spent demonstrating in Lannion, blocking a few roads. Its almost a French gene  the art of protest,  the revolution , the communes ,1968  and now Lannion it almost makes me wish I was at school again!

I saw an amazing sight last weekend , driving the car just a field away from the Coat , we saw a sanglier ( wild boar )  cross the road in front of us and disappear into the woods. Its the first one I have seen as they are very nocturnal creatures and it looked so majestic running at full bore around 15kph  it would have weighed over a 100 kilo and the damage it could have done to you on a head charge with its tusks doesn't bear thinking about. There were a few shots in the woods later but am sure nobody shot it  and its nearly the end of the shooting season.

Its been quite interesting in the town band  ( l'harmony )  at Lannion, they have had a good recruitment and Jean Marc has about 12 students of differing ages from 10-60yrs as they offer free tuition and the local "ecole de musque " charge €900 for lessons.Its very international ,a Romanian,Austrian, me a rosbif and two others from Italian and Polish parents. We recently got a young drummer ,Kevin 14yr and the first week was fine as our regular drummer  is very irregular and to be polite is a " basic " person  I,m sure there is a gay,buddhist,vegetarian drummers out in the world,but I just haven't met them. The second week Kevin was installed and Luke  ( the regular ) turns up and just kicks him off the drums  and does his usual tap tap at differing speeds. The following week at a concert he confronted Alan the trumpet player that brings him and told him not to bring him any more which seems a bit selfish, so the next practise Kevin brings his father, an extremely fit plasterer for  a bit of support. So when Luke turned up and tried to push him off the drums  there was a big verbal  debate mostly in slang. Its quite embarrassing that adults can be so childish but it was settled that they have to share as the young boy is talented and plays far better than Luke. The funniest comment was he kept saying I'm handicapped  so someone quipped  "yes you 're right  no brain"