Living in Brittany

We had quite a shock last Saturday in the bar someone mentioned Francois Rolland had died of an aneurysm, he's our neighbour just lives a few fields away. Regular visitors will have seen him working the fields or he would often drop in for a chat  leaving the engine of his  John Deere  tractor running  as he had a quick beer and gossip with me and Paulien. We have known him 17 years and he lived at Coat Aillis before we bought the place  and he had a large hanger in place where he ( or his wife ) milked his 25 cows, in fact we co-habited  on site as he didn't move the hanger till 95 so we always got on well. He was a fiery proud Breton but an unreconstructed chemical farmer who was was an anachronism as he was farming on such a small scale. The funeral was at Ploulec'h a small village near Lannion it was completely packed so we had to stand for the service  where they sang songs in French and Breton and afterwards everyone passes the coffin and sprinkles some drops of water on it. I got out early but Paulien left half an hour after me as there were at least 400 in the church and another 100 outside. He was only 53 and had 3 girls one of whom was going to be married the following week so it was bad timing.

All the dairy farmers locally are on strike  that is they are throwing their milk away ( they will give it away also )  since 10 days it looks like financial suicide  but I guess they aren't making much money anyway.

The winner of this years pool competition was a double triumph for the Cutler family  as both Emma and Teddy won the junior and senior cups so extra shelving will be needed in their household to go along side Frances's cup, I'll have to have a senior (over 50s cup next year so Jonnie has a chance of a grand slam)

I went to a very interesting cerememory  last week at Ploubere it was organised by the "Brittany group of the 15th Calvary " a local French group which has connections with the American army which the 15th belongs to. Back in 1944 after the breakout in Normandy around July General Patton had the brief to capture Brest as it was a Uboat base and still active, so accordingly he sent the 15th Calvary to take it ASAP avoiding major battles and large towns such as St Malo and St Brieuc. There was a story in the press of the present mayor of Paleo  ( small village near St Brieuc ) had been in a group taken  hostage by the Germans and had a pistol to his head ready to be shot when the Calvary arrived in their tanks and saved their lives!

So the "harmonie" had to play our usual French  tunes " Marseillaise,Chant des partisans + Star spangled banner" followed by  speeches which were  in English and French. There were 4 veterans  present ( all in their 90s ) and around 50 other Americans as it was part of a 2 week tour of Brittany.We had  the Prefect,senator,deputy for Cote d'Armor and the American consul from Rennes all gave talks for up to an hour before we could replenish our thirst.It was interesting that American consul's speech in English  was markedly different in French and brief as in in English  it was rather Bushite and its exact translation wouldn't have gone down too well with the French.

I had to go flat hunting in Rennes with Max as he and Bas are studying there at the university next month. I left the arrangements up to Max and he had 2 rendez-vous organised. The first was on a purpose built block modern Ok if you like fitted carpets on the walls and one of the bedrooms  wouldn't have taken a double bed, so it was small,but it was passable and then the agent at the end of the visit said the owner didn't like students, so it was a waste of time and for the second appointment we waited  and waited and the agent never turned up and Max didn't have his/her  number, but fortunately we ventured into an immobilier at the centre of Rennes and asked if they had any thing on offer and we  were offered a first viewing of an apartment which was in the process of being repainted so we had to return a couple of days later ( its only a 2 hour drive to Rennes ).However the apartment was great just a 5 minute walk from the centre, it was slightly old fashioned with a squeaky wooden floor but spacey 68msq and going for 690€ a month.Its great for Max as his uni is just 2 streets away whereas Bas is at University2 which is on the edge of Rennes so a half hour walk,15 min on a bike it seems to be very bike friendly or he could take the metro. Rennes is a very interesting city,very old centre with the newly restored parliament building  ( the fishermen burnt it down in 1994, Paulien used to know a fisherman he had a few fingers missing as he had let go of the Molotov too late ) It also houses the appeal courts and has exhibitions in the assembly room and is well worth a visit but I guess small children wouldn't find it too interesting. In the centre of Rennes is the " rue de soif " a wide street flanked by restaurants and bars ( also the Webb Ellis )  the centre of the night life.

Here at Coat Aillis we have our "happy family " week with lots of regulars back and we are in the middle of our annual pool competition sponsered by Npower,CMB and Super U. Fortunatly the Aussies lost the ashies so the Npower memorablie has some meaning otherwise it would have to have been binned. For the juniors Iz has to play Emma but for the seniors it looks like a three way final between Ted, Bas (former junior champion) and Pete (07 winner ) or Xav (a 4 times winner of the juniors )Will post the winner next blog.

On the seaweed front the beach of course is looking very clean  and last week the French PM ,Fillon visited with 3 minsters ,agriculture,health and the environment with the usual pledges of money to throw at the problem when the real solution would be effective policing of the rivers and closing down any dirty units caught polluting