Living in Brittany

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"

We had been watching the weather in the UK and were thinking we had missed the cold snap, we didn't get our first frost till the week after Christmas, but then last Saturday we had a 6inch dump on us overnight.Driving was impossible and as Paulien was suffering from nicotine deprivation we had to trek into Plestin in our ski survival suits. It took about 3/4 of an hour a walk you could normally do in 25 minutes and its much more tiring walking on soft snow. The main road from Morlaix to Lannion was open but the small amount of traffic was very slow and even Super U had some empty shelves as their deliveries had been disrupted. My boys instead of doing something useful like clearing the road built an igloo on our back lawn, a good use of their university training. The thaw started slowly the next sufficient to get a car out on the long road to Plestin for Sunday communion in the PMU.I think there was just two market stalls!

The town "harmony band " had its annual dinner last week which is paid for by Maire of Lannion its nice to know that some of their taxes are well spent,it only cost 35€ a head + wine! The band does a tour of concerts in retirement homes ( of which their are many ) around the new year period, our conductor is getting on in age, he becomes 80 next month and has been having a few senior moments, such as conducting a piece in 3/4 when it should be 4/4 very interesting and the best one was holding a pause and forgetting to continue thus ending the piece prematurely. Still it's  all good fun and next week I have a practise with the jazz fanfare which is a different type of challenge.

We saw one of the best films I've seen for a long time, a Dutch friend lent us a copy of a Swedish film " As it is in haven " with Dutch sub titles so Paulien translated as we watched. Its a very simple film but I wanted to see it again with English subtitles so found a copy on the net in Hong Kong  with Chinese/English subtitles ( it also been censored as they have cut a couple of the scenes ) so will have to lend it out to my French friends and they will sweat on their English.