Living in Brittany

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05/29/2007

Vin d'honneur

Last weekend we were invited to a marriage and the vin d'honneur afterwards. This is a good way of inviting lots of friends after a marriage and give them a few drinks and nibbles and doesn't break the bank so after that the family and chosen few go to a restaurant for a meal. The marriage was at the maire a half hour ceremony and afterwards there was the usual photo shot they didn't do a church service. I can never work it out if that is before or after the maire affair. The nibbles were interesting large baskets of raw vegetables mixed with fruits,nuts olives all artistically laid out plus they have cylindrical loaves gutted and very small sandwiches placed in them.Its Ok for an hour of socialising then home for some real food. We know the parents of the bride well Madelaine is an independent teacher and she has coached all our children over the years just half an hour a week. Her husband Yannick is a retired sailor from the French navy he served on the Clemanceau which is an aircraft carrier in the process of being decommissioned but there is a big scandal surrounding it,intially it was to be broken up in India but when it arrived there they refused as it is full of asbestos so they sent it back ( its engines broke down several times on the return trip ) and now it is lurking in Brest harbour. Most of the people who served on it are contaminated with asbestos including Yannick , this year they received a pension of 1500€ a month too late for some they estimate 30000 are effected.
Yesterday was spent helping our Dutch strawberry grower friends who are really smart they invite a bunch of friends around for a meal and before it we put straw around their plants, they have about a hectare of strawberries and at least 15 couples turned up over the day so most of the crop was covered.Still it was very social it reminded me of watching a film of the Amish communities men carrying pitchforks of straw and the woman on their knees putting straw under each plant. If only I could build gites like that

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05/24/2007

Absentee gite owner

Its been a few hectic weekends for me firstly I had an offer of seat at Twickenham for the play off finals Leicester v Glawster so I flew Brest to Exeter where Peter picked me up and hosted for the weekend. It was great saw the family and the lonely hen in the garden, picnicing in the parking at twickers only downside was Gloucester getting totally stuffed. The service by Flybe is very good better than Ryanair more relaxed and not so paranoid about being booked in 2 hours before the flight.
It was a couple days home then off again this time it was the jazz fanfare tour. We left Thursday afternoon for Brest then caught the ferry to Isle Oussante (Ushent ) Its at least an hours trip and as there were over a hundred musicians on the boat ( 7 other fanfares ) there was continuous performances. The islands are pleasant similiar to the Scilly Isles stuck out in the Atlantic. The accommodation was a "salle de fete" with 40 inflated air beds very interesting with Herve the doctor getting the prize as champion snorer.The next day was spent busking in the streets with a picnic at the port after which the mayor gave a speech (as usual ) then someone said all the woman should give him a kiss which took about 10 minutes as the queue was massive including the blokes from the punk band. They were totally mad on stage and had great costumes punks one day and the next wedding dresses. Then it was back to Brest for evening concert, I made the mistake of sharing a room with Herve again (this time it was at a Breton school and we stayed in the boarding part and there was just 6 to a room ) Saturday was playing in the streets at Brest having lifts on horse driven carts , ours was a disaster as it was glass enclosed so we walked (or trotted ) behind it. The evening was a "Bal " in a big marque with the bands again playing while the rest ate a large crab. The most interesting band for me was the German one which had 2 sousaphones and generally played a sort of nightclub jazz with one of them on a megaphone doing rap but for the Bal they turned it into a form of rave music it was quite hypnotic to watch.It was funny the Germans for me were very easy to communicate with as their French was poor but they all spoke very good English especially the rapper as he came from Liverpool.
Then back to reality a days sleep then cutting grass and cleaning houses and pool ( temperature past 27 now )

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05/10/2007

Its May must be a bank holiday

France must have the highest amount of bank holidays in May for most countries May the first " workers day" then May 8th ( our wedding anniversary 20th this year in fact its because of the " jour ferrie " that I remember ) end of war WW2,and then pentecote or ascension day. Because they are on the Tuesday the boys have Monday off school also because they have boarders so they do a 3 day week ( all Wednesday ) A lot of schools have facilities for boarders your children can sleep at the school and be fed its not that expensive about 600€ a term and I suppose its a good idea if you live a long way out saves early mornings. Bas gets up at 6.20 and me a bit later to take him to the bus at 7.00 at the sea front for a school start of 7.45. The state college in Plestin is much better normal start is 8.45 but often with strikes and illnesses its an even later start. Congrats to Jonnie and Francis as its their 2this month also

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05/09/2007

King Sarko takes power

There were no big surprises on Sunday in the election and Sarko duly won although I have never met anyone who would admit to voting for him , Brittany and the SW of France are socialist areas so next month we have parliament elections and then the fun starts. No doubt he has read Thatchers autobiography and will plan accordingly, First pay rises for the police and army then a few restrictions on picketing the left are itching to take him on so the next few years could be interesting in general the French strike out of season so the summer months are conflict free to avoid stressing workers on holidays.
Xav seems to have recovered OK from his operation it was a peritonitis as the appendix were leaking it was a worrying that the first doctor didn't pick it up so much for the much vaulted French health system and annoying as we pay so much in contributions so Brits shouldn't moan so much about the NHS
We have had a few visitors Paulien's school friend Ineke who was an ex nurse useful so she could keep an eye on Xav and my mother and a friend but all have departed and we just have a few tourists one is a Russian commodity trader living in Holland comes into my office with his laptop to follow containers of sugar, cocoa which are some where on the world's oceans
I have had an offer of a ticket for the play off final so am off to the UK on Friday flying to Exeter then next week is one of my highlights of the year the jazz fanfare band is ON TOUR well only to Brest one night on the isle Ossent (sleeping under canvass not good news ) then 2 days in Brest playing on the streets . There are 15 other bands one from the states another from Germany so should be goof fun.

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