Living in Brittany

We have recently come in contact with our immediate neighbour's ( Etienne )  sister  during the EDF chainsaw massacre  ( 24/05 post ) as she was doing a dossier  on the damage they had done. She is a very formidable short woman with incredible energy when you think she is 84yr. She explained she had a grandson  staying in August who wanted to improve his English so we arranged an exchange with Teddy who is staying with us before his parents arrive.During her second visit she explained that her deceased husband had hid in the loft of the gite "les Etables " from 1942 onward as Coat Aillis was the communication base for the local resistance in the last war. During our renovation of that gite we found a Lee Enfield mk2 rifle hidden in the gables

The story that led up to her late husband hiding was he was a "de Staint Laurent " and lived in the local chateau   a few fields away  and an allied airplane crashed on the beach at St Efflam and the 2 pilots were hidden at the chateau then passed on to escape to the UK , but unfortunately the gestapo  came and took the mother away and she died in the camp Ravensbruck in 45 and all the children  ( 10 of them ) were dispersed as they were afraid they would be deported as well, so my neighbour who was a couple years old was put in a monastery where as Jacque ( her husband ) who was 17 and good at telecommunications/ morse code hid in the  loft of les etables while his older brother escaped to England.

I went to a meeting /demonstration on the " toxic beach" at St Michel en Greve last Sunday where there was hardly a trace of seaweed in fact it was the cleanest I have ever seen no doubt due to the presence of the TV cameras and the national press. The consensus seems to be that there should be better policing of the couple of intensive units inland  plus a change of husbandry by the farmers to stop growing maize which is very shallow rooting and leaves the fields bare from November to April  ( unless the farmers put in a green manure crop ) and to grow lucerne a crop with a very deep rooting system. The statistics show on average after the maize is cut there remains about 140 units of N in the ground which then leaches into the watercourse. The other consensus was that the entire team of bureaucrats at the prefecture should be sacked!

We had an EDF man with a clipboard call in at the beginning of the year it was something about changing an electric pole at the entrance and then he quickly mentioned cutting a few branches under the wires in the orchard just normal maintance. So this week 2 guys turned up , they looked like Starsky  and Hutch with dreadlocks in a "cherry picker "  ( a lorry with a hydraulic lift box )  + their weapons of mass destruction, chainsaws. We walked around the orchard  and they pointed out a few branches and I mistakenly left them to it. half an hour later I came back and found a corridor  of branches and one tree was cut in half so will fall over as it is unbalanced unless I cut some branches from the other side. Paulien proved her fluency in French by giving them a good dressing down an ability to let rip in 3 languages is rare.

Guingamp have had a good season for a football club in the second division and a population of 8000, on match day that doubles , the stadium holds about 20 000. They were in the final of the France cup against Rennes  ( an all Breton affaire ) and beat them 2 1 which is only the second time a 2nd division team have won the cup in its history.

We were really lucky with the weather for the November 11th parade in Plestin no rain ( although it made up for it later ). There was about 100 people attending and watching , there is the remnants of the Plestin Fanfare ( used to be over 20 in it's prime now down to a rump of 8) and then half a dozen old guys carrying flags ( representatives of the forces and the resistance from the last war ).So we do our usual bit march up and down the road to the two memorials with a bit of music and then I was thinking a quick glass of wine and then home,but no there was a special ceremony in the salle des fetes as some one from Plestin was to be awarded the "Legionaire d'Honour" and there was the mandatory speeches, an hour............... Apparently this type of award is being encouraged by Sarko for active members of the public, but the old boy had had an active life, escaped into Spain in the war ,imprisoned by the Spanish then he joined the Free French in N Africa . Post war he moved to Plestin in the 60s and since has been on 100s of committees
At last I have got one of the boys interested in music , Xav has started drumming lessons ( obviously has dreams of being a rock star but you have to start with the basics) with the Harmony band.Its interesting in France the schools don't really teach music, only learning to play a recorder and for instrumental lessons you go to the" Ecole de Musique" which is very expensive nearly a 1000€ a year or find a private tutor. I explained to Xav if he got competent he would be able to play at the various ceremonies and earn money as we get 15€ each time so he could get 150€ in a year + develope a skill.
I think I have downloaded something nasty recently ( I think it was a trojan spam factory ) as I had lots of problems with my email not working and then last Sunday received about 5000 spam letters and non deliveries as it hijacks the address, so I had to buy a decent anti virus protection and after a week it seems to have settled down again.

Its an amazing year for apples last year hardly any this year its like a carpet of them in the orchard.Although we have nearly 50 trees only 3 are eaters the rest being cider apples specifically for making cider and of the eaters they are a variety which doesn't keep so its a matter how many can you eat in a day. I find 4 to be my maximum. At the moment we are doing a lot of gardening or tidying the back of the orchard there is an area where I have been dumping branches for a couple of years so I pulled out the shed a mulcher I bought a couple of years ago used it once and decided it was rubbish and hid under a pile of junk in my garden shed. This time I think I have sussed out how to use it and reduced a very big pile of branches to pulp or the bigger bits to be chain sawed into wood burner size
Last week I was out walking my dog ( Jimmy a very slight built dog lovely temperament, wouldn't hurt a fly,perhaps a chicken though ) pass the neighbours ,stopped and chatted when their big Alsatian jumped on Jimmy attacking him,she has a record as she has previously attacked Yann and he had to have loads of stitches. Now I remember someone telling me how you seperate dogs but it was obviously too intellectual and didn't listen so instead I kicked her a couple times in the ribs ( fortunately was wearing my working boots with hardened toe cap ) and she stopped attacking Jimmy and turned around to have a go at me by which time I had got my voice going,you have to speak in a testosterone manner and shout " get back " pointing and she turned around and slunk back into the farmyard.Fortunately the farmers wife had witnessed everything so she applied a little more "rustic " discipline , I almost felt sorry for the dog hearing it whimper in the distance.Still it didn't stop us giving the farmer the vets bill as our dog required a couple stitches

Its amazing as soon as the high season finishes the weather suddenly improves , the meteo has continuous sun blobs for the next 5 days with not a lot of tourists around. I guess in general numbers are down 20% for Plestin and Brittany as a whole mostly the French who are staying at home. For the Brits its 20% more expensive due to decline of the pound but the Irish on the other hand find it much cheaper than at home.
I see in the papers Bernard Tapie has been awarded 300€+ million by the courts when the banks took over his affairs and sold his various businesses off which included Adias at the time. I thought he was just an incompetent businessman verging on being a crook which explains his inforced holiday in prison but it seems he has been creeping around Sarko and they put pressure on the courts for the settlement so the tax payers have to pay him 20€ each.
Paulien had a odd experience last week she had been collecting old clothes from the boys and took them to the centre in Plestin. There is already a "resto de coeur" which hands out free food to the "poor" and it also gives them clothes ( so they can spend their money important things such as drinks,the loto,tv dvd players and other necessities as they can get housing benefits )Any way after they took the 4 bin liners of clothes one of the woman came out and shouted at Paulien she hadn't washed them ( not true ) and ironed the clothes and they were only fit for the dump as they were used to receiving new clothes. So next time we do a clear out I think the clothes will go direct to the dump rather than take unnecessary abuse. It a bit of a socialist paradise,France a very high percentage of the population is on minimum wages but get lots of benefits ,once you are pass the threshold you lose the benefits and are worse off which takes away a lot of incentives to improve your life.

The last couple of weeks have been a bit dull I slipped a disc so wasn't able to walk properly for a week or so without a stick. Its interesting in France when you have a bad back you go to the doctor and get the usual medications but he also gives a prescription for 10 sessions with a kiniotherapist which is then subsidised by the health insurance. I go to the local in Plestin he doesn't do much but his treatment doesn't hurt and its quick ( although I think I'm a much better therapist I can't treat myself )
Max has been working for the Marie in August in their gardening gang which included weeding ,strimming and watering flowers. The Marie is the biggest employer in Plestin ( population under 4000 ) about 70 people on their books not surprising as its a cushy number on Friday they have their first aperitif at midday and then more later in the afternoon so I guess they don't get much done at the end of the week.For the month he received around 1000€ which was OK at least he found it much more interesting than working in Super U . His uni starts again 10th September which could be his last year which would be a Bac+3 or stay another 2 years and leave with a Bac+5 he is undecided at the moment.
The other 2 boys are back at college and lycée we stoped Xav's private lesson and told him he has to pull his finger out and start concentrating in class, so far he seems to be working but then its only the first week another 35 to go!
The season is winding down we have some kiwis staying who are semi retired but house keep in stately homes very interesting he used to do a lot of refereeing rugby matches which is more interesting

This week we are very fortunate to have staying a renowned sax player John............... ( not Coltrane ) staying with us , actually he's an ex pro player and now works as a psychoanalyst ( so is eminently suited to staying at the Coat ) So I ruined his wife's holiday by lending him my tenor and he wrote a few simple numbers for me and Emma to play with him. Its useful to have a collection of saxes , so we can play as a trio , Emma on Alto , John on tenor and me on bari, its a bit tough for Emma as she has to play my leaky alto and play a tune whereas I get a bass line much easier to do so tonight we do our first performance at the BBQ. The Coat Aillis Sax trio or " Sax at Coat Aillis "
The last two weeks have been the Club weeks where we have a lot of repeaters who come the same time each year and we have been running our annual "pool competition " sponsored by CMB and Super U ( bank and super market ,they provide the cups ) and Npower , they provide the goodies, tonight is also the finals, its a three way leg between Jonny , Teddy ( father son combo ) and Rob ( a mental nurse worker ) . I am beginning to think its some sort of karmic thing so many psychic observers staying in the gites. ( Must vet the clients more in the future ) but John is a great guy must get him to teach me a few tricks to improve my sax playing.
Result of pool competition to be in next bulletin

Today was quite interesting for me because last week we visited the local " Tregor Contacts " which is a sort of job offer place in Plestin for small items of work but no first we needed to sign on at the ASSEDIC and then the ANPE which is based in Lannion. So off we went ,first filling out a form and then waitting for an interview , mine was for today the first interview took 5 minutes then an hour wait for the second with the ANPE or so I thought , a leisurely coffee in town with a few chats with some people I knew then back to the bureau , My rendez vous marked in the letter for 10.00 was in fact for 9.30 amazing incompetence on their part, so more waiting then another 5 minute interview.They needed a label to fit on me so I could be entered in a category.In the end we decided on gardener as I could cut grass and knew which end of the hedge cutter to hold. I don't have a lot of certificates but some of them are interesting such as the one for being a competent inseminater of cows or the one for shiatsu. But the bureaucrat couldn't get his head around them or there wasn't a category on his computer. The idea is to get some form of legal status to work in the autumn between the end of our coffee session in the bar and before its time to pick up the children from school

You know summer has arrived when Xav opens his ice cream shop insists we buy his stock then he puts up his adverts of the various ice creams and waits for the clients , a venture capitalist at a young age.My own efforts to diversify are in progress I am setting up an e-shop with various exotic goods available + the much sort after new version of the Coat Aillis T -shirt which can be found at Simon's Shop More products to added later.
We also went along to the local ASSEDIC office in Lannion ,its the unemployment centre as we thought we should do a bit of part time work officially this winter as we haven't any major projects and would help with the cash flow as the pound has droped nearly 20% against the euro and unfortunately we are priced in sterling.They have a local office in Plestin called Tregor Contacts where you can find local work but first you have to be registered with the ASSEDIC. They said no just go to the ANPE the next link , but no first fill in some documentation at the ASSEDIC then wait for a rendez vous with the ANPE to be assessed for our various skills or certificates ( don't have many )after which they suggest courses etc but as we are only interested in some part time work cleaning or cutting grass to fill in the time between the morning coffee in the bar and picking children up i think their efforts will be wasted!
We have a very eclectic group of people this week the normal range of lawyers,teachers,IT etc but this week we have a writer ( 2 books published ) and an .............ex page 3 woman perhaps I should ask her to do some posing photos by the pool showing our collective assets.
Paulien returned from London much excited by the Leonard Cohen concert devasted to have missed the "Nuit des Saucisses" I find the music very average the real music is at the festival held in the centre of Brittany " Les Vielles Charrues" which hosted over 215 000 fans this year with lots of oldies such as MotorHead,Duffy and loads of groups I haven't heard of as its catering for a different generation

I never knew hens were racists but apparently they are and its differcult to mix red and white hens so we have ended up with 2 chicken runs in the veg patch ,the reds and whites and they both have to be moved each day.
I made a mistake in showing Paulien an OAP singing at Glastonbury and she has moody ever since and then Louise rang up and a few taps on the computer she found his next concert so when I had come home she had already booked a ticket at the "Dome " and Ryanair ticket for next week leaving me and the boys to do all the cleaning next weekend, and the singer in question is ............Leonard Cohen only 73yrs and still crocking away.
We had an amusing band practise , we had previously lost our mixing table, politics of previous band , however Valerie the wife of the drummer bought a new one for him but unfortunately also bought 5 micros which he has arranged around his drum kit. Its just a shame he can't play it a bit better.
I didn't get the subtleties of Sarkos reform of public TV not only was he getting more control of them by taking away their commercial advertising he was at the same time boosting the profits of the remaining commercial TV companies such TF1 who just happen to be owned by his mates.Politics.