Living in Brittany

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.

Well I had a great time in Germany the jumelage of Lannion and Gunzburg works really well especially as the local brewery sponsers the German hospitality and they make some excellent beers.The first couple of days involved playing on the streets as they had a European festival going on with at least 20 groups of dancers,singers and bands from about 6 different countries mostly central European as leather shorts seemed to be the fashsion. The Saturday night I  experienced a beer hall , which was long tables ,lots of beer and food being seved listening to an 8 piece all girl band, fraulienpower playing retro music from the 60-80s very watchable.Its interesting there is a smoking ban in Germany but there is an exception for beer halls, the politicians would lose votes I guess.

Sunday was a beer festival sponsored by Gunzburger Weinzenbier an excellent drink with lots of music/beer/food and a tour of the brewery and in the afternoon I left with my host family  Helmet and Monika for a bike ride along the Danube.Gunzburg was a frontier town from the Roman times as its on the Danube and controls the routes going north to south. one of the funniest sights on the bike tour was at a "biergarten "where we stoped and in the mens toilet they had a row of 10 urinals and above them was a panel requesting the client to choice the correct urinal as each one was marked for differing liquids. The first being for beer then wine,milk,tea coffee,coke etc..........................they were taking the p... unfortunately I forgot my camera

The following days was a mix of visiting the various tourist sites although I did get confused by a trip claiming to be about renewable energy,wind farms. It was in a magnificent modern designed office on stilts surrounded by water and the owner looked like the owner of the factory in the film " Charlie and the Chocolate factory" he gave a speech on investing in renewals etc and then we visited his factory which made cardboard boxes for puzzles ................but he is investing his money in wind farms.

Perhaps the least appreciated part of the trip for me was a visit to a Teddy bear museum which I managed to escape from after breaking the record of the fastest visit, I felt slightly ill and had to find a bar for some caffeine therapy. But we visited some fascinating  underground cave systems and generally being with a bunch of Bretons abroad is a fun experience.I actually had an advantage on them as generally the Germans speak English as a first Language and French a distant second and while they merciless mock my French accent  some of my fellow band menbers when they speak English have that really sexy French accent with it.

Overall it was a really good experience and even the band didn't sound to bad even there was only 7 of us but we had all parts covered, its just a shame that the trip involves 16 hours on the bus and trying to sleep was fairly differcult spacewise it was like sleeping on a reclining toilet but I managed 3 hours and when I arrived home Paulien had been busy supervising the guys who had changed the liner on the pool  and it was filling and should be in action again next week.