Living and Gardening in Brittany

I have been volunteering at the local library which is quite small and only open on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. It is really well stocked and has some beautiful childrens picture books. There is an English novel section; the books on Brittany are excellent and very comprehensive.The library is run totally with voluteers who are really dedicated. In the school holidays we do craft workshops. I found a couple of novels by Erica James who is a very well published writer and lives in Congleton. She was also a member of Congleton Writers Circle. The very one that I visited last year. I thought she would be interested to know that her book was in this tiny library so I sent her a message via her website and she replied. The library has just undergone a renovation and we are planning a 'Porte Ouvert' (Open Day) in Feb. A local writer has been invited and a group of artists have been invited to dispaly their work. it felt very strange yesterday when I was hooving the libr...

French people celebrate Xmas on Xmas Eve. The Reveillon de Noel it is called and means the evening before Xmas. Here in Brittany people are very family orientated but have been kind enough on a number of occasions to invite me. This is difficult for me as a vegetarian. I don't like to compromise my principals but I do not like to offend my neighbours either especially as food and large sit down meals are so important to them. As you can imagine I find fois gras especially difficult to swallow and to refuse as they think I am very odd in not wanting to try their delicious Xmas treat. I am not too good at staying awake until the early hours either and midnight here is the preferred hour for present opening. This year I managed to have a French Reveillon with French friends and an English Xmas with two English friends. My friend Sylvaine the hostess rang me to say that the meal would begin a little earlier than usual so would I be there at 8.45. Fortunately, I could stay over and ...

They say there is no free lunch but my god there is no free heating either here nor in the UK. I did appreciate gas central heating for many years but I do not have that option here. I am too far from the town gas supply. One option here are oil central heating. I cannot afford to install it and it is not cheap to run and the cost can rise astronomically without warning. Electric heating is easy and cheap to install and is quite flexible. But it is expensive. The third option is wood. This is my chosen option which is not ideal but it is the best of a bad bunch It is neither cheap nor easy to run. At 70 I have to first of all stack then carry 50cm heavy oak logs into the house every day. It is not cheap. 120 euros last year for 1 corde (3cubic metres) I use at least 4 cordes per year. The stove is very hungry and I keep it lit all night. The problem is that I have to supplement the wood burning stove with electric heaters. The annual electricty bill is about 600 euros s...

On my birthday two friends arrived from UK and we started the day with Bucks Fizz and cake. Later more friends arrived and they had all brought food. We began with champagne and cakes.  Then we danced and played games. Next we sat at table and began a lovely meal. We had delicious home made chestnut soup followed by two flans, one of spinach and one of cheese and onion (most people were veggies) with salad. Did we have cheese? I don't remember but we certainly had cake. Everybody seemed to have brought me a birthday cake. I had four. It was a truly enjoyable party and I felt very priviledged to have so many generous knid friends.

The second was a small dinnerparty with four friends, two French and two English. I think I cooked (not my favourite occupation)  a very edible meal. It was a pleasant evening and an opportunity to practise my French which I really need. I forgot to take a photo. I had another birthday meal in a posh restaurant in Dinan. Sylvaine treated me to anything I wanted on the menu. The restaurant has panoramic views of the port and the food is delicious. The waiters are extremely attentive and I'm sure it cost a bomb but I didn't look at the bill.

The first one was a family affair. My son and his wife came with his daughter and her partener for the weekend. We had lovely food and lots of wine and a surprise birthday cake with champagne. We played games over the weekend.  Which is one of my favourite pastime.

I have just read all the old posts on this blog and realise that most posts are about food. I was about to write about my birthday but maybe I will leave it until later because I had 3 parties which all involved food. But hey it is France.

  Or is it? I had decided not to go to any more village meals but yesterday I went yet again. Last wednesday, market day, I set off to the Bar Central in town where one can always be sure of meeting the English gang. I had to talk to someone about the NewYear's gig but I never got there. I bumped into two of my neighbours Simone and Annick. I usually see Annick in town on market day but Simone never. Why? Simone is 100 years old, yes 100. The reason she was in town was not to go to the market but to go to the Funairium. The place where they take the deceased before the funeral so that friends and family can sit with the body before the burial. Sometimes people stay for hours even over night. The deceased  was 97! She invited me to go for a drink with them and whilst those two drank Raphael I had a petit café. It was quite embarrasing because when I offerd to pay I couldn't find my purse. I had left it at home in my camera bag (more of that later). They asked me if I was go...