Looping NZ Style: We have been in Bretagne forThree weeks already!

Goodness, how time flies when you are so busy you have no time at night to sit down and write a blog!
Yes, we have now been here three weeks, and so much has happened. Per usual, I will have to refer to my photos to aid my memory as to where we have been and what we did. This will be mostly photos, I'm sorry, as the memory is not up to snuff, these days.
Suffice to say, life is full, we have been working flat out, and visiting all over, to make the most of our time here.
As you may know, supermarkets are one of the fun places we like to visit, and careful shopping is all about making the most of our euros, and yet eating well and healthy food.

The owners of the Chateau left us a huge bunch of rhubarb in the fridge when they departed 4 days before we arrived. I cooked this up, as Waz is a rhubarb lover, and he ate most of it for breakfast with muesli and cream... you read that correctly...Cream:) Yum! Even though we only need to leave a bottle on the doorstep to the dairy down the driveway, we are not milk drinkers. I don't know if the French farmer would leave us some cream...I haven't asked him. We love buying it in the tiny packages with two servings inside.
Into a deep pot I chopped the rhubarb, added three tablespoons of white sugar (yes, that stuff!) the juice of two Meyer Lemons, one chopped lemon and the chopped squeezed lemon leftovers. I added about and inch of water, and simmered it until thoroughly cooked. Removing the lemon chunks, I added a tiny bit of allspice. Just enough to make you think there is something else in there but you cant put your finger on it!
Why lemon? The lemon removes the astringent quality of the rhubarb...Orange does to some degree, but the lemon tastes clean and lovely. It wasn't too sweet, and quite delicious.

Back to shopping: Lidl (German brand) is our favorite 'small box' brand, as I have said before. There we purchased and cut our own 'Cereal' (grain) bread. It is wonderful stuff!!

The rest of the purchases were all stacked on the counter when we got home, because I just had to photograph it all. For 53 Euros, we purchased ALL this stuff, including 24 bottles of water at .67 euros for 6. NOT each....6 bottles.

Cereal, quiche, bread, gherkins, nuts, fruit and veges, meat, sardines in a can, eggs, cookies and cheese for a week. 53 Euros. In US$ add about $8 to that total...Say US$61 for everything.
The precut chicken is great. Straight in the pan! Chicken enough for 3 or four. The Chipolatas are wonderful. We have three apiece, so there are plenty to package up and freeze for another meal or two. Duck Breast. Yes! 5.95 euros. Duck is less expensive than chicken! Amazing.

Apples, courgettes, x 2, Traffic light peppers, mushrooms, pears, nectarines, and eschalottes..and peaches!

Ok..we were pretty hungry by this time, so we just sat down to a collection of wonderful natural foods. Pate, blue cheese, hard boiled quail eggs, soft cheese, cucumber, Coeur de pigeon tomatoes and a Cereal Baguette...oh, and you should try those green olives in garlic! crunchy and delicious! Lettuce too, I see. Wonderful tasting food.

Sardines in a can, demi sel butter...which is really nice, compared to the full salted butter, and 500g of Emental cheese. How about that price? 3.29 euros for 500g!!!

Dinner was easy....A Cauliflower risotto including red pepper, mushrooms and crème with Coeur de pigeon tomatoes and Chipolatas! WOW!

Ok...enough food, now that you are salivating. The food prices are just unbelievable to us. The quality is wonderful and we really look forward to each meal.
Don't get me started on the fresh bread...aiee...so many to choose from, and they all taste fabulous!

Work: Not that it was on the 'official' list, but just because I felt that the front entry needed a clean-up, I got the scrubbing brush out and drizzled the hose as I scrubbed, and look what emerged! Voila! it makes such a difference to how you feel when you pull up outside the Chateau!

We didn't know whether to pack our raincoats, this day, as this was the cloud cover, early in the morning. Rather lovely, but also quite dark. We headed off without. We were glad we didn't dress for the cool that it was at 9am, because once the cloud layer burned off, it was HOT!, like 27C hot. Fabulous day. The air here is dry, so we need to hydrate often and well. This means not only water, but a Grand Crème also...of course!:) It also means Glaces too (Ice creams/Gelato).

We went out via one of our favorite places, this morning. this is the Cross roads at Chateauneuf. Cross roads really do have crosses at their apex. This one is worthy of a mention. That wall goes all the way around a Chateau property, for miles. We have driven around the whole wall looking for the Chateau, last year. We found it! and the Chapel in the grounds behind the Chateau.

We were on the way to visit our favorite small town, Malestroit (Mal aye twa).
We like this place for the lovely undulating countryside around it, the easy walking Centre Ville (town center) and the fact that it is on the Nantes a Brest Canal (Nantes to Brest). The Lock is always spectacularly planted in flowers, and it is fun to walk the Tow Path alongside, look at the various watercraft, and enjoy the general spectacle of people and boats coming and going.
We enjoy a Grand Crème in the middle of town opposite the Eglise (Church, which dates from the 11th century (in parts), and this time we learned something new. Love it!
This particular house has carved wooden figurines on all corners I love this one in particular. At first I thought it was a Hare or Rabbit, but it is in actuality, an Ass!

As I have said so many times before, the stonemasons have such a great sense of humor, and we have photographed so many of the stone details throughout. This one is on a Chinese person doing acrobatics. Note the Writing! All on the side of the Church.

Here is the town center, first thing in the morning. We were actually grateful for the shade, at 10am. Plenty of Colombage (colom barzhe) houses. Those are the half timbered ones. The first story overlaps the ground floor, to keep the rain off the front door!

Everywhere there are flowers, and so many that we are unfamiliar with. This one was the size of a dime (10 cent US coin). It isn't an orchid. Just a pretty shrub.

So...Discovery!
We were walking around the front of the Church in the Centre Ville, and a strange looking man (not joking!) came up and asked me in French if I wanted to go inside? ha! Is the Pope Catholic? Of course!
So, in we went. On the ceiling in one of the vaulted chapels, were four frescos that were discovered in 2011. They had been there for over 840 years! How fantastic is that! This one of a Centaur. I guess those other things are Stars?

The church has been constantly updated over the centuries, as have most of the churches and other public buildings in France...and Europe, for that matter....and that is most in evidence on the outside. Sorry, no photo to illustrate. You can find them on the blog from this time last year, if you are curious.
This photo is of the Ecluse (Aye close) or Lock. That is the lock-keeper's house on the right. He is known as the Eclusier (Aye close ee aye). The flowers are so stunning. Those boats are moored just beyond the lock, outside a camping ground full of camper vans. We walked down there to check out a beautiful Barge that is for sale.

She is a Dutch Barge of 57 feet, and the owners want 90,000 Euros for her. She is rather beautiful, but after looking at her interior on the internet, we decided it wasn't our cup of tea. Not worth the money, I don't think, either.

Looking back down the canal, we saw a Hire boat coming towards us. Can you see why we like this little town? So pretty.

By now it was lunch time, and having already done our 7,500 steps (according to Waz's counter), we decided to stop for lunch....but this is the photo of our Grand Crème stop. Our friend Karen was with us this day.

We had also been across the river towards the Mill House, and back.

Lunch: It is a common and perhaps THE most common dish in Bretagne. Moules/Frites. This is Breton Mussels and Fries. Strange combination, but it works, and especially as there is always a basket of bread on the table to sop up the divine juice in the bottom of the pot!
There are a LOT of mussels in there. Tiny things, but they sure keep you busy for about half an hour:). We hadn't seen carrots before, but they tasted great!

Onwards to our afternoon destination: Rochefort-en-Terre, which has just been voted THE most beautiful Village in France.
The flowers everywhere are stunning, the houses are delightful and quirky, the church is historic (aren't they all???) and the Chateau at the top of the rock was the former home of an American Modern Artist, who, when he died, bequeathed the place to his son, and when HE died, he bequeathed the Chateau to the Town. Now the town needs to put some of the money they receive as a result of being this wonderful place, back into the chateau, which is in dire need of restoration. We have noticed the decline this year, in particular.

This vine covers almost every building. It is lovely and green here, but in the fall it turns orange/red, and is stunning. I took this photo to show the Agatha the Pirate Shop. Good to see that a female can be a pirate!:)

These are typical Breton treats called Kouign Amann. (quee namahn). They are really just yeast pastry rolled with layers of butter with sugar inside and baked in a pan to keep all that syrup in the pastry. Divine!! all that butter..mmmmmm:)

This is a highly photogenic village, to be certain. It stands on a rocky promontory, as so many fortified places do, and the Chateau is on the very tippy top of the rock, of course, and has the most amazing view back down the road.

This baker was rolling the buttery yeast pastry.
He rolled it out, sprinkled it with sugar, folded, turned, rolled, more sugar, folded, turned and rolled and finally he made a long fat sausage, and cut of 2 inch slices and put them in the pan as below. They went into the oven like this and came out like the golden morsels above.:)

I must try making my own!...to give away, of course:)

Oh, glorious flowers!! everywhere!

This Antique shop and apartments above is for sale...do you have 800,000 euros in your back pocket?

This scene was somehow perfect, in the bright early afternoon sun. We went inside the home decoration store. What beautiful things there were in there. Pricey, but lovely. We thanked the man and left with our money still in our wallets.

I'm always fascinated by flowers, and this one I have photographed many times before, but never really 'looked' at the top and center. how stunning! I had to make the photo full size, just to show you how wonderful this is!

Most of the Hollyhocks were past their best, but I found this white one around a corner, out of the public eye, and still enjoying the sun.

Homes in this town are now running high in price. Such is the nature of real estates in popular places. I cant imagine living here though, as they will have no less than two million people pass their front doors, this year alone.

Being a detail person, I am always on the look out for these things:)

This is a door or Portal to the grounds of the chateau. The main gates are to the left. This gate is fascinating. Look at the wonderful carved figurines.

As we enter the main grounds of the Chateau, we come to this portal. I don't remember how old the Chateau is...probably 17/18th century. it's a relative thing, in these parts. Most towns date from the 15th century, but we come across buildings from the 1300's and sometimes from the 1100's.

The Chateau isn't high rise. It doesn't need to be. You couldn't see it from the road below, so it is protected. There is a Rampart around the property, a fortified wall.