Going East Instead of West

Thursday 17th Sept.

We have looked at our map of Brittany (Bretagne) so often, but we have always looked towards the sea, and not really considered the land to our east. We have to drive at 70kph (normally 90kph) through a Hamlet on the way to Guer, 8 k's away. Part way through the Hamlet is a road leading east to a place called Comblessac. It is a little village, on the map, and then going a little further, there is another village, and another, and soon we had the idea that we should find our way to Chateaubriant, a large town/city. We could do a round about tour and end up at home again at the end of the day.:) This we did. staying closer to home, ostensibly! ha!
I love it when we go somewhere, look across the fields and see a Chateau or Abbaye or something that stands out, and go "Oooh! Lets go and see what that is!!!" and off we go! Such Fun!
It was only about 5kms from our Hamlet, which I cant remember the name of, to Comblessac. As we entered the town, we saw this little roadside chapel. You would have fitted no more than 3 people inside!

 I had wound down the window and taken the photos through it, as I had a car coming up the rear and I needed to either get off the middle of the narrow country road, or back towards the chapel.
This village scene was taken by looking straight ahead from where I took the chapel photo. Like most villages, no matter how small, there is a church in the middle. Notice that I said Village...not Hamlet. The Hamlets are mostly farm based groups of homes/farm buildings and what is known as a Longere (long Zhair). which is made of stone (Pierre).

 Yet another cross-roads Christ. This one larger than most of them, so I had to take a photo. This is very definitely a Catholic country!

You will be amused to know that everywhere we go, we find these healthy looking Banana Palms, and most of them have fruit...or had. It is getting decidedly cooler now.
It was a bit overcast this morning, and the wind was vicious. We exited the car, and I found I needed my raincoat on as a wind breaker.

  We parked and decided that, as it was 10am, we should have a Grand Crème (crem) which is a double espresso (I did explain this before, right?) with hot milk added, or a jug of hot milk put on the table. You order, sit down, have the drink delivered, drink it, and go and pay.

This small town of Comblessac had a couple of decent looking Boulangerie/Patisseries. I have to check it all out, of course:)

Goodness, the light is drab, isn't it! It was COLD out there.
I love how they fit houses in anywhere...the middle house looks like it was a bit squished into the space.:)

 It is a little disconcerting to find these huge trucks going through the little towns, some of which are definitely not wide enough to cope with this kind of traffic.

 The Postie didn't smile for this photo! That is the War Memorial in the town square, to the left. Some are specifically for WW1, and others specifically for WW11.

 Beside the interesting church (Eglise...Aye Gleese) were these toilets. We aren't impressed by public loos in France. These ones were kind of automatic, and took me a minute or three to figure that I couldn't flush, coz there wasn't a button to press, but when I unlocked the door, it automatically flushed for me! lol.

Waz and I often speculate as to how architects came up with their designs for some of the churches we see. This one was symmetrical, but at the same time, it was a bit of an architects nightmare. Whoever designed it appears to have decided to add a bit here and a bit more there, and hey, why not add this over here to balance that there out!

 Do you see what I mean??? While it is quite an attractive building, I had to go way down a hill to get this photo to show most of it. I'm actually standing in the parking lot of a lake, which also has parking spots for campervans, with one of the spaces occupied. What a pretty place to stop! and the view of the lake was gorgeous.

In this parking lot was a man setting out his chickens and ducks, in crates. These poor ducklings were terrified, especially when I tried to calm them by putting my hand in the crate...duh!

Some folks drove up and wanted some hens. We had the idea that these are ex-battery hens, but we really don't know. Speculation! and I didn't know how to ask en Francais!
The buyers, two women and a man...the women did the buying, actually....wanted the red hens, vs the white hens. I asked them what for? They said...to eat, of course! I don't think I will eat chicken any more! I had to take a video of the man taking the hens out of the wooden crate by their legs, two chickens at a time, and flinging them into a cardboard box. The buyers wanted 10, and ten went into the box. The seller then cut of a length of string and put it around the box to keep the hens inside. The hens were so conditioned (obviously) to being caged, that they didn't attempt to get out, though they easily could have.:(

The women were laughing at my funny faces, and when I said I would never eat chicken again, they erupted with shrieks and good natured ribbing:)

Meanwhile, we left them and went back to the top of the hill and around the church. On the way up the hill we came to a lovely looking home with a barnyard for a yard. Chickens, geese, turkeys and all together. The turkey looked like he had seen better days, but there are only 100 days until Christmas, so no doubt his days are indeed numbered!

I saw in one of the many lovely town gardens, this strange plant. I at first thought it was a Kangaroo Paw, and went to exclaim at it, but discovered it wasn't what I thought. I wonder if my gardener mother will recognize this very pretty flower?

Onwards then to the next town, not far down the road and through gorgeous pasture, corn fields, some now ploughed and others drying out.
It is such a pleasure to drive in these parts, one feels inspired to sing!...Waz goes to turn on the radio at such times..bah!:)

Wisteria grows like....well, like the weed that it is! But we see it decorating so many pretty stone walls and houses....like this!

We came across a market in the town square at Maure-de-Bretagne (more de bretania)..what joy! This being a Thursday! Of course there is another church nearby! How unusual(Tongue firmly in cheek!)

We parked outside a Tabac and betting store. The French in these parts like the horse racing...we found this out much to our amusement, after going through many towns with horse tracks.
Did I tell you the difference between Crepes and Gallettes?  Crepes are made with sugar, and gallettes are made with buck wheat flour...those are the brown gallettes in the front of the woman. She cooked our Salted caramel (Waz) and Nutella (me) crepes for our mid morning snack...well, it was actually 11.30am, by now. We tend to get a bit waylaid in places of interest!

In the Poissonerie cart, apart from the wonderful fresh fish, were these breaded 'fish'. I guess they are the French 'Fish Fingers' that we might get in a box?

Whatever they are, they are only 1,30 euros per kilo! cheap at half the price.

As you can see, the market takes place right next to the War Memorial!.

 The next town on our journey was Loheac  (there is an acute over the e, to make it Lo Hay Ack). To our amazement, this little town was full of Hotels. We didn't find out exactly why, as it was now noon, and of course, nothing happens at noon, except lunch, so nobody was out on the street.
A very picturesque town. We parked beside a Tabac where they had  the Union Jack Flag in the window....The Rugby World Cup is on right now, and there are lots of British Expats in Brittany, but England is the Host Country this year.

We got out, walked around and around and admired the gardens, the hotels and the interesting antiques in the window of the Dealer....closed for lunch, of course.
Next on the route was Guipry.  (Ghee Pree). We are always happy to see water, be it the sea, a lake or a river, which in this case, it was.
These interesting Local Style boats (Breton) were for rental at 29,00 euros per day. ($30 US)

 There is a lock here, and as we left the town, across the bridge, we saw a cruiser coming up to the lock. We find they are very slim, and no wonder there are only a matter of inches on the side of the boat. Takes some skill not to skin the boat!

 Again, we parked the car and walked everywhere to see what there was to see. The cruisers will be parked at the town wall in the middle of the photo.

 The Old Mill house is now attached to a restaurant. It is not a good renovation, unfortunately. There is a working mill wheel, and the small dam in the foreground had a lot of water going over it.

Our tummies were rumbling by now, so onwards we went through Messac, which is literally across the bridge at Guipry, and much bigger than we anticipated....they usually are!, and there was a train station in this town. Lots of commuters, it appears, as the parking lot was full of cars. I wonder where they commute to? Rennes? which would be half an hour away by train, me thinx.


So, onwards to Bain-de-Bretagne (Bung de Bretanya), which is a large town.city. We parked in the municipal parking lot, and walked around the corner to a square where we sat down at the first bistrot we found. We chose : Burger and frites for Waz, and an Omelet Complete, for me. This consisted of,Burger with cheese, ground steak (Steak Hache) bacon, tomato, lettuce, with a salad with more tomato on the plate, alongside chunky frites (fries). MY Omelet had the works...cheese, potato, lardons (chopped chunky bacon) and something else I don't remember...it was indeed complete! It was served with a lettuce salad with lots of tomato. Excellent on both counts. We were full! We finished with deux Grand Crème. (two of our favorite coffees)

Mon's Omelet Complete..Delish! 9 euros

 Waz's Burger..the home-made bar-b-q sauce was fantastic. 12,50 euros.

Replete, we walked some more and went back to the car. It was not 1.30-ish.

We still had to get to Chateaubriant! First though, driving along some more of these little country roads (vs the highway...Much more interesting!) We saw a HUGE building in the distance, and having missed the 'official' turnoff, a couple of roads back, Waz suggested I take the next goat track...

and there are Windmills everywhere! You can see why we had to go and investigate this place, cant you ?

The Bell must have at one time or other been somewhere up a bell tower, don't you think? It is here because there is no longer a bell tower. See what I mean by the stone bottom, and then the granite blocks for the rest of the church.?

 The façade is not pretty, like most other churches. This puzzled us mightily, and there was nobody around to ask. It was before 2pm (when they all come back after lunch)

yes, it was almost a dirt road, but our GPS showed it came out at the destination we desired. We had found the town of Rouge (Roozhay). The interesting and huge building was the church. We were fascinated by how this church was built. Some old stones in places on the bottom, but then there were well cut granite rocks on the rest of it. All we could think of was that this church, which is high on a promontory  had been bombed during WW11. It looked old but at the same time it looked rebuilt., if you know what I mean.

Something else interesting about this little town and something we haven't seen anywhere else. There were TWO friendship clubs within about 500 feet of each other.!!! Interesting!

Onwards to Chateaubriant....and no more side-trips!!

The old town at Chateaubriant is both Medieval and Renaissance. I'm sure you can figure out which is which!

 

The Chateau is obviously not THAT old, but it is nonetheless fascinating. Renaissance buildings are very romantic:)

This, of course, is one of the city gates of the Medieval Village, that is being unearthed and renovated. It has been under renovation of some kind since the beginning of the 1900's.

WE thoroughly investigated all parts of the old village, and walked the ramparts you can see in this photo below. Standing on one of the many staircases, looking down to the rest of the city, and the toilettes, on the left with the funny little roofs:) The site is something of an archeological Dig. The Ramparts and the city inside date back to the 800's. Like so many villages, however, it has undergone many different buildings and re-buildings according to who was in power at the time and who was at war with whom.

 Walking into the castle itself was a bit eerie. The work being done is both expensive and fascinating...does one have to go with the other? I could imagine the excitement of findings in this site. This view looks towards the Chateau

 The renovators are now re-building the stonework around steel casings to keep it strong. It is wonderful to see so France taking care of it's ancient sites.

 We stood in one of those arches and photographed the Chateau. I am standing on the 2nd level of the Chateau to take this photo.

We packed it in, after this. We have had long days working and long days driving and sight seeing, and we were tired. We are NOT on holiday, whatever that is! I still don't know. Sightseeing is NOT a vacation! it is hard work! phew! but what pleasure.:)
We made our way home pretty much the way we came, all except for our side trip to Rouge. We got home late afternoon, and were happy to sit down with a cup of tea.

This is the Land of the Small Car!

We observe this almost every day when we are out in the car and wonder how those larger vehicles stay on some of the very narrow secondary roads when a huge farm tractor or one of the huge trucks that speed down some of the lanes,get past. There is no shoulder, and only a small strip of grass between you and a deep ditch, most of the time. It is even harder to find somewhere to do a U turn, as we are apt to do. I also wonder how larger cars find somewhere to park, because parking is a breeze in our pint sized auto, a VW Polo. Driving on the highway is a breeze, because almost every other car is about the same size as yours:) Occasionally I get a bit 'scared' by a fleet of large trucks, so we just choose to take the secondary roads, and sometimes the 3rd. I do have to say though, the width of the road is in direct proportion to the 1/2/3 rule! 4th, of course, is a dirt road, and this is why our car is covered in cow poo and mud, right now. The road to home is a dirt road, and it has rained this past week! Thankfully, the rain also washed the car at night:)

Back to work:

With another two full 8 hr days behind us, we desperately needed to take some time out. Our poor bodies aren't used to the hard physical labor, and my wrist was about to give out. Waz has done a Trojan job putting all the tape on the ceiling in the bathroom, and a light spackle, and will need to float that in the coming days, once it dries. The weather has turned wet and damp and nothing is drying. Ernie is supposed to be coming in to give a top coat to what I have already given three coats of primer to. Nothing wants to stick to the walls, and this French paint sucks, seriously. It barely covers anything. 

I have spackled until I cant spackly much more. Filling holes in the walls, and cavities where they shouldn't be..aieee!
Some progress photos!

Bathroom ceiling, first spackle and tape.

All behind the toilet was horrid and we really needed to put this green Gib board there as it is a water area and waterproofing is needed. They have now decided NOT to put tile on the walls up to the chair rail, so we aren't sure if this will work if and when it is supposed to! Not our problem, I guess.
Waz has now framed out both of the air vents, and they look a whole lot better.

 

 

Had to share a sunny day photo before the update photos. I took this around the corner of the Manoir where we live. Rain at the bottom, and sunshine at the top over the top of the Apple Orchard.:)

 All kinds of things been going on with this renovation project. Here we are looking underneath part of the Longere (Long Zhair) opposite the Manoir, which joins the apartment upstairs. The problem was a wall in the kitchen of the apartment which was almost permanently damp or wet, when it rained. It appeared, after English carpenter Ray, went up in the ceiling, that the wall used to be part of a chimney that was demolished and the chimney is still on top of the roof, held up by..ummm....a few rows of bricks and nothing else. It was not anchored AT ALL to the house! aieeee! So Ray put up his scaffolding and took about four courses off the chimney to make it safe (it remains to look nice!) and in the process found that the gutters were full to busting, so for the next two days, he and his son Michael cleaned gutters of debris...enough to half fill their trailer.

 Ray also did a not so nice tree trim of the Indian Cedar..an otherwise gorgeous tree. Without having Ernie there to tell him which branches to trim, he went a bit crazy and left the tree looking rather horrid. There was hell to pay, of course:)

 Ernie let loose, on the day were decided to take off, and started painting a top coat on the living room walls. This 'fancy' paint has sand in it and a sparkle. They must have paid a mint for it, but it feels like sandpaper to the hand! Hmmm....he also experimented by painting one of the windows with the same paint....I have told him not to do any more...it's horrid to touch! blech! He ran out of paint on this wall! There will be a chair rail detail attached, with a dark maroon paint on the bottom...not our kettle of fish, but they (Terry has dramatic overtones and 1930's actresses in mind for decorating) are the ones who have to deal with it.

 Under the window was such an abomination that we had to cement the wall to keep it from falling out and then I had to spackle over it all. Because of the cold and damp, it isn't drying very fast. I have spent my time scraping the windows!:) I need to get a really good paint brush to do those details.

 First coat of undercoat is on the Bathroom wall, and the tub has not come upstairs. It is rather in the way, but Ray will do the plumbing for it on Monday, and the electrics too we hope. We will need to move it for Waz to put the molding up and for the rest of the painting to be finished. If we do nothing other than finish this bathroom before we go, we will have done well. This is a huge project and we have been working 4 days and sight seeing 3. It is supposed to be the other way around. 30 hr weeks, when we should only be working 24!

 

 

This is the cement Ray put on to keep the wall from falling apart.

 The bedroom wall was similar, but not quite as bad. He had to cement this one too when we took the old heaters off the wall.

 

 

Today is Saturday the 19th September. I have started this a couple of times, but the internet has been very patchy and photos wouldn't upload, so it has taken me about 4 days to write this. Much has happened in the meantime. I will detail our sightseeing and other goings on in the next post.