We have been staying with Judith’s sister Lynne and brother-in-law Graham in the south western part of Brittany, known as the Morbihan just north of the Loire Atlantique, for the past week.  It’s a part of France we know fairly well, having spent many holidays here over the years when the children were small.  We even bought a run-down cottage in 1996 for 15,000 Euros and renovated it only to sell it in 2001, a decision we later regretted.  The nearest town is Malestroit a ‘petite cite de caractere’, as picturesque towns are referred to in France, but we’re in a sleepy village called St Laurent on the banks of the river Oust.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lynne and Graham have spent the past 25 years lovingly renovating their beautiful farmhouse but are now sadly trying to sell it to move back to the UK.  It’s been a real labour of love and is the envy of the village who are referring to it as ‘La Pelouse’ (‘The Lawns’) – even the mayor who I met had her eye on it.  Considering this and the size of the property and grounds, the price tag is laughable! Seriously though, if anyone is interested please get in touch.

So what have we been doing the past week apart from enjoying Lynne and Graham’s hospitality? Well, first and foremost was the project to get a better night’s sleep – no offence to Brenda but those beds are rather hard and narrow! There had to be a way to join the beds to make one larger sleeping area with room to spread out (relatively speaking).  Judith and Graham took on the challenge with gusto and after two or three visits to Bric-a-Marche a solution of sorts was hammered out.

Second priority was to sort out a more worrying electrical problem Brenda had developed. Though new, she had flashed a warning light on the dashboard just 3 days after we collected her.  The VW garage we’d taken her in Croydon had ostensibly fixed the problem – by telling us there was no fault and we should ignore it as the light had now gone off.  But the light (indicating an engine management system issue) came on again in shortly after we left Calais. Long story short, the VW garage in Vannes proved to be vastly more efficient than Croydon, as well as more customer-friendly. They immediately diagnosed it as a faulty exhaust sensor which they duly replaced. Much appreciated, VW Bretagne!

As for me, after helping a little in the garden and three days of vigorous country walking through the surrounding tranquil countryside – to satisfy the re-discovery of my love of nature – I proceeded to make an utter nuisance of myself by developing a nasty back-ache which turned me pretty useless for the rest of the week I’m ashamed to say.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in action now and after giving Brenda a good wash with Graham’s Karcher power washer (followed of course by a whole day of rain), we’re ready to set off for our next destination – La Rochelle and the forecast is for a mini-heatwave, hard as it is to believe!