May 14, 2017. Eiffel Tower views!

LOCATION:  Paris, France

WEATHER:  Beautiful!  Mostly sunny. Highs low 70s

 

Our housesitting assignment complete (with no dead chickens!), our homeowner kindly drove us about 30 miles to catch the high-speed train to Paris.  We drove through our town of Poullouen as well as other Brittany villages.

They always seem quiet to me....I had assumed they seemed deserted as people were off to work.  But, today Diane, the homeowner, told us that most of these villages are empty.  People are leaving them to move to cities.  Poullouen's population has dropped from 4000 to about 1800 in the last 200 years.  Sad.  

 

The train ride was about 4 hours, stopping only a few times.

We arrived in the Montparnasse train station at about 1:30 and found our way to our hotel.  We are on the 6th floor and have this surprisingly excellent view of the Eiffel Tower from our window!

Since we have been to Paris before, we don't feel a need to rush around to visit all the famous places.  Instead, we took a leisurely walk about a mile to the Eiffel Tower.

It was a beautiful day, so there were a lot of Parisians out in the parks.  There are tourists here, but not nearly as crowded as Rome.  We walked along the Seine River, watching all the boats go by.  Then, we made our way back to the Montparnasse area, stopping at one of the thousands of sidewalk cafes lining the streets.

We found another sidewalk cafe near our hotel for dinner.  George had grilled fish with fried risotto balls.  I had a cheese platter - the leftover cheese will make a great breakfast tomorrow!

The days here are very long.  In Brittany, it didn't get dark until about 10:30.  Here, about 10:00.  This is a photo of the Eiffel Tower taken from our hotel window right as we went to bed.  Goodnight, Paris!

 

May 13, 2017. Tastes of Brittany

LOCATION:  Housesitting outside of Poullouen, Brittany, France

WEATHER: Mostly cloudy.  Some rain.  Highs about 60

 

Today is our last full day in Brittany.  The homeowners return this evening.  We spent the morning cleaning up, as we always like to do when ending a housesitting assignment.  Then, we were off to Huelgoat, the town with lots of boulders and creperies, for lunch.  

We found a creperie along the lake.  It is hard to choose among many options.  The chalkboard in front said they serve local Briton foods.  

 

 

  It was too cool to sit outside but we had a nice view from a window table.  (We were the only ones there).  

We started with a half pitcher of local cider.  It is traditionally served in bowls or big cups like this.

I've found that in Brittany all of the savory crepes are made with buckwheat and the sweet ones are made with regular flour.  George had one called "foods from the mountains".  It had onions, local farmer-smoked ham, and cheese.

Mine was called a "southern crepe".  It had onions, chorizo, goat cheese and tomato sauce.

   

 

We stopped to buy a baguette on the way home.  I sure will miss this good bread when we are back in the USA!   DINNER:  The homeowers returned at 7:00 and I had dinner ready for them.  I cooked up the leftover grilled chicken and braised it with onions, garlic, wine, and tomato sauce.  I added potatoes, and served over the last of the polenta.  It turned out very well.  

May 12, 2017. Making the most of a rainy day

LOCATION:  Housesitting outside of Poullouen, Brittany, France

WEATHER:  Mostly cloudy.  Some rain.  Highs about 60

 

Our mouser cat Kitty Grey deposited a dead mouse for us in front of the back door this morning.  I guess she is doing her job!

Today's weather is not so great, but we want to get out and about.  What to do on a rainy day?  A brewery, of course!!  There is one in the town about 15 miles from us.  

They are not really set up like ones in the USA.  We bought a beer in their gift shop.  They told us that they do tastings on Saturdays so we might go back tomorrow.  They make a pretty good dark beer and an IPA, unusual for France.  

Then we walked around town, perusing menus and deciding what to do for lunch.  We stopped in a neighborhood place.   It is the kind of place with a chalkboard in front listing their daily specials.  Our friend Tony had recommended that we try steak tartare while in France.  It was one of the specials, so George ordered it.  It came as a nice presentation.

I had a pizza.  We'll take the leftover pizza home and have it for breakfast with a fried egg on top....our favorite thing to do with leftover pizza.

 

Then, we drove to a nearby lake.  I'm sure it is much prettier on a sunny day....

The sun came out long enough to get a photo of the front of our house....

We Skyped with homeowners in Walla Walla, Washington and are now confirmed to housesit there in late June.  That works out nicely with our camping itinerary, and they have a long driveway that will accomodate the Airtream.    

DINNER:  Leftover rabbit with leftover polenta.  The refrigerator is emptying!  

May 11, 2017. Egg-selling day

LOCATION:  Housesitting outside of Poullouen, Brittany, France

WEATHER:  Rainy and cold. Highs in 50s

 

We didn't mind the nasty weather today as we planned to stay indoors and serve our Thursday egg-buying customers.  They are all Brits, friends of our homeowner. It was nice having them stop by to share a coffee.  I've been curious about why they decide to retire here.  From what I can gather, it is cheaper here than England, especially land and housing. Also, Brittany is fairly close to England.  The ferry is about an hour away, and the ferry takes about an hour to get to Plymouth, England.  So for those with continued ties to England, this is convenient.  

For lunch, I opened a can of fish soup I had bought in a Brittany souvenir store.  It was very tasty --- and today was a good day for soup.

 

Between rain showers, we checked on everything outside.  I think this might be a type of azalea that just bloomed.

In the afternoon, I turned on the heater in the kitchen.  Kitty Grey, the cat, liked the warmth, too....

I spent most of the day reading --- finished an entire book!!  George has discovered some history shows on TV so watched shows about the French Revolution, Napolean, and The Plague.

 

DINNER:  Leftover coq au vin over potatoes.  We leave in two days so I need to use up all the food we have bought.  

May 10, 2017. A trip to the Crozon Pensinsula

LOCATION:  Housesitting outside of Poullouen, Brittany, France

WEATHER:  Nice.  Highs in upper 60s

 

Today was the last of our 3 day trips to Brittany's coasts.  Nothing is too far away, but the roads are pretty slow.  Today we drove to the western coast, to the Crozon Peninsula, about 50 miles west.   With our town of Poullouen in the middle, this is a map showing the 3 routes...  

As we neared the western coast, we crossed this beautiful bridge.

We stopped in several small beach towns.  The coast is rugged here with nice beaches.

 

We stopped in a town on the far western point for lunch.  The main street parallels the harbor and it is chockful of restaurants.  Like the French tourists, we strolled up and down the street, looking at menus, deciding which place to stop.  

We chose a mussels restaurant with outdoor seating.  It was warm enough to sit outside.  There were several mussels options - 1) in wine sauce, 2) in cream sauce, 3) with chorizo, 4) with curry sauce or 5) with blue cheese and eggplant.   I ordered them with cream sauce.  Delish!  George had fish and chips.  This restaurant, like ones we have been in before in France,  has tables really tightly packed in.  You are so close to your neighbors that you can easily watch what they eat, and I did....

 This is the view from the restaurant...

As I've said before, I just can't understand how the French women stay so slim.  The lady next to me ordered the same mussels in cream sauce that I did.  She ate them all up (and so did I with George sampling some).  She had fries with hers; I did not.  She had a crepe with chocolate sauce for dessert; I did not.  She had coffee laced with sugar after the meal; I did not.  She is slim; I am not. What's up with that???

The drive to the coast and back was nice.  Lots of cows (to make that good French cheese) and lots of wheat fields (for all those French baguettes).  Like a good French family, we stopped at a shop to buy today's baguette.  

 

DINNER:  Leftover tomato sauce with meatballs over cheesy polenta.  George had bought some polenta (grits) in Italy which I'm trying to use up!  

May 9, 2017. Gourmet seafood day at the beach

LOCATION:  Housesitting outside of Poulloen, Brittany, France

WEATHER:  Mostly sunny and warmer.  Highs in 60s.  Blustery on coast

 

 We average collecting between 14-18 eggs per day.  We are overflowing with eggs right now, and hope to sell a lot on Thursday to our regular customers.

We hit the road for the north coast, about an hour away.  As we neared Roscoff, we started seeing lots of artichoke fields.  They are just at their peak.  They are bigger than the ones we eat in the USA and much bigger than the Italian ones.  

Roscoff is a port city with a deep harbour.  It is one of the ports that has car ferries between France and England.  As we neared Roscoff, we started seeing lots of wine/beer shops, with huge signs in English.  We were puzzled until we realized that the Brits probably stock up on inexpensive French wine before departing for England.

 

When we got out of the car, the wind about blew us over.  We had read that Roscoff has some delicious seafood, so we took off in search of a restaurant. Almost every restaurant in Brittany (and I think all over France) has a fixed-price menu.  We have steered away from them, mostly because it is too much food to eat, and we can split something cheaper.  However, Roscoff's seafood environment seemed special and we didn't see too many other options, so we splurged.  For $14 each, we each got our choice of an entree (appetizer), a main dish, and coffee.  For the first course, I selected a steamed artichoke since I had seen them growing nearby.  It was beautifully presented.

George's first course was the fish soup, served with grated cheese and croutons.  

 

For main courses, George had the pollock fish fillet with a chorizo veg side dish.  

And I had the seafood casserole.  It was absolutely perfect.  

The skinny French lady next to me had the exact same order, athough she ate twice as much bread as I did and had a cookie for dessert.  How do they eat so much and keep their girlish figures???

 

We walked along the harbor. It was low (very low) tide.

 Then, we stopped at a seaweed shop that sells all kinds of foods and beauty products made from algae.  We watched a guy cleaning it.

Back home, George made a fire to cook dinner.  The firepit is surrounded by stones, and we joked that it was like the megaliths we saw yesterday.

DINNER:  Grilled rabbit!  George has been wanting to eat rabbit for a long time, and saw it in the grocery. It tasted just like chicken except it was leaner.  The skin is not nearly as fatty.  Side dish was potatoes and peas.  

May 8, 2017. Back to Neolithic times

LOCATION:  Housesitting outside of Poullouen, Brittany, France

WEATHER:  Mostly sunny.  Highs in 60s

 

Today's weather forecast was good, so we decided to go on one of our longer road trips.  After morning chicken chores, we drove about 75 miles south to the Atlantic Coast.  Our goal was to visit 2 of the famous megalith sites from Neolithic times.   First up, though, was lunch.  Today is another holiday here, Victory Day.  It is when WWii was declared ended in France.  In anticipation of everything being closed up, we had brought some pate for a picnic, "just in case".  Indeed, as we traveled south, absolutely everything was closed up tight.  We arrived in the town where the first historical site is located.  It is a tourist town, so there were some restaurants open.  Most restaurants serve lunch between noon and 2:00.  We had been warned not to try to go into one at 1:45 and expect to be served.  So, with a bit of trepidation, we found a bar/sandwich place at 1:47.  The waiter said we could eat, but would have to leave by 2:00!  So, we gobbled down some croque sandwiches.  

The first site we visited is called the "alignments".  There are 3000+ of these rocks called menhirs that men in 5000 - 2000 BC transported here and lined up in perfect lines.  There are multiple sites over 3 miles long.

How did they do that?  Why did they do that?  No one knows.

 

Then, we drove about 10 miles to another site.  There are different sections, all built all throughout the Neolithic period.   This one was a massive grave site.  There were intricate engravings inside.

 

These are the remains of huge tall statues, that have since fallen over.  They weigh 300 tons.  The stone isn't even from this area....the men had to bring them here.  

And interestingly, researchers have found that there was a class system even back in those times.  This would have been the grave for just one, highly regarded person.

We plan on more outings in the new few days, then it is supposed to start raining again.  

DINNER:  Risotto with the stinky andouille sausage.  I normally don't make risotto so often, but I bought a big bag of rice in Italy and am trying to use it up before we return.  The sausage wasn't as stinky as the Brits warned us it would be....we actually like it.  I added some onion and garlic to the sausage and stirred it into the risotto.  I think it turned out well.