The Christmas Ark.

Ho, Ho, Ho!

  Some readers of the Ark may have remarked that I was not on line for a week or so. This was due to the fact that the Ark was not on station, having sailed some 650 kilometers to the north east so that we could spend Christmas with our good friends Cécile and Patrick at Wattignies, near Lille. This is our usual routine but this year we did have a difficulty-- our usual exchange where we look after our neighbours Ian and Sarah`s dogs and cat, while they in turn look after our menagerie had broken down. Ian and Sarah were going away for Christmas too! Luckily Phillipe, another friend and neighbour kindly volunteered so we could go with a quiet mind. We have given English lessons to a couple of family members, so the trade was not too heavily biassed in our favour...
  This is the first year we have made this trip with our new Berlingo, so we decided to see if we could do the journey in one day, last year we stopped off at Orléans. The Citroen drives very comfortably, so in sharing the driving we got there not too exhausted.
   The Porez family always make us very welcome indeed and we have the use of their guest room. As the new kitten, Mounette, was still too young to be left on her own, she had the run of the room and behaved very well, using her tray without a single `accident`. This meant she could share our bed as she is accustomed at home, and had plenty of cuddles during the day.

And boy, didn`t we eat! The highlights of Christmas up in Lille is a huge family party and meal as the French are accomplished arrangers. But as Cécile and Patrick each have their separate large families living locally, this translates as TWO huge meals to which we are invited! As Cécile`s mother suffers some age-related impairment, she lives in a Granny annex next door to Cécile and for tis reason, both parties were held there, with over 25 guests for the first and 18 for the second. Patrick constructs a huge trestle-table in their large principle room and it looks most impressive when decorated by Cécile.

The meals were copious and well-lubricated, the first being cooked by Eric, Patrick`s brother-in-law, and the second being provided by a Cuistot, a hired caterer, who even brought his own stove to cook the dishes, and announced each one! Father Christmas arrived to distribute the presents from under the tree and each dinner lasted several hours... We particularly appreciated the Cuistot`s cocktail, a delicious concoction of a particularly vivid green! The foie-gras was delicious too...

Suffice it to say that after all this feasting, we have returned home to nurse our stomachs with a low diet and will not be celebrating the New Year with a binge. It was lovely to be able to celebrate with our friends, but equally pleasant to find our peaceful and slower-moving life back on the Ark`s permanent moorings.

   Bye for now, going to cook a LIGHT meal!

To Plymouth and back, despite the Bonnets Rouges.

    Well, it`s all worked out in the end, I did succeed in travelling to Roscoff, crossing the channel with the dogs, spending a week with Kim and Alyson at Al`s house in Plymstock, and finally in bringing Kim back with me to France! Phew, what a relief after the previous debacle, described in my blog entries last but two. If you haven`t read them do now,  it`s an adventure story to make your toes curl up...
   After missing the ferry last time, due to the blockade of the Bretons, protesting at the new Ecotax on lorries, I decided to leave a day early and to avoid the direct route, which is easily blocked. I decided to go cross-country via Bressuire, avoiding Niort altogether, together with the Motorway, and go from Nantes to Vannes, where I had booked a Formule 1 hotel to stay the night. The next day, I would go cross-country from Vannes to Morlaix and Roscoff, the ferry terminal. The scheme, though a little long worked out well, with just a slight worry around Carhaix, where the Bonnets were holding a rally. However, the action was in the town, which my (or rather the Satnav`s ) route avoided, though I did see a Police presence and a hugh pile of brushwood heaped on the roundabout outside the town to be set alight later.

   One advantage of cross-country travel is that you see far more of the countryside and villages, lets face it, all motorways look alike you could be on the M5 near Bristol or the A10 near Melle and if you forgot which you`ld never know the difference... What do you think, for example of this enormous shrine erected alongside the road in a small village?  I HAD to stop and get a pic. It was in the form of a sort of bridge with steps leading up to a huge stained-glass window, but no stream ran beneath it.... very strange.

  Or this typical Breton cottage beside the road further on.


 But what I really wanted to see was Brittany Ferries ship Bretagne waiting at the dock at Roscoff to carry me, the dogs and the faithful Berlingo across the sea to Plymouth.

   Bye for now, I`ll tell you later about my day in Roscoff.