Welcome to my Family & Friends website.
This site details my simple life in Brittany and the things that are really important to me – such as cooking, eating, reading and enjoying the beautiful countryside and the people who live here.
Whilst this site is certainly not intended to be a definitive guide to living in France (it’s more of an explanation of how and why I choose to live here), you may find information here that aids you in your life (whether you are living here now, or planning to move over), or for your holidays in this beautiful part of France where I have chosen to make my home.
All the best
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Every week I intend to publish some old Breton Proverbs that I have found on my travels.
It is my experience that the best Breton Proverbs are to be found hiding away in bars and as Breton Proverb Hunting is thirsty work that is where I shall concentrate my efforts!
Read more about… Breton Proverbs
Breton Legends
I’ve recently been looking at some old books about Brittany that are now, due to their age, in the public domain.
These books are freely available for download from The Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org) but you may also download them from here.
Breton Legends was first published in 1872 (more details at This book’s page at The Internet Archive.)
Read more about… Old Books about Brittany
Imagine my surprise when, after dropping the ThirteenYearOld at school this morning, I saw one of those beasts of the road – yes a mini peril of transportation – a VSP (see Typically French!) parked by the post office in La Gacilly.
I had to stop, didn’t I?
And I am very sorry for scaring the lady in the Renault Meganne who witnessed my emergency stop, I really am!
You see, not content with terrorising the roads, whichever evil demon designs these chariots from hell has come out with a four wheel drive version!
Read more about… Typically French (again!!!)
Do you speak Breton?
Would you like to learn?
Would you like to be able to answer the question by saying….
Ya, un tammig hepken (yes, a little bit?)
I’ll be publishing some simple Breton words and phrases here every Sunday.
Komz a rez brezhoneg?
Welcome - Degemer mat
Good Evening – Nozvezh vat
Good Night – Noz vat
Goodbye – Kenavo
All the best
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The idea came from The Compleat Anglo and we didn’t quite put it into practise the way we thought we would but, the Girlie and I wondered if we could eat a meal that consisted almost entirely of cheese.
Well, it didn’t quite work out that way as I was seduced by the oysters at the Saturday morning market at La Gacilly.
What we should have done is go and buy a small slice of each of the cheeses we wanted to eat.
Read more about… Cheese and Wine
The Girlie and I decided to get out and go for a litlle stroll last Sunday.
La Gacilly was, for a change, deserted.
Perhaps everyone was at home watching Spurs trying to play football?
Perhaps not!
The French are renowned for their taste!
We ended up, as is our habit, in the bar.
Read more about… Sunday Walk
Spotted in Redon (there is a similar sign in La Gacilly as well – I wrote about it in August 2008.)
I’m not sure why is it so dangerous to have a widdle (as is every Frenchman’s right!) in the corner here.
Have they electrified the walls?
Ouch!
Double ouch!
It doesn’t bear thinking about!
All the best
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The promised storms didn’t do as much damage in this part of South West Brittany as was predicted.
There was a lot of rain though, and there are plenty of flooded areas all around.
These photos were taken in La Gacilly.
That lake was a field last week!
I think we sometimes forget that whilst it only rains twice a year here in Brittany!
The first time it rains from November through to the end of January and then it rains again from February through till May!
Read more about… Drowned
In France, it is possible to drive a very small car without needing a driving license.
These cars are known as Vehicules Sans Permis (normally shortened to VSP), and typically have a 500cc diesel engine and enough space for the driver, a passenger, a folded newspaper and not much else.
They are, in my humble opinion, lethal!
To find out why I feel this way, take a look at a post I published back in August 2008.
Read more about… Typically French!
Not content with making piggy-wiggies of ourselves at the Valentine’s night bash at Josselin, the Girlie and I decided to go out for lunch the following day.
Unfortunately, the local restaurants were only doing special Valentine’s Day meals!
It was a hard decision to take…
And we DID try to be strong.
But, in the end….
Wanton gluttony overtook us (it’s strange how often that happens in my life.)
And we gave in and made piggies of ourselves all over again!
Read more about… How big is that belly?
Across the river from the main part of Josselin, is a small community known as Sainte Croix.
I’ve often spent a Sunday morning wandering round there, looking at the old buildings and then stopping for a quick coffee at Le Bar Triskel.
I like watching all the Sunday morning cyclists stopping off at Le Bar Triskel for a quick glass of Ricard and a few puffs on a Gitane before cycling off to the next bar for…
Well, more of the same!
Read more about… Doors!
One of the nice things about taking The Thirteen Year Old to school (apart from seeing deer to salivate over), is that I can stop off and have a coffee in the bar/PMU afterwards.
I see it as my little treat for driving all that way through blizzard conditions on little lanes that haven’t been resurfaced since Hadrian was up this way!
I love sitting in the bar with a coffee and watching the world go by. The same people are there every day, all planning which horses they are going to love their money on and all willing to have a little chat about the blizzard conditions and the state of the back lanes which haven’t been resurfaced since….
Read more about… La Gacilly
I’ve been taking The Thirteen Year Old (the Girlie’s son, who used to be known as Josh), to school recently.
We go down the back lanes.
It’s quicker and we also get to see deer.
I like deer, I do.
Normally, I like them roast with all the trimmings but I also like to watch them play in the fields.
These two are often to be seen in the fields around Cournon.
Read more about… Deer in Cournon
I did promise the Girlie that I would delete this photo.
And I really meant it at the time.
But somehow….
In trying to delete the photo….
I managed to post it here, instead!
Not sure how that happened – I blame it on a slight excess of alcohol at our Valentine’s Night Celebration!
It’s as good an excuse as any!
Read more about… I didn’t drop a touch all night!
I’ve just finished transferring all the food related article from the old Breton Diary to the new one.
If you’re feeling hungry, or just want to know 101 things to do with little bits of dead pig, why not take a look at The Kitchen Section.
All the best
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Now, there may be some readers of Breton Diary who are too young to remember the Manhattan Transfer; there may be but… I think they are probably lying about their age!
Manhattan Transfer were (and still are), an American vocal band who got to number one in the UK charts in 1977 with the lovely Chanson d’Amour.
Which brings me rather nicely to Valentine’s Day celebrations chez Breton Diary.
Now, you may remember that last year I dragged to Girlie to the Hotel Restuarant du Chateau in Josselin (which was handy because we were living in Josselin then.)
Read more about… Chanson d’Amour
I’ve just finished moving all my book reviews from the old Breton Diary to the new one.
I’d forgotten what a fan of Jeffwey’s I was!
I also found a link back to the original Breton Diary – although, in those early days I called it My Place in France.
I did a quick check and the site is still there, not updated, unloved and unvisited.
If you want to see how all this started out, take a quick visit to My Place in France.
I’ve been having a few bad nights recently. A touch of sinusitis has may it difficult for me to wear the mask that I need to wear when i sleep. Thus I have bad dreams and wake up feeling more tired than when I went to bed.
We are currently taking Josh to school in the morning and picking him up in the evening. The morning run is my job but last Friday I was so dazed and confused, the Girlie did it for me.
I was feeling well enough in the afternoon to go and pick Josh up. I took the Girlie’s car. The Girlie has a complicated stereo in her car. As much as I know about computers and servers and all that useless stuff, I am totally unable to work the stereo in the Girlie’s car!
So, I drove to La Gacilly listening to the Girlie’s disco dancing CD with no way to turn it off. I couldn’t even work out how to turn it down! Why don’t car stereos have knobs you can twiddle rather than all these buttons and LCD readouts? I use to know where I was in the old days, with a Waltham car radio/cassette!
I got to La Gacilly early and so had a walk along the river Aff to clear my head.
It’s strange but that little walk and a bout of Frankie goes to Hollywood completely cleared my head and I slept well that night. Perhaps they should offer it on the health service but, this being France, they probably already do!
Well, the move to the WordPress platform seems to be going well. I’ve moved about a third of the old posts over and am working my way through the remainder.
A Taste of Garlic seems to be moving from strength to strength and we are now seeing about 400 unique visitors to it every day. I have also started a new site (still in Beta)… www.Brittany-Links.com
Once www.Brittany-Links.com is up and running, others will follow. What I am trying to do with these sites is provide a simple and easy way for people to advertise their businesses, advertise items they want to sell and, of course, pick up a bargain or two! Why not pop over to www.Brittany-Links.com to see what you think.
I’ve shipped an Internet Acceleration Appliance to Alex Hampshire who runs a very interesting blog at A Languedoc Journal. I hoping that more people will follow his lead and use my ideas to speed up their internet access. I’m happy to have a chat with anyone who wants to know how it all works.
All the best
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Well, this is going to be the last post in the present version of BretonDiary.
I’ve decided to embrace the modern age and, from now on, use WordPress as my blogging platform.
Doing everything in raw html (and then FTPing it all up to the server), has just got too time consuming. I’m scared to post because of all the work involved.
Read more about… Changes afoot!
