Of course, no day trip to the seaside would be complete without a little paddle…

And i can’t believe how therapeutic…

A little paddle can be!

The FifteenYearOld didn’t really want to join in…

But I suppose that he’s at that difficult age…

When a paddle in the sea isn’t so much fun?

After watching The Girlie paddling around…

And trying to persuade The FifteenyearOld to let me bury up to his neck in the sand…

Because that’s what people do when they go to the seaside!

I decided to have a little sit down and watch the world go by…

The more observant of you will have noticed that I am wearing my Lucky Mushrooming Hat!

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The Girlie kept a careful eye on me…

To make sure that I wasn’t looking at the topless sunbathers (there were two of them – or should that be four?)…

And I just closed my eyes and pretended not to look at the topless sunbathers…

And thought happy thoughts about what had been a wonderful day!

By the way – there is something wrong with my camera as it appears to have added curvature to certain photos?

If I tried to persuade you that my belly size in the last photo is some sort of optical illusion, would you believe me?

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All the best

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Obviously, one of the reasons that The Girlie, The FifteenYearOld and I went to St Malo on a day trip was…

So that I could enter the Biggest Belly in Brittany Competition!

And, in the picture above…

You’ll see me limbering up for it!

You also see me having a paddle for the first time in…

Eight years!

Why did I wait so long?…

In order to prepare for the competition…

We needed to have a light lunch

Strangely enough we chose the restaurant that wasn’t across the road from the sex shop…

And had a really nice meal for not a lot of money!

My Moules Provencal was really quite special!

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The Girlie had steak…

And The FifteenYearOld had a warm goat’s cheese on toast salad.

For anyone every in St. Malo, the restaurant is an Italian one in the road with all thee other outdoor restaurants – the owner gave us a free digestive after the meal!

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Over the last year or so, The FifteenYearOld seems to have lost his bottom!

he doesn’t know where he lost it so there is no point in sending out search parties!.

He’ll probably hate me for bringing this to your attention…

What a terrible stepfather I am!

The Girlie is seen here deep in contemplation…

Trying to work out where The FifteenYearOld’s bottom might have gone?

I put it all down to the slight lack of Pig’s Trotter Sandwiches in the poor boy’s diet!

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All the best

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So, the Girlie, the FifteenYearOld and I decided to pop up to St Malo for a quiet day of culture!

No one told us about the Catamaran races which meant that…

There were no parking spaces for miles!

Still, it was a nice drive round searching for one…

For three hours!

We had a wander round and soon…

It was time for lunch.

But not before The FifteenYearOld had found the sex shop!

Oh, I do hope his grandparents aren’t reading this!

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For some reason this street sign seemed to be funny…

I think you had to be there?

And quite why I photographed this gull…

I’m not really sure?

It seemed important at the time…

If I remember why, I’ll let you know.

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We sent The FifteenYearOld into a sweet shop with a pile of loose change…

Four hours later he exited the shop having spent most of the time being confused by the range of sweets on offer!

You can see that Dazed and Confused look in his eyes…

Can’t you?

This was taken just before…

He dropped his Sherbet Walking Stick that he had only so recently purchased!

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But this was only the start of the day!

I have a horrible feeling that…

I may just have some more stuff to show you tomorrow!

All the best

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Now, the Girlie isn’t the tallest of people…

But even she towers over this door spotted in Rochefort en Terre…

I guess that Bretons of the past…

Were slightly shorter and wider than Bretons of today?

All the best

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Father is studying Asterix at his U3A class…

So whilst he was over here he wanted to look at some Menhirs…

And see if he could spot Asterix, Oberlix, Getafix or Dogmatix…

“Not a problem”, I said. “St. Just is only 8km away. And I know a short cut….”

The short cut turned an 8km trip into a 42km one…

With lots of reversing down dead end lanes…

But eventually we got there. And had a good look round….

On the way back, Father suggested… “Let’s take the long way home, via Pipriac and Sixt. It’ll probably be quicker than one of your short cuts!”

I wonder what he meant?

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All the best

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During our visit to Rochefort en Terre Father and I were lucky enough to watch a local motorbike rally ride through the town…

About a hundred motor bikes….

It proved a nice distraction from watching the tourists and trying to work out where they came from.

Once the bikes had gone past we went for a wander and pretended to be tourists…

I’m not sure what country the other tourists thought we came from?

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All the best

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During his stay here, Father and I visited Rochefort en Terre.

It was on the way back from Vannes and the weather was good so we made a minor (and intended, this time) detour.

Rochefort is a favourite with tourists but none the worse for that.

We wandered a bit and then sat down for a coffee….

And to watch the world go by…

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All the best

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On a recent trip to Vannes, Father and I went into the fish market.

We arrived a little bit late and they were starting to pack up.

We did manage to pick up some smoked sardines (which were lovely!) and a dozen large oysters.

I grilled the oysters (stuffed with garlic, shallots, cheese and finely chopped mushrooms), they were gorgeous!

The woman on the shellfish stall was very nice. I bought a dozen oysters and she threw in an extra one for free and then rounded the price down to the nearest euro!

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All the best

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During a little day trip to Vannes (where I amazingly didn’t get lost a dozen times), I spotted these bikes for hire….

I’m very tempted to rent one, one of these days, so that I can explore Vannes in style.

The trouble is….

I just know that I’d get lost a dozen times!

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All the best

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It’s one of the better vide greniers because of its location down by the river.

I’m not really sure that we were looking for anything special but, if we were, we didn’t find it.

The Girlie treated herself to a wastebin and a blue kettle – she really knows how to pamper herself.

I bought a few books so I’m quite happy.

A lovely setting for a fairly relaxed vide grenier.	Even though we arrived late there were still plenty of people about.
And in such a glorious setting…	My favourite part of a vide grenier!
And apparently, the Girlie’s as well!	We had out lunch down by the river…
Away from the crowds…	With this sort of view.
What a lovely place to have a vide grenier…	Like everyone else, this old boy has stopped for lunch – quite right too!

All the best

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