Le Yaudet encore une fois....

I have a new friend here, H2. 

She is busy renovating a little house, and when I say renovating I really mean rebuilding it, during her trips over from the UK, but she likes to explore and I am always ready for an adventure, so when she suggested a day out I thought of Le Yaudet.

I did not drive down the twisting road that reminds me of the Swiss Alps, nor did I drive down the truly horrible other road into the bottom of the village. I wimped out. I drove from Lannion and we arrived at the top.

And walked down a marked path onto the beach...

It was a week day. And not yet the French school holidays therefore it was quiet. Just a few people wandering on the sand, messing about with boats etc.

I much prefer walking up the hill to travelling in a car!

This is the gite at the bottom of someone's garden.
We decided we'd happily live there full time.

Stone house name.
Ty is Breton for house, not sure about Nod...

The view from a garden halfway up the hill.
Not bad, is it?

When we got to the top H2 decided it was too early for lunch so we walked down the other side to the port. The tide was coming in, the boats were bobbing and the noises made by the rigging reminded me of wind chimes.    

And then lunch...

For me, a galette with sausages, potatoes and onions

Well, of course it was followed by a salted caramel crèpe.
Yes, I am predictable but I know what I like!

Beautiful house near the restaurant...

And into the church to check out the Sleeping Virgin...
I hadn't believed that there really would be a statue of Mary in bed but yes, there was. And apparently baby Jesus is in there with her.

Many chapels in Brittany have ships, this is an area that has strong, strong ties to the sea.

One last photo on the road leaving Le Yaudet.

Back where I started...

I suppose that I should edit my profile now that I am no longer working as a Mobile Malware Threat Researcher, or living in Oxfordshire, or channel hopping between England and France. I sent my resignation to my solicitor last Monday for him to handle on my behalf, posted hard copies last Friday and am awaiting the confirmation that the agreed severance settlement has been completed.

So I am no longer working in IT which, forty years after I wrote my first line of code, is a little difficult to comprehend and that makes me smile because I never intended it to become a career, it was just a well-paying job to support me while I decided what I did want to do with my life.

It's so much easier for people now, I think, this whole work/life thing.

Now, as I tell The Ragazzo, it's possible to work from anywhere, on one's own terms, when one chooses, and if things do not work out well, move on to something else. People may shake their heads at that and say that the job market is tricky, that there is no longer job security/final salary pensions/guaranteed pay rises every year etc and that may be so but, but there is technology that has give people the means and the tools to do so much more than sit in an office or stand behind a counter as a wage slave. And there is so much information available at the click of a mouse, and free online courses, and videos explaining how to do anything from deliver a puppy to bake a cake to install solar panels etc etc, and all of that gives people the power to live their lives on their own terms. Or it should.

If I were starting out now I'd have part-time work that paid for my food, clothes and a shelter and I'd spend the rest of my time doing the things that make my heart happy; the writing, the reading, the teaching, the studying, the painting, the horse riding, the swimming in the sea, the kayaking round pink rocks.

I would not have the intimidatingly large mortgage that kept me chained to a job that, at times, was so stressful it probably contributed to my cancer. I would not have credit card bills that grew every month and that I feared I'd never clear, and I would not sell my soul to a corporate devil.

Easily said, I know, but being older and a little wiser, I would do it, somehow.

But here I am back in Brittany, in the home that I thought I'd left nine years ago and I am very grateful to have this place to return to for a saner, happier, healthier life and, I hope, a few more wild adventures!

I hadn't meant to say all of this. I'd intended to talk about a day out with a new friend and her son at Le Yaudet, or the birthday that Tashi and I spent yesterday playing at the pink granite coast, or one of the other fun things I've done since coming back, but hey, that's the way it goes sometimes.

Stay flexible. bend with the storms, turn your face to the sunshine and live a full life!

  

Making hay...

The weather in Brittany is a constant source is surprise to me, it can change within hours from cold and wet to a veritable heatwave and then back to winter again. This can be challenging and sometimes depressing when plans have to be put on hold because a storm has swept in from the Atlantic, but I have learned through experience that what cannot be changed must be accommodated....

Or, make hay while the sun shines and when it doesn't, write books
Or bake bread
Or, learn a language
You get the idea?

And when the sun returns, well, this is how I spent a day last week when the sun shone in a beautiful Breton-blue sky and wanderlust and a longing for the sea overcame me....

Le Sentier des Douaniers

Walking towards Plouman'ach
In the company of some (mostly) French visitors, several of whom were tanned, fit and in running gear which, considering the blistering heat, was very impressive, a few couples had kids in pushchairs or in back carriers and some more senior folk used sticks to help them on the path.  

I have a book at home in which the more famous rock formations are described and named; the bottle, the sorcerer etc and while I can see the shapes and while I do agree that they could be described as such, to me they are all animals and everywhere I look I see whales and dolphins, crouching cats and eagles.

I would need to take you along to see the rocks through my eyes...
And perhaps you would need a more vivid imagination or, perhaps, a glass or two of Kir to help you.

And I readily admit that some days I see nothing but a pile of rocks.
Albeit pretty and pink but still, just rocks.

And on those days pretty pink rocks are more than enough, especially when the background is a blue sea under a cloudless sky.

Of course the dog sees the same animals in the rocks that I do.

My dolphin...

Here is the famous bottle. Me, I see a baby whale.

Well, I did see a giant cat's paw, I'm sure I did!

We clambered down the rocks to dip our toes in the sea.
I really, really wanted to swim, and I had worn my swimsuit under my skirt and shirt and brought a towel in case the opportunity presented itself but there was nowhere safe with the tide low.

One of the boats carrying holiday makers on a trip to Les Sept Iles. When friends and I did that trip a magnificent sea mist descended and we were unable to see the Pink Granite coast from the sea.

The lighthouse is somewhat famous. Most people take a picture of it. The house is a private residence, I can't help wondering if its location makes up for the annoying sightseers constantly passing the sign on the gate that declares 'PRIVEE'.

In the past the feet of so many visitors trampling on the plants caused a great deal of damage and that led to soil erosion and that led to the plants dying and ... vicious circle.

Some years ago it was decided to take steps (no pun intended) to restore the environment and teams of volunteers worked hard to install signs asking people to stick to the paths and not to cross the low wires onto the heather, grass, wild honeysuckle and orchids and....

They have transformed the Sentier des Dounaiers.

Last attempt to convince you, please tell me that you can see the ape's face in this picture?

No? OK then I'll let you see your own shapes....

We walked for two miles and were hot, tired but happy.
And I got my swim.

We had to go to Trégestal to find somewhere safe for both me and the dog.
The sea was warm and the tide was coming in and it was lovely, just lovely.

Farcical...

On Sunday I went to Gouarec with friends to see a play performed by La Troupe Arlequin.

It was a 'hilarious farce set in the 1950's' in a failing English boarding school and narrated by the headmistress, one Dr Mildred Sponge, so we, the audience, were an unruly class to be interrogated and given a dunce's cap to wear between scenes.

   

Fantastic amateur cast...

Here you see the games mistress, Violet Bodkin talking to the philosophy teacher, Prof Wisteria Crouch at a table in the staff room.

A couple of baddies, the American property developer Herber B Sloophanger and his wife, Wilhemina. He wants to buy the school, tear it down and build houses on the land.
Definitely the baddies but are they all that they seem?

I thought that the art teacher was over the top in his take off of a Frenchman. Turned out he is French!

The school chaplain was a hoot! The Rev Pottington Willis. I think she was my favourite character.

And this chap, Crumble, constantly forgot his lines and arrived on stage at the wrong time and that added to the humour, especially when two of the cast argued with the prompt about their lines. Needless to say, the prompt worked very hard!

I did work out Who Dun It. By a process of elimination and because she did not appear on stage until the final scene, a cunning ploy!

There was afternoon tea too, this being an AIKB event.
I could have had a cupcake too but egg mayonnaise sandwiches, a little quiche and a cream and jam scone were more than enough to munch on.

So, a new experience for me and a fun Sunday afternoon in Brittany.

Night walking

The wonderful thing about being an adult and living alone, aside from having the debit card PIN number and being able to buy as much salted caramel chocolate as I like, is being free to do whatever I darned well please.

When I was a child I felt imprisoned in my bed at night. Bad dreams, dangers lurking in the shadows, monsters under the bed and night terrors all made me flee from my room, only to be caught, slapped and plonked back in bed with the blankets tucked in so tightly I almost couldn't breath, and a dire warning from my parents of the consequences should I dare to leave my room again.

The terrors have taken shape and form. I now know why I was too terrified to stay sleeping. Now, on nights when the terrors are particularly vicious, I leave my bed and I roam the house and courtyard like a phantom. I am even tempted to walk the streets of this little French village, except that I don't want to disturb the dog.

So here I am, at my new 'workstation' by the open window to the courtyard. The outside light is on, the air is very still, a few moths fly past from time to time, everyone else is asleep but I am awake and if I am patient and sit still for long enough I may see the dahlias dancing under the stars.

Do you think?

Patience...

I think that history will look back on this era not so much as the 'Have It Alls' but rather the 'Want It Nows' and I, for one, don't think this is a good way to be.

You see, the trouble with having high expectations and wanting instant gratification is that they are bad for us. They wouldn't be, if we could control our desires and accept that sometimes we will not receive all that we may wish to receive instantly, at the click of a finger, or of a mouse. If we could stay patient when life is not happening at MIPS speed and learn to live more in the moment than in the next few minutes.

Our brains may be built for high-speed processing, our neurons may fire fast, but I don't think we've yet evolved to cope with the technology we all take for granted. Which reminds me of some code I wrote some, oh, thirty-five years ago, for one of the early online computer systems that the company for whom I was Chief Techie was developing. It was a brand new computer installation, an IBM 3441, probably less powerful than the laptop on which I am typing now, but back in the 80's it was impressive. Too impressive. The first systems had almost the whole central processing unit to themselves, there were so few of them written and tested, and I was worried that the users accessing them would become complacent and greedy. That they would expect such high-speed results even when other systems had been installed and the mainframe was working harder to service hundreds of online users. So, I wrote some Assembler code to run in CICS to interrogate the programmes returning results to the users: had they taken a certain number of seconds to reply? If yes, good, give them what they asked for. If not, pause, wait until those few seconds had passed and then reply to them.  The users never knew they were sometimes delayed. All they saw was a fast and consistent response that would be the same later when resources were being shared with others. Their expectations were set and they were never disappointed. Fait accompli.    

I'd quite like to do that to people now. In real life. The trouble is that those who sell us our stuff want us to buy quickly, before we have time to think, to reconsider, to change our minds, and so they enable us to Have It Now, next day delivery, today, if they could manage it. I can imagine the drones flying in the window now.

But it does not hurt to wait, does it?

And sometimes the waiting makes the receiving so much sweeter, almost special.
Just as waiting for Christmas Day, the anticipation, the mounting excitement, is often so much better than the day itself, even if there is all that we had desired stuffed into our stockings.

I started thinking of this today as I returned from walking the dog because today, 7th July, is the day when the village shop re-opens after the baker's first summer break. And while it has been sad to walk past a closed sign for the last two weeks, and while I may have wished to have had the convenience of popping in to pick up milk or bread, or my Sunday strawberry tart, today it has been such a treat to return home from our morning walk with a fresh croissant for breakfast

 and a mille feuille for afternoon tea.

Worth the wait...

Une nuit blanche...

Insomnia is not such a frustrating state when one has an interesting house and garden in which to wander and play while the rest of the world sleeps...

And then, at 5 am, to come to rest by the open window overlooking the courtyard, to sip a cup of tea while listening to a local cockerel crowing and the birds singing and bathe in the freshness of the dawn, well, it is blissful.

Contemplating scrambled eggs and mushrooms on toast

And a day of exploring and adventuring...

And to think, I may have sold this place and then where would I have been?  

Well, probably Iceland.
But that may be next year's adventure!

Expanding horizons...

It is not just the sea stretching to the horizon, or the rolling hills providing a backdrop for my daily 'power walk' with the dog, or the abundance of space in this house, a space that I am enjoying and using and even revelling in after seven years in The Doll's House...

It is also the new experiences...

Yesterday two friends and I drove to Guingamp, there to witness the arrival of the first TGV to travel at high speed from Le Mans to Rennes, thus reducing the journey time to Paris to 2.5 hours, and thereby making a day trip to the capital a tempting prospect.

I used to take Sundays in Paris when I worked for the software company in Slough. I'd fly out with British Airways at 7:20 am, Heathrow to Charles de Gaulle, be eating croissants and sipping coffee by 10, take in part of the Louvre and have lunch in the cafe there, often eaten in the company of a nun though why I never discovered, and then wander round a le Marais or Montmartre until it was time to get the bus back to the airport.

In those days my life was larger and my horizons stretched further.

So far that I bought this house and fled to France for two years, before being lured back to the job in cyber security with the (then) New Employer. And to life in a corporate cage and a much littler life.

It's a wild, crazy and very independent part of France, Brittany.
And I think it suits me very well!

Especially after the last nine years which shrunk my world and reduced my horizons and made me focus too much on my own navel for my liking. A necessary part of surviving, I daresay, but not ideal for one who likes wide open spaces and adventuring.

Yesterday my friend was disappointed that the first fast TGV was not the newer model.
I was happy enough with the old version. I took it to Paris twice while I lived here, both times to sit my university exams, not a bad place to go, especially if the hotel is near the Sorbonne for added inspiration.
 

So, I find it takes little to make me happy these days - an absence of fear, no daily stresses, knowing that The Rags are happy and well, that all is ok in our family's world.
Toe-tapping music helps too.
 

And free oysters, although I do not indulge, not since The Incident of the Oyster at the food hall in Boston, that was one feisty oyster, I can still feel it clinging to my tonsils as I tried to swallow it!

But free crèpes, well, who could say non?
We had ours with salted caramel and thus, another new experience for me and another slight expanding of my horizons. I will make crèpes, I decided, making a mental note to find a recipe for salted caramel.

  

La vie est bonne, n'est-ce pas?