breton blog

Bois de Gouarec

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 17:04:00 +0000

As the Other Half has started up Breton Blog Renovation to document the more technical sides of the renovation (off-grid electric systems, lime rendering, gravity fed water heating systems etc) it means that I can concentrate on other aspects of life in Brittany. I intend to document the local area, day trips, local customs, food etc... starting with a wander through the woodlands beside the cottage.. Bois de Gouarec

The path up into the forest

An interesting shelter

View over towards my brother's place

Back onto the canal towpath

... towards the cottage

Stairs

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 08:33:00 +0000

Next step... under-stairs larder :)

Roll on...

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 20:11:00 +0000

Looking forward to picnics by the canal...

barn fireplace

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 14:21:00 +0000

The fireplace in the barn is finished and rendered :)

I think it looks great!

Next? stairs/log burner/insulation/rendering kitchen/flooring barn... I feel we've taken a big step forward as there isn't any heavy building work left to do :)

windows :)

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 19:04:00 +0000

great... we now have some light in the bathroom :)

update :)

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:15:00 +0000

...here's a few recent photos of the mezzanine in the barn (taken and emailed to us by the builders :)

... I can't wait to get back over!

French Food ... stamps

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:15:00 +0000

I was wandering around the Fete du Lac at Lac de Guerledan the other week and came across these lovely stamps... each one with a different French national dish on.... how pretty!

em... I don't normally collect stamps... ;)

Gouarec

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:15:00 +0000

A few pictures of Gouarec on a summer's evening...

Ruins

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:22:00 +0000

At the back of the cottage there are 2 small ruins...

.. the smaller of the 2 is hidden in the trees

The larger has a very big chimney for such a small room and we've heard various possible explanations for the original purpose... from a tiny house or 'smoke house' to a 'cauldron room'... as used in Wales to cook up scraps for pigs.

More recently, in the 1950s, we know that it was used for pigs, while a small lean-to area at the front of the cottage was used to house a veal calf.

At some point, when the cottage is near completion, I'd like to renovate these little buildings. In the meantime I'm trying to prevent the chimney from crashing by the use of acro props...

Huelgoat

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 10:12:00 +0000

In a large clearing in the magical forest of Broceliande, 20 miles northeast of the cottage, on the eastern edge of Finistere, you find the beautiful wood, stone and water of Huelgoat 'the upper wood'.

crogloft

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 17:44:00 +0000

Just got some new photos of building work in progress in the barn...

They show the crogloft/mezzanine floor being built :) ... btw the Madonna is just behind the silver bubble wrap in the middle pic

...I'm presuming it is a kind of 'crogloft' which is 'a loft over half a cottage, furthest from the cooking hearth... used for sleeping in'... common in Ceredigion, West Wales (which is where Euros happens to come from!)

Madonna and cross

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 18:43:00 +0000

In the absence of any news on the building front... here are a couple of interesting pics..

.. a cross built into the eastern gable end of the house

.. and a Madonna built into the western gable end of the house (which is inside the barn)

This isn't unusual in Gouarec as many of the houses have niches and madonnas... but I think it's quite special

Work in Progress!

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:53:00 +0000

Some pictures of the barn wall... taken by the builder

... can't think of anything else to say, other than... I can't wait 'til it's done and we can sort out the decor!

Savoury Muffins

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 19:30:00 +0000

If you happen to have a productive veggie patch and, after you've remembered to donate some of your surplus goodies to those less fortunate (... ahem...see previous post;), you find yourself with extra still.... here's a great idea courtesy of last weekend's guardian magazine and Hugh F-W.

I made this batch today using the courgette and pine nut recipe (both bought sadly, but I can dream of surplus days!)... you can put all sorts into the basic recipe... and very tasty!! ...once you train your brain out of the sugar expectation of a muffin shaped object (note: this may just be my brain!)

I took the picture with Teasing Georgia... my first rose of the season... which I did manage to grow :)

summer eating

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 15:56:00 +0000

Hopefully at some point we'll get around to digging a decent sized veg plot in France ... but in the meantime we make do with a very small one strategically placed, by Euros, in the centre of the lawn right outside the front door in Wales... very practical!

And a little basil... testing my new photo backdrop... a piece of white muslin :) Think I may need to tinker with the white recognition/balance thingy as it looks a bit grey!

pictures

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:59:00 +0000

I got a new camera and have been practicing so here's a couple of initial pictures taken on automatic mode:

Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:28:00 +0000

Euros should be on his way back on the ferry by now so here's an update...
the builders/sparky seem to be doing a fine job... but... the delivery of ready mix from Point P seems to have been an altogether different matter!!
The mix needed to be piped into the barn through one of the velux windows.... however the driver managed to get it all over the roof, the road and break the velux... yikes!
Soo.. Euros took photos of everything for the builders to sort it out with point p ... and I'll post a couple when he gets back ;)

Towns of Central Brittany

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:48:00 +0000

A few photos of typical towns and villages in central Brittany in May

Me... on the left!

Ancient woodland of Central Brittany

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sun, 23 May 2010 18:52:00 +0000

Seeing as I'm here by myself and going to work in the morning while OH is in Brittany "renovating" I'm feeling a bit hard done by .... so I've been looking through some of the beautiful photos my sis took at this time last year... and dreaming...

Old ideas... and new dreams

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Tue, 18 May 2010 18:40:00 +0000

Went to the Smallholder and Garden Festival at Llanelwedd at the weekend... Euros had a welsh festival stall there with work... so we met up for lunch.
Anyway he's found a few good deals on PV panels and we had a word with Ty Mawr about wipeable paint for the kitchen to cover the lime rendering which Euros can now do (after his christmas present of a lime rendering day course with Ty Mawr ;)

Anyhow... they now have a range of breathable, waterproof (yes alongside breathable!!) mineral paints just perfect for the job :)
Also watched a demonstration of how to grind grain ...

...and decided never to do that.... and dreamed of having the most luxurious, all singing, all dancing chicken house with bells on... euros says he can build me one whenever I get some chucks. And my, oh, my.... the chickens there were ***unbelievable*** I mean, how could you ever pick one (or three)... there's just so many glorious varieties to choose from... anyway hopefully I'll be able to help design their fabulous new chicken palace!!! The runner ducks, who waddle along next in the dream, will obviously want their own luxury runner duck pad:)
Then there's the goats...

Bon Repos

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:58:00 +0000

This is a photo from the cottage... down the lane to the canal...

...along the Nantes-Brest canal towpath

for 4 km... you arrive at the beautiful abbey of Bon Repos..

Every August they hold a brilliant show at the abbey and so for most of the summer the horses for the show are there..

The lovely photos are courtesy of my sister Nikki... who is Sasha Doll Style

Les allées couvertes...

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:07:00 +0000

Not far from the cottage is the Gorge de Daoulas, and if you follow the road through the Gorge for a mile or so you come to a steeply banked lane, almost tunnel like with tall branches closing in at the top.
A couple of hundred yards up this hidden path brings you out on top of the world... where you can find the Covered Alleys of Liscuis.

Nobody knows for sure the original purpose of these neolithic structures... of which we came across 6 all within a couple hundred yards of each other.

They could easily be used as shelters on this high, gorse covered, windswept place... although I find it hard to believe that stones of this magnitude would have been moved into these positions originally for shelter.

Whatever their reason this is a spiritual place...

with misty views over the majestic Abbey of Bon Repos.

barn

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 20:16:00 +0000

GREAT NEWS!!! The builder along with his brother and brother-in-law are going to do the barn... which used to house a cider press ;) -*

This is the back of the house and the barn's to the right of the picture

This is the barn from the lane to the canal... and as you can see the barn is built up to the lane. This means the builders will be using a kind of 'bookend' metal structure inside, tanking it etc. against water and then lime rendering the inside of the building....

The fireplace is filled with old piles of roof slate... The local roofer who fixed the ( previously caved in) roof of the barn was able to recycle a few rows of these which you can see on the previous pic.

Bathtime!!

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:06:00 +0000

... got loads of stuff organised... met with a builder who's going to give us a quote for doing the barn, which is great AND he seems to be pretty clued up and professional, so hoping for a good quote and we can get things moving :)

AAAnd we've * got * a * bath**** with hot water!!!

OK I know there's still I big hole in the floor so effectively you're in the kitchen but isn't it BEAUTIFUL!! No more trips to swimming pools/lakes/campsites to get washed. Pure.... luxury :)

The hot water's all off the log burner too; a gravity fed system means we don't have to depend on any electric, which is quite handy seeing as we don't have any ;) (from a supplier I mean as we're off grid)

It's also been decided that sorting a stairs to get up to the bathroom is my domain.. mmmmm

Spring

noreply@blogger.com (pip) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:49:00 +0000

I haven't posted here for a while..... have been setting up an internet based sock yarn shop!
This has finally been launched into space and you can view it at the link.

This week I'm going to split up some snowdrops as I'd like to encourage them to multiply down in the woodland..