Lepod's Blog

Our big trip – by pod

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  • Bois d’amour, Josselin.

    It was a bit rainy today but it suited walking through the park, they have quite a few quirky objets d’art along the way.

    It does remind me of NZ, the greenness of it.
    These two gave me quite a start, I mistook them for real people for a second.
    Steam punk!

  • I ordered a new car from Citroën. I didn’t have a Traction Avant, now I do! They are highly revered here in France, rightly so.

    Not sure how we ended up with three 2CVs!

  • A day in Rennes, seeing Pauline off to Bath for a conference.

    We took the bus to Rennes and stayed in our favourite old school hotel there, the next morning Pauline took the train to Paris to connect with the Eurostar to the UK and I took the opportunity to walk around Rennes for a bit, very nice day for it.

    Second hand book market.
    One of the many churches and a square with merry go round.
    I liked the look of this restaurant.
    Now that’s a cargo bike!
    Medieval.
    The streets are pretty much all like this, at least in the old part of town.
    I love the alleys.
    The municipal pool is quite impressive.
    Pool from the side.
    This was a very pretty garden and an impressive abbey I stumbled across on my walk.
    The Abbey
    I liked this sign to keep your dog on a leash.
    Naturally there was a market.
    I liked this apartment building.
    It’s a green city, lots of trees.
    More medieval buildings.
    Heaps of cafes and bars.
    And more cute alleyways.
    And a lot of churches of course.
    The round turret is one of the original ramparts.
    After about 15000 steps I figured I deserved some lunch!
    The Gare de Rennes is quite impressive these days. It took them years to get to this point, there were massive roadworks and construction every time we visited. Nice to see it finished.
    Gare de Rennes.
    View of the square from the station.
    From the station entrance/exit at the top.
    The entrance at the top.

    Pauline is off on the eurostar to the UK where she has a conference in Bath, and then she’s heading back to Turku to take part in a Phd defence. It’s up to me to guard the fort at home. I have an appointment in Guégon today otherwise I probably would have gone to Bath as well. It’s going to be fairly quiet for the next few weeks!

  • Busy Friday and a fun weekend

    We hired a car for the day from the Super U supermarket and took some stuff to the déchetterie (rubbish dump.)
    After the déchetterie we drove to Ploermel and did a big shop at the E.Leclerc supermarket. They had these figues de barbarie which we thought were figs but they turned out to be prickly pears.
    The E.Leclerc had an automatic crêpe machine, I’ve never seen one before. Not as good as a pancake machine maybe but still impressive.
    The prickly pears taste a bit like watermelon. They’re quite sweet when ripe.

    Saturday was quite rainy in the morning, as a result there was no queue at the market at our favorite vege stall and a very small queue at the cheese man so we bought some 30 month old comté and a nice blue cheese as well. In the afternoon the weather improved so we biked to Pomeleuc and back, then in the evening we went out for dinner with our friends Lewis and Martine at La Table d’O which is the flashest restaurant in Josselin, just up the road from us.

    My entré was pressed rabbit, very tasty.
    Pauline couldn’t make her mind up about desert so she got tiny amounts of all four of them.
    Sunday there was a vide-grenier (flea market) at the Place Saint-Martin at the top of the village so we took a look.
    The church in the background Eglise Saint-Martin is from the twelfth century because of course it is.
    I really liked this bicycle. €60 seems a bit steep though.
    We walked back home down some lanes we had never been down before.
    This house with a turret on the side was pretty cool.
    We particularly liked the gargoyle.

  • Last night of Wednesday night bands in the square tonight.

    I can’t help noticing it’s getting darker at nights, must be nearly autumn! Also, the apples on our trees are nearly ready. Good night as per usual, the crowds here are very similar to NZ crowds, it takes a bit to get them dancing.

  • A sad week

    Pauline’s mother died on Monday, she had been in St Andrew’s rest home for many years. It was timely as she was becoming increasingly frail, however it’s hard particularly for Pauline being on the other side of the world at the time. The staff at St Andrew’s were great, and thankfully Paulines sister was able to be there. Her brother flew over from Australia to help with things. Upsetting for everyone but it is natural and we can be thankful that Jocelyn was in such a good place.

    We had previously arranged to go to the nearby town of Pontivy and take the Napoleon Express train and I thought that might be a useful diversion for Pauline so we took the bus to Pontivy.

    Pontivy castle 15th century.
    We had dinner with a view of the castle.
    They give you this free newspaper on the train.
    One of the villages we passed through.
    Pontivy gare.
    We visited a second hand shop in Pontivy and I bought this nice Renault 4cv for my collection of quirky French cars.
    In our kitchen.
    I also spotted this manche à gigot for 6 euros. It’s for holding the boney part of a leg of lamb while you’re carving it. I’ve never seen one before.

    We had ridden our bicycles to Ploermel to get serviced and they were ready so on Saturday we took the bus to Ploermel and rode back home. There’s a green way bike and walking path from Ploermel to the canal and then you ride along the canal, about 19 kms.

    The owner of the bike shop collects mopeds and this one belongs to his son. Peugeot. I thought it was rather cute.
    We stopped at this crêperie next to the canal and had a cold drink. What a great idea.
    The Crêperie was in a tiny caravan. Lovely spot for it.

  • Pleased with my new shirt

    It’s been hot here so I did a bit of shopping. The shorts seem to be the fashionable colour this year, and the shirt was 50% off so I’m not complaining!

  • Market day

    I was pleased to see the cheese man, he wasn’t here earlier on in the year so I was a bit worried about him. We’ve been buying cheese here for the last fifteen years or so, on and off 😀
    Busy busy.
    I had a galette with saucisse for lunch, Pauline had a cheese one. Very tasty.
    We bought a slice of morbier cheese and a small goats cheese.
    Lots of tourists as well as shoppers this morning. Tourist season I guess.

  • A productive and enjoyable weekend.

    Friday night we went out with our friends Martine and Lewis from just up the road. He’s from Auckland, Martine is a Breton. I think. Definitely French anyway.

    The musician was very good, just the right sort of music for a night out, not so loud that you couldn’t hear each other’s conversation, just right.
    For 8 euros this was a bargain. The mushroom sauce was particularly good.

    Saturday we took the bus to Rennes in the morning as Pauline wanted to do some shopping. Overcast day but that meant it was a lot cooler.

    Compared to Josselin Rennes is quite grand.
    Medieval buildings and a lot of people out dining
    This merry go round was popular.
    I do enjoy these wonky medieval buildings.

    It’s nice to go to a city every now and then and we do like Rennes, but I was glad to get back home at the end of the day. There’s only so much shopping I can take unless it’s at a motorbike shop that is. Pauline was very happy with her purchases and we went to the enclosed market and admired the fish but bought some veges and fruit.

    Sunday we biked along the canal to Pomeleuc to visit the chapel there.

    I used to complain about my French bike but compared to the bikes we hired in Denmark it’s fantastic. Much lighter and better gears. It’s had a hard life but it’s done me proud really.
    We spotted this otter on the other side of the canal, not sure what it was up to.
    Chapelle Saint-Mélec au lieu-dit de Pomeleuc, Lanouée
    From the other side
    It’s rather nice inside.
    It’s quite catholic.
    One of the side bits.
    A pilgrim of Saint-Jaques called Olivier Deslandes was buried here in 1669.
    Round the side of the chapel.
    Biking back home.
    I think this is a gîte, you could rent it out and have a pleasant stay alongside the canal presumably.
    We stopped at this ecluse for an icecream as it was a warmish day.
    Very nice icecream it was too!

    It’s good to get a bit of biking in as we want to bike to Redon at some stage which is 65 kms down the river and it won’t hurt to be a bit fitter before we do that 😀

  • Guégon

    As I’m a type 2 diabetic I had to get some medicine organized which means finding a doctor. The medical center in Josselin only has one GP and it’s fair to say that he’s not universally popular so the only other GP in town is very busy. Luckily there’s a health center in Guégon a couple of kms away which has plenty of doctors so I walked there on Monday and made an appointment as it’s easier than explaining things in French on the phone. The receptionist was a very nice guy who had lived in NZ for a year and he explained that they weren’t taking on new patients but I could have an appointment for 6pm that day 🙂

    As it turned out they rang me while I was walking back and changed it to 11 on Tuesday which suited me well as it’s been very hot this week, the mornings are OK but 33 – 34 in the afternoons.

    The doctor was a very charming young woman and an excellent doctor. I was quite impressed with the whole setup particularly when you consider that the population is just 2200.

    I was early for the 11am and met this nice cat having a sleep on his window ledge while looking around the town.
    He was a bit wary of me but went back to sleep as soon as I left.
    Guégon mairie (town hall) in the background
    The church is quite impressive too for a little village
    I particularly liked this sticky out bit.
    The walk back to Josselin afforded a nice view of the town and castle, church spire behind the castle.
    We also have cute cats in Josselin although this one was also very shy.

    It’s been a fairly quiet week apart from that due to the heat, we mostly stayed inside as the ground floor of the house remains cool thank goodness. Pauline working and me trying to stay cool mostly.