St-Quay Portrieux

Hello tous,

Went to St-Quay Portrieux yesterday, a small beach town 40 minutes via bus outside St-Brieuc. It's another one of those beautiful jewels that people ravage over in the summer and completely abandon in the fall and winter. Which is perfectly fine by me, since I hate crowds. One of the English language assistants from Scotland lives there so a group of us went to see her and the town. As you can see, the skies were amazing once more and I'm almost starting to believe that the grey, foggy and rainy Bretagne is just a myth (almost.)






There was also a fête du cidre, another local festival in Brittany where towns celebrate Breton culture and cuisine. Cidre is pretty much what you think it is - apple cider, with a splash of carbonation and alcohol, so gotta be careful not to down it like it's apple juice, haha. Below is the thing-a-ma-jig used to crank out fresh cidre:



More pics from the fête:





This is the little beach just down the street from Steph's place. She'll be moving to St-Brieuc soon, but I think we'll be making a visit to this little plage from time to time..

Le « design »

Hello, again. Beautiful Monday here in Saint-Brieuc. It's been unnaturally clear and blue for the past few days. Definitely can't complain.

Here are some more pics from Rennes. In addition to being one cool city for doing just about anything, Rennes had some awesomely designed stores:










Again with age, I find myself gravitating more towards interior design than fashion. The biggest difference being that it is considerably healthier on my wallet to go shopping in furniture stores where I'd be an idiot to compulsively drop thousands on a couch. Nevermind how I'd walk out of the store with it! It would be literally and figuratively heavy on my conscience. Plus, there's hardly ever a return policy.

That being said, I also found these in Rennes and my personal vow to not spend more than 50 euros on fashion was briefly shaken. Merde.

I want this in black or red.

I want this in olive.


Enfin la France, tu m'as gagné..

Who what where and Rennes

Today, my flatmates and I took a day trip to Rennes, the capital city of Bretagne and only a one-hour train ride from St-Brieuc. I'd gone to Rennes just two weeks ago, but didn't get to see much because I was too busy meetin' and greetin' the other English assistants at a big crêperie gathering. Luckily, I'd remembered where the major things were, so it helped as we maneuvered around a town about three times bigger than ours.






There are loads of these buildings all around Brittany made with colorful timber frames. They crookedly lovely, but I'm afraid one little earthquake will knock 'em all down!





For lunch, we went to a crêperie in the Place Sainte-Anne and noshed on galettes and cidre, typical of local cuisine. I think cidre has to be the only chilled drink I'd take in a mug. Afterwards, we perused the used book market.





I'd just watched Breakfast at Tiffany's (or Diamants sur Canapé, as it is known in French) all the way through for the first time and saw this cat that reminded me of Cat from the movie:





I also bought a million (OK, more like 20-30) postcards in Rennes. I don't know how this happened, since I'm not a particular aficionado of postcards. But as we went into the papeteries and postcard shops, I found myself accumulating more and more postcards. Some are new, some are very old, not all are in French or of French things. Whatever. I adore them and that's reason enough, n'est-ce pas?




Back to the grind after tomorrow. Ciaoooo mon amour~

This made me smile.

I walk a lot (read: A LOT) in France, but I bet it would be more fun if the stairs here were made like this:



SO COOL!!!!!!!

Props to Prêt à Voyager for finding this.

More houses

Salut all,

Gonna make this just a photo update since I haven't got long on my cable connection for a well-versed blog entry. Lordy, I can't even remember the last time I used a cable cord on my laptop. France is a bit behind on technology. I think it moves faster than they're willing to keep up with. On aime la nostalgie, n'est-ce pas?

Anyways, more houses in Brittany, for those who'd requested it. Ciao!