Alexis

It is a very pretty tea cup with a red stripe running around.

Blue parking bays have to be used with a permit.  If you have a permit, then they are free... once you have paid for the permit.  Mine cost 30F I think.  It is getting a bit faded.  You have the time allowed to stay marked on your disc which can change at different times of the day. Our blue bays here are only policed in the summer.  When I was walking by them the other month, the police municipal was doling out PV's.  Someone had a parking permit that allowed all day - he was from another region - and he got one. There is certainly a sign with the operational times written on close by.

Well, you can just about sniff the cork before you get done for drunken driving here.... Smoothest whisky I buy is William Peel.  Which I drown with lemonade! Ooh!  Haven't had that for ages.  Think I will pop down and have a Pimm's as no whisky  (or not enough) to make a drink in the house. Oh.  Don't be surprised when they serve you your cider in a tea cup.

I can say on best authority that they don't exist here.  I have just spent six weeks scouring the shelves of every supermarket I have been in - a lot - whilst the family were here looking for them. I ended up buying the little white "bathroom" bags but they are dear compared to the real thing.

Luckily, my taste has already been acquired.  Took a lot of strict training though. Many years ago it used to be sweet Spanish. I can't get on with red though. . .

Well, it is certainly buzzly today.  Car is miles away.  I don't normally move it on a Saturday but needs must this morning.  The siren has just gone so that is the end of the market. Please egger, note that this is a beautifull little city and as such it doesn't have yellow lines to spoil photo's.  The parking bays are all marked out.  THIS MEANS PARKING IN THEM NOT ABANDONING YOUR BLOODY GREAT 4x4 JUST ANYWHERE BECAUSE "THERE ARE NO LINES". Glad to have got that off my chest!  I know you wouldn't do it egger but it drives me crazy!  Everywhere blocked.  All British cars.... Park in the blue lines.  You don't need a permit...[6][6]

Today is market day.  The lorries have been trundling by.  I might pop along later. Josselin is, indeed, very pretty.  Dead as a doornail winter. Then there are the steep streets[:@]  Apart from that, it is my favourite place in France. We shall have to rdv in the bar opposite the Basilique.  Mines a muscadet.  Large.

ha ha ha  good thinking egger.  I used to rent it out too. It was last year when we visited that gave Gilles the idea to live in Scotland.  He was bowled over. Then, of course, the troubles arrived so everything went up in smoke. I don't know what you mean by cold...it is 25° there at the moment...11° the morning and 14° the afternoon!!!!! ha ha ha ha ha

I thought that the motorway thing was because we were too poor here inBrittany? No.  Surely it was to bring people here.  If people had to pay, they wouldn't come!  In fact, there is talk of charging.  They must be going to either widen some of the roads or build new ones.  All the little lanes will be crammed full then. Gilles says it is because of Anne de Bretagne...she was a forward planner then. Don't worry egger, we have know one another for so long on here it seems like we are talking another language.  I'm going back to the UK.  We are going to rent first to see if my husband can cope with the weather.  I decided to put this place on the market so if it sold the money would be in the bank and if we didn't like Scotland, we could go somewhere else with the money on standby to buy if the perfect place came up. You know what it is like though...if the money is in your purse, you can never find anything to spend it on but if you are skint....always something!

Do any of you watch the french cookery programmes?  I found them helpfull when I first arrived here - it was some years before I had a telly though - as the lack of cream jiggered me up for puds at first.  I didn't know how to cook fois gras or other regional dishes and I picked up quite a few tips.  I also discovered gelatine[;-)] It was Mâite I seem to remember who was the star then... Now, of course, I'm in love with Joel but must admit I don't watch much in the summer.  He is soooooooo slow!  He has some pretty top guests though.  The one on a Saturday is on at a bad time for me and I HATE her on the gardening programme. I like cookery programmes!

Blimey!  What made you think of Roscoff?  That REALLY is the end of the world!  Sorry Val!  Surely you would have to drive almost to St. Malo to turn down south?  Or cut across the badlands[;-)]  The road from Roscoff/Brest/Lorient/Vannes is a bit too busy and fast for me now. Driving in France is a doddle.  Don't worry about that. I'm a bit worried about you spending all your day in the bar.  Strong stuff, coffee here.  You could start shaking....  I have been waiting for IKEA to open in Rennes for ages and they wait for me to flit...anyway, nothing left for me to buy as I have it all.  We would be better going to the Indian. We haven't sold anything yet.  I am going to put this place on the market in a few weeks...with a heavy heart but hey, can't leave it empty. Or can I????[:D]  

Don't worry, I realised long ago I was the only person in the world not to like St Malo.  I just think it is grim. I like St. Servan though. I thought you were going to buy me a plate of meatballs when IKEA opened?  We will have flitted by then I expect. Gilles is going from strength to strength thankfully.  Touch wood and fingers crossed.  All the leukaemia baddies have done a runner but it may, of course, come back.  We don't think like that in this house though.

St Malo is an awful place to arrive at.  It is like sailing into a prison island.  So very forbidding, all shuttered up.  It isn't that nice to drive in either.  I can never understand why people rave about it.  Just compare it to Dinard or Dinan.  The old town is all stripey jumpers and pottery.  Egger will certainly find a cafe to sip coffee outside though. Some of the other ports are far more attractive.  I can't recommend Calais perhaps, but Dieppe is pretty and Boulogne isn't that bad.  We sail from Boulogne next week and we are sleeping there before we sail.  I will be able to report back on all it's charms. I know it has a chip van on the quay side....

I don't make gravy now.  About twice a year I fail at making Yorkshire puds - it is the milk - and about six times a year I make dumplings.  He thinks both of these last two are bread... More often than not I just do veg, no potatoes, with the main course. We usually have a starter.  We usually have lettuce and vinaigrette.  He has cheese and a dessert. He loves trifle.  Even though it is completely forbidden to eat hot puddings - or so he says - he likes a crumble too.  I could murder a nice chocolate sponge with chocolate sauce... I actually cooked beef bourguignon earlier this week.  It was tasteless and I'm going to convert it to a chilli.  Good job I had done six dumplings[;-)]  Don't tell the other dieters though. I can say that when I first came to live here and there wasn't all these English shops, stalls and supermarket sections, I used to cart loads of UK stuff back from visits but now I rarely bother - not that I don't tour the supermarkets there, you understand - but I really only 'need' tinned manderins for his trifles and Hellemans for him also.  I've got enough suet in stock for quite some time yet.

Hmm.  I thought about egger alone in a cafe the other day....  Around here, she might just as well have 'Pute' printed on her forehead. Brittany Ferries are the original Pirates.  There are a lot of other companies very much cheaper.  You are in no rush...you are on an adventure.  Speedferries.  Transmanche.  The one to Le Havre.  P&O wash my mouth out.  Seafrance.  Tunnel.  Rowing boat....   Just noticed...here, the cafe IS the bar.  You buy your coffee in the pub so to speak.  Rarely different buildings.  Open at seven in the morning until seven at night.  Buy your bread there too if it is a depot de pain.  It sounds so exciting I wish I was just coming over and not used to all this.  I'm blasé now.[;-)]

Mines a big one too but I'm old. OH has to apply for a copy of his birth certificate as and when he needs one as they only 'last' for two months here.  We were just talking about this today...we have an exciting life. I think I am right in saying that all his marriages and divorces are scribbled in the margin of the birth certificate. There again, I could be talking rubbish. I do know that British Powers That Be (family allowance) wouldn't accept the French birth certificate of my grandson as they said it could have just been run off the computer.  Why did the Embassy in Paris accept it then for his passport? Swines.

From Ouest France yesterday. September 2008. Pace. IKEA!!! We will have moved by then....

Half and half lard and that hard marg you find here. Floats out of the pie dish..... Being tight - have you seen the price of saindoux - I use all hard marg sometimes. I have TU's recipe if anyone wants it.  I must admit that I didn't like it.  It was too 'cakey' for me but don't listen to me....  I make excellent pastry but my cakes are often a bit strange![:$][:$] I will search for it . . .  

Well, I think that you are going about it in the right way. I came here on a whim and have been here fifteen years. I know others who planned everything down to the last detail and went back to the UK after less than three years... I might just go to Italy 'on a whim' some day soon.  I can always come back or go somewhere else that takes my fancy. Some folk just don't understand us adventurers![:D]

I think you will find that Nantes isn't that far from a coast. It takes about an hour to get to Dinard from here and we are in the centre of Brittany. It might be difficult to find anywhere to live around Dinard.  Did the promised splurge of Parisiens buy up all the properties when the TGV arrived in St Malo? MIKI!!!  He will know. Anyway, sun is shining and I've got a brocante to go to . . .toodle pip.

Dinard for East Midlands now but will they jack it in in the winter? Brest goes up North too but where?  Log onto the airports.  Flybe (?sp) is Brest and good ole Ryanair flies from Dinard. If you want a pile of stones to sort out, let me know....[;-)]  Chateau Despair needs a bit of loving care and a lot of money throwing at it. ha ha ha ha!

[quote user="egger"]...... will be bored out of my head after 2 weeks [blink][/quote] What you need is a little renovation project ...

What do you mean, red? I would call it faded orange... Watch it.  MIL will GET you. Someone once told me that the French can colour but can't cut but the English can cut but can't colour...or the other way around[:)][:D]

An adventure is an adventure.  You don't worry about what might happen. Go for it. As for rental, look on www.ouest-france.fr  under annonce, immobilier, louer,  and you might find somewhere.  Holiday areas are good because you can rent gîtes cheaply over the winter. Around here, you quite often see cards in the supermarket advertising property.  You can also visit the Mairie in a place you fancy and ask them. Then, after living here a while, you will find out if France is the place for you....

You would have laughed the other morning.  I was having a thin day so I thought I would get weighed.... "Ooh," I thought, "lost over a kilo." I picked up the scales to snog them - as you do - and noticed a little rubber 'thing' on the floor.  It was a cover for one of the feet.  I put it back on, got weighed again, and had put back on my kilo.... I'm just off to remove the little rubber pads protecting the feet on the scales......[:D]