Saturday, May 21, 2022 To the Sea!

 We are to arrive at our Brittany house at 3 pm today. The trip from Loches to our new house is about 4  hours, not including lunch. 

After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we are off earlier than expected. As we drove, the scenery slowly changed. The hills disappeared, as did the vineyards and large farms growing grain. Fields became smaller, the land seemed less fertile, there were more pastures and fewer fields of grain. The cows were no longer the white Charolais, but browns, and black and white spotted - dairy cows. Even the air seemed to change - it felt "fresher" somehow and clearer. Perhaps its just my longing to see the sea. 

We planned to stop for lunch around noon in a small town and nearly missed our opportunity. French lunch places generally open noonish and close again by 2. We exited at Malville, made a spin of the town, finding no place to eat. But there was a boulangerie on the outskirts of town called Maison Truin.

our lunch stop 

 Often, bakeries sell sandwiches. We're in luck, the bakery was open, but there were no sandwiches in the case. I asked about sandwiches and they were able to make us each a fresh sandwich on baguette. We couldn't resist buying dessert as well - fruit tarts and an eclair for Dave. We ate our lunch on a bench outside the bakery. Not the most scenic, but the most practical. We watched a few more people go into the bakery and come out with a baguette sandwich. Oh, I forgot to mention, these sandwiches were on half a baguette, so twice as large as we usually make. A few minutes later, the bakery locked its doors and pulled down the shades on the windows. Closed for lunch. 

Tummies full we headed off again, arriving in the area too early to check in. We scouted out a Carrefour grocery store in Baden to make quick purchases for tomorrow's breakfast and tonight's dinner. Back to our house on Rue du Port Jakez with only a few minute wait for Rozenn to arrive and give us the keys and a tour of the house. It's just as we imagined from the photos online. 

After unpacking and getting familiar with the house, our transition was finished. Time for apéros. 

apéros under the awning on our patio

After dinner, we took a walk around the neighborhood. And we went to the sea! Well, actually, the Gulf of Morbihan which connects to the Atlantic Ocean.

lots of sailboats here

the beach by us is stony, so bring your beach shoes

Janis, Clark, Lynn on the path to the beach

Tomorrow we'll have our first explore - after we buy groceries.