Home at last after our little trip to France delivering twelve animals to two farms. We had a very pleasant ferry trip out Poole to Cherbourg. Sailing out of Poole is very beautiful and it was beautifully sunny and pretty calm – we did however have to get up at 4 in the morning to get there in time which was a bit trying. We had breakfast and then decided to take up our free cabins, as we were travelling freight, and have a welcome snooze. After a few problems we eventually found Norman and Orla’s farm near Rennes. The girls were very pleased to get out of the trailer and eat some green stuff whilst the five little boys had to wait another two hours before they were finally let out at Robin and Linda’s place at Plouvenez. We stayed the night with Robin and Linda and much drink was taken so we didn’t get to bed until four in the morning and that made it 24 hours since we had last curled up in bed. I drank loads and loads of water – the winner in the drunk of the evening competition was definately Robin – who was annoyingly perfectly OK the next day. We left the trailer behind and set off in the afternoon for the gorgeous Grand Hotel des Bains at Locquirec where we had booked a room with a balcony and a sea view. We were hungry so ambled down to the port for a galette before going for a wander. It was warm and sunny and there were children playing in the sea…the adults were far too sensible to dive in. I was suddenly overcome with the desire for sleep so we went to our room for another snooze waking up half an hour before dinner ended. A close shave that but we made it. Obviously we were becoming far too relaxed. It is that sort of hotel, all wooden floors, grey or cream walls, vases of lilies, very restful. The gardens go right down to the sea. You can go and have a turkish bath or get yourself wrapped in all sorts of wierd stuff including seaweed but I decided that that would be taking transformation a little too far and admired the view and read some Chekhov instead.
The next day we drove around, took walks on various beaches and then found ourselves in Lannion on market day. The food stalls, as usual, looked most enticing and I bought a couple of little bas reliefs of cherubs made of marble in extremely ornate gold frames at the bric a brac stall. Chas wasn’t convinced but I loved them and they are already up on the wall in the house.
We whizzed round a couple of supermarkets buying confit de canard, honey, rouille, whole salamis etc. for the store cupboard plus some fruit eau de vies – very good in crumble and on ice cream and sorbets. Then it was back to pick up the trailer and head for Roscoff and the Red Cash wine place. We have been there loads of times and they have a very good wine selection and the man who runs it is very charming. I spent several hundred pounds as we were completely out of wine at home and there were presents to get for my brother and sister in law’s birthdays.
Then on to the boat, a rapid dinner before they started hoovering around us and a swaying bunk bed. I was woken up at three by the banging of the waves but it really wasn’t very rough so went straight back to sleep again. In the morning we were stationary and then started going backwards which Chas found rather alarming as he doesn’t like the water much and was convinced we hadn’t left Roscoff at all and were about to spend another interminable eight hours at sea. Happily this was not the case and Plymouth came into view almost immediately – phew.