Christmas in France

It's been a few weeks since we've written a post; it's been Christmas (hope you had a lovely one)

The best reason to visit France. This might not look much... but just you try it. 

We've been very much in 'home' mode, and we've also both been busy doing Gwynne-Gibbons and personal work too since we got back. But we thought you might like to hear a little about our trip to France and some other bits and pieces.

An interesting antiquarian bookshop in Saint-Malo

A painter-artist in Dinan

We decided to spend Christmas by ourselves this year, just because we hadn't done so before and we thought it'd be lovely to spend some time in our little flat just cooking, eating and relaxing! We also planned to do a few practical things while we were there too, sort of justifying our trip with those, but mostly they were just excuses for going to France and eating lots of nice bread.

For once, we got our ferry on time in Portsmouth (although we were late back to our car - all the others had boarded the boat and we ended up getting searched by security - getting the boat never goes too smoothly for us!) and arrived safely in France. For the second time, because nothing stays open late in Brittany, we ended up having our first 'meal' in McDonalds! It was really awful, but funny all the same and we needed to eat before the 2-hour drive to Dinan. It was great to walk into the flat though when we got there around 12.30am and see that everything was fine with it - nothing broken or damaged at all which was a relief as we've had some holiday guests in there this year so we didn't know what to expect!

Who says lard is rubbish? 

The first few days were really relaxed just getting ready for Christmas and doing our favourite little walks around the town and the port on the river Rance down the hill. There's a walk we always do down from the flat, through some woods down the hill and along the river to the port - it made us feel really at home and almost like we'd never left. The weather was really warm for the time of year too - about 10 degrees, and it almost felt like spring. We found some nice holly to bring back to the flat to put towards the christmas decorations, which apparently is called 'gui' in Breton and was similarly used spiritually by the celtic peoples as our holly was here and in Wales and Ireland.

We also gave ourselves the mission to visit the two other 'Emmaüs' in the area we hadn't got to before, with the main point being to find some nice old cast iron pots and whatever old random stuff that took our interest! In the first one, near Saint-Malo, we found a beautiful photography book and some other bits, and in the second one on the way to Rennes, we found two fantastic Le Creuset pots for a grand total of 4€... just amazing. We have quite a collection at home now but luckily we love cooking and they all get used a lot. The Emmaüs are such amazing places to just wander around - people give away unbelievably good stuff and it's generally sold for incredibly low prices, particularly in the ones outside the towns. The charity is set up to help adults with various problems relating to social inclusion and in return for helping out working at the depots, they can live on site. There always seems to be a nice community spirit about the places.

In Rennes... 

For our christmas dinner, we actually bought some belly pork - not that traditional, but so much tastier than turkey and a fraction of the price too. We cooked it so that the fat on top was really crispy and tasty, and slow enough for the meat underneath to be melt-int-the-mouth... mmm. It was so nice just getting up, relaxing, eating, opening a few presents, and not having to rush between family places all day like normal christmases! We just stayed in, and had a walk in the afternoon to stretch our legs. It was like a warm spring day in Dinan on the 25th - the sun was shining and it was quiet, warm and still.

We still have never managed to actually send postcards when we've been away - this time we got as far as writing them! Next time...