BINIC

In August Andre sold his old stone house, which had been built as a barn in the 1700's, and he has moved to a rental house farther from St. Brieuc, in the small coastal town of Binic.  The house is much more appropriate for his needs.  It is all on one level, much easier to maintain and clean than the old one, and it gets a lot of sunlight.  It has 3 small bedrooms and a fenced yard for the old golden retriever Bijou, the only family member who still lives with Andre.  (The first week I visited, we also had custody of Louan's wiry, and wired, one-year-old fox terrier Jax.)  All 3 sons have recently set up their own living situations close to the colleges they are attending this year.  Their distance from Andre's new house ranges from 15 minutes to 9 hours drive.  

The location is quiet and semi rural, with various gorgeous 20-minute walks 

down the bluffs to the beaches, or beside cow pastures and corn fields.  It faces a tilled filed.  

Walking along the bluff, looking down to the quay at binic

The main beach at Binic at low tide, looking north to the town center....

....and then looking south to the bluff we traversed.  

This woman took a swim with her horse.

The small village church.

 Binic has under 4,000 population.  

In the 19th century it was the capital for cod fishing off the Newfoundland coast.  

Now there are a lot of scallop-harvesting boats.  

I took several long swims in the temperate English Channel, 

and also swam in this long community pool which is refreshed by every high tide.  

In this shot, the pool is just behind the closest stone wall, right above the Channel waters.

 A walk at sunset from Andre's house, down the farm road.

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BREST

In 1986, Andre founded a film archive that collects and shares 

film footage from Brittany.  We drove 1-1/2 hours to Brest so Andre could work on an upcoming presentation he is preparing, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Film Archive.

While he worked, I walked to the Chateau that has guarded the harbor since Roman times.   

It has a huge courtyard to accommodate surrounding villagers when the city is under siege.

It still functions as a naval base, and the towers have been made into a museum.  

 Cannons inside the chateau wall, facing the harbor, 
in front of the currently used naval building 

A small internal courtyard

 

This tall wall shows the characteristic Roman construction: horizontal stripes of red bricks.

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DINARD

We took a work-related trip to Dinard, an hour away, a classy resort town full of Brits.  

John Kerry's family summers here.   
You see the walled sity of St. Malo in the distance (see my BrittanyJan2016 blog).

Is this a real tree holding this boulder above the coastal walkway? 

*******

SMALL ROCKY BEACH SOUTH OF BINIC

We took several dog walks through the corn fields, down the bluff, or down the shaded brook the has centuries-old rectangular communal laundry pools, to this small beach of flat rocks.   Binic is in the background. 

It is great swimming when it is a calm day!

 Jax

Jax and Bijou "posing" for a portrait.

 

 Mateo, Andre's local youngest son, joined us for dinner and a walk. 

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LYON

We took a 4-day parenting / sightseeing trip to Tours and Lyon, where the 2 oldest sons are settling into their student apartments. (A 9-hour drive.  I help with the driving.)    

We had a van full of boxes, shelves, clothing, books, kitchen items, and Jax (Whew!  That little dog is full of it!) to leave with the sons.  

Lyon, on the Rhone River, north of Marseilles, was a Roman capital in the 2nd through 5th centuries.   We visited 2 massive amphitheaters that have been mostly reconstructed, and are used to host music concerts for 3,500 people.  (The big one held 11,000 in its day.)

 In the center-right, under the tile awning, you can see a stucco panel that shows the colors that were probably on the original walls.  

This is the gate of a Roman cemetery in Lyon, for "machabaies" - corpses.  

So that's where "macabre" comes from! 

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PIERRE AND MARTINE

Andre's older brother Pierre and his wife Martine live an hour south of Lyon in Rhone wine country, and they had a spare mattress that we brought back to Lyon for Louan, after a scrumptious multi-course lunch.  Pierre is a designer, working mainly in plastic: groupeimpactdesign.com.  He and Martine are currently completing a contract on the body of a two-seater lightweight fuel-efficient aircraft, a "gyrocopter".

 Pierre designed and built their own rounded house, mostly out of plastic and steel.  

 He sculpts....

 ....and he designs comfortable, well-ventilated chairs

...and a garden bench....

We walked among the vinyards above the Rhone.

 

In the Rhone Valley, remains of medieval castles just appear

 out of the vinyards here and there.  

Some roofs in the old city of Beaune, where an abbey was converted into a war hospital 

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GUEDELON

Between Tours and Lyon you find a dedicated group of craftsmen and historians who

have researched and started construction of a 13th-century castle and village, with mill, smith, kilns, stonemasons, spinners, and many other crafts.  

Unskilled young people help as volunteers and learn the crafts.  

All construction is done with tools and materials of the period.  Walls are decorated with pigments from various soils.  Yarn is dyed with available vegetable colors. The workers have to ask visitors what time it is, in order to know when to close the mill.  

Almost all of the other foreign tourists this time of year were retired Brits, with a few younger Chinese or Japanese.   Americans and Chinese have been repelled by news of the big-city terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice.  This makes for a ridiculously cheap plane ticket -

$578 round trip on United Airlines!

This section is especially for Meridee:

Pottery kiln:

Mill at the brook, which actually grinds flour, which they make into bread. 

Wheel for spinning wool (see several colors) from the village sheep

Stonemason and 3 younger volunteers 

Blacksmith shop.

Repairing a kiln with clay

Making a rope from twisted strands of hemp --the wooden cross-thing and basket travel along the rope as two men twist in opposite directions the rope / three strands on hooks.  

One night in a French "campground" - with hot running water and showers at the toilets, and a bar/ snack bar, (but no bear-proof locker nor picnic table), and an international carp fishing contest.  We met the Austrian Carp Team and the Ukrainian team, etc, but didn't stick around to cheer anyone on....one more castle to see, and then back to Binic for 3 nights in a real bed, with internet, and beaches, and the Thursday morning market, and a sweet local museum to see.

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CHATEAU DE CHENONCEAUX

This one, built over the Cher river and furnished for tourists to view, is gorgeous.  

However, it was mostly built in the 18th century and no longer served as the village fortress, but a playground for a few aristocrats with many servants.  

Like many of the chateaux, it was used as a clinic during the world wars, and this one was also used to evacuate Jews over the river when the Nazis invaded.

It has a great round maze built of a 4-foot high trimmed hedge, wonderful for kids to play in.