France (Part Two)

So yesterday, we left off in St. Malo, which was our first foray into Brittany. We left that city and went down to the Loire Valley, specifically Blois, which is where Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (the father of modern magic) is from.

We did several days of château-hopping including Chambord, Blois, Amboise, and a boat ride under Chenonceau. We also saw quicksand for the third time. Isn’t that bizarre? I went 45 years of my life without ever seeing quicksand, and then we saw it in three different regions of France.

But what made the Loire Valley really special is that we spent a day with our friend from home (and the twins’ former French teacher) because she was there visiting her family. She showed us around her town, and her mother made us a five course lunch. (Which was followed by an enormous dinner after our walk.) And it was just such a fun day to watch our kids run around the yard while we drank Birlou and ate crusty bread.

We realized while we were there that sticking to our original plan to head next to Toulouse wasn’t possible due to the heat wave. Carcassonne was 103 degrees with few indoor spaces. The whole reason we were heading to Toulouse was because I’m obsessed with Occitan, so our friend suggested that we instead head back to Brittany where (1) it will be cooler, (2) it also has a local language — Breton, and (3) IT HAS PUFFINS!

We had no clue that France also had puffins, and since we are obsessed with puffins, we headed to Perros-Gueric (and the rest of the Pink Granite Coast) for a few days to read on the beach and watch seabirds. We learned, once we got there, that the gannets are the same flock we saw last year in Scotland, and they travel between Perros-Gueric and Bass Rock off of Berwick.

So we hung out in Perros-Gueric and ate galettes and tried to learn some Breizh. (Plijet bras on oc’h ober anaoudegezh ganeoc’h!)

And finally we returned to Paris for a few days to do a bunch of neighbourhood walks, including Montmartre and Saint Germain des Prés. Oh! And we went down into the Catacombs. And I returned to a scarf store that I loved 19 years ago and got myself a bunch of scarves for winter. While we didn’t go to any of the soccer games, we were there for all of the World Cup fun.

And then we flew home, to a land that has ice cubes but a severe lack of creperies. And, at least in our area, 100% less quicksand.

We need to go back to do the eastern side of the country in the future, though we may aim to go somewhere a little colder on our next trip.