A breath of French air

I know that it is more than ten days since I last posted. When I made that statement about being back in ten days I had forgotten that when we returned from our break, we were going to a wedding in Northampton, which meant we would be away again. I had not really forgotten. Maybe it was selective amnesia. How could I forget? It was the wedding of SIL's daughter. Mrs Bennet from the previous post. This was her one and only daughter's wedding and it is just as well that there are not another four to marry off! I am sure that when Kate Middleton and Prince William marry it will be done with far less fuss. At least the date had been set in stone for ten months so could not be subject to constant changes.

For our trip to France this year we had decided some time ago that we would go to Brittany, but we did not have any fixed ideas about where we wanted to go and as we found, when we set about booking the holiday, Brittany is quite big. One thing that was definite was that we would go with Brittany Ferries. So I chose a few hotels from their brochure. Then we selected what we considered to be the most suitable location, which turned out to be the attractive and genteel seaside resort of Dinard, on northern Brittany's Emerald Coast. We were pleasantly surprised. It was quiet, clean and tidy. Unlike most English seaside resorts there were no kiss me quick hats, candy floss stalls or cafes selling fish and chips. In the centre of the main promenade is a statue of Alfred Hitchcock who apparently based the house, in the film Psycho, on a villa which over looks the Plage de l'Ecluse but nobody is sure which villa. Dinard could not be better situated.  The wide clean sandy expanse of Plage de l'Ecluse is sheltered by cliffs to the east

and the west

and across the bay is San Malo.

 

Late each afternoon a quartet of men could be found playing boules at the top end of the beach. The sea is tidal and I could have watched it, going in and out, all day. Around the corner from where we were staying was the Clair de Lune promenade. Unfortunately the attractively planted flower beds were past their best. However, the view across the bay, from above the promenade looks good at any time of year. It could have been Cornwall.

We had one warm and sunny day, which we spent exploring Dinard. The remainder of our stay the weather was grey and windy - bracing as we English say. It was on such a day that we took the ferry across the bay to San Malo where we were deposited outside the walls of the old city. Inside the walls the streets are cobbled and the buildings tall and impressive, if a bit difficult to photograph. But a very windy walk around the city walls gave us the opportunity to take some photos, before we caught the ferry back to Dinard.

On our way back to Cherbourg, to catch the ferry home to Portsmouth, we stopped off in the very pretty medieval town of Dinan.

The photograph is courtesy of the Internet, as my camera refused to work. Here we visited a large open air market, where you could buy almost anything. I am sure that in the UK health and safety regulations would prevent many of the items being sold at such a market, but this was France. Something that I really noticed was how smart  and chic the French women are. All neatly dressed in jackets, trousers and scarves to go to the market. Sadly our breath of French air soon came to an end and we found ourselves on the ferry back to Portsmouth.

The Visit

My return to blogging has not been as quick and as smooth as I had hoped. I had intended to wait until after the Visit to return to my blog as I realised that preparing for it would be time consuming, but when two planned dates for the Visit were cancelled with no new proposed date I decided to return sooner rather than later. The Visit was my mother-in-law (MIL), sister-in-law (SIL) and her husband coming for lunch. They only come once a year and it has to be during the summer as MIL does not travel well in the dark. Originally the visit was scheduled for the first weekend in August and MIL kept telling my husband, who is her one and only son, how much she was looking forward to it. At the time my infected cyst was at its' worst and I could have happily cancelled the planned visit, but not wishing to disappoint MIL I soldiered on. The Friday before they were due I went off to the supermarket, in the morning, with my mile long shopping list. Half way round the supermarket, which had recently been extended and re-arranged, when I couldn't find an unfamiliar ingredient and wasn't feeling great, I thought to myself 'you should have cancelled this'. I did manage to find what I was looking for. That afternoon it was off to the hairdresser. Not in honour of the Visit but because I needed to go and it at least gave me a bit of time to relax while the hairdresser worked her magic. I returned home to find that while I had been out MIL had phoned to say that they would not be coming because her carer was going to be on holiday and there was no one to get her up! At this point I had done everything except cook the food. I wasn't terribly pleased but the reprieve was welcome and I managed to freeze most of the perishable food.

A new date would need to be arranged with SIL. The second weekend in August would not be an option because MIL's carer would still be away. Anyway about a week later SIL phoned my husband to say that they could come the third weekend in August, but that there was a slight snag in that one of her husband's unmarried brothers (BIL) would be staying that weekend and would have to come too. My husband tactfully explained to her that we had not invited her BIL and we would prefer him not to come. Over the course of the next few days there were several phone calls between husband, SIL and MIL. SIL kept insisting that BIL would be coming. Eventually she informed my husband that her husband would take his brother off to the local pub for the afternoon, when they arrived. How was this going to look? At this point I saw red and cancelled the second planned visit. For once in our lives MIL and I agreed as she did not want BIL spoiling her visit. Perhaps I should explain that if this were Pride and Prejudice, BIL would be Mr Collins. SIL would be Mrs Bennet and her husband would be Mr Bennet. Quite fitting as their daughter is getting married later this month. MIL would be Lady Catherine de Bourgh. My husband would be Darcy and I would be Elizabeth Bennet. I have the necessary green eyes. Oh dear! that was Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with the Wind.

I suggested that we re-arrange the Visit for the fifth weekend in August which was the bank holiday weekend, as the fourth weekend was not convenient for us. This did not suit SIL who, without checking with us, had moved her arrangements for the fourth weekend onto the fifth weekend in the expectation that they would come here the fourth weekend. After yet more toing and froing we re-arranged the visit for the first weekend in September, which was not ever so convenient for me, but it was either then or not at all. September is a busy month for us and I would have preferred to wait until October, but by then SIL will be house sitting for her newly married, honeymooning daughter. So the Visit took place last weekend and I am pleased to report that it went very well.

After all that we are going away for a much needed break. Back in about ten days.

Accident prone

Now for a long overdue thank you to Carol at Not Only In
Thailand for this Beautiful Blogger award which she gave to me back in April. It is a good job that you can not see me as recently I have been anything but beautiful, more often than not cut and bruised!

Today I had my final dentist appointment and I am hoping that it has brought to an end the jinx of minor ailments that has haunted me over the last few months. Recently life seems to have a continual fly in the ointment. As healthwise, it just seems to have been one thing after another. The infected cyst was on the mend when washing my hair and trying to keep my neck dry, I either got shampoo in my eye or tilted my neck at an awkward angle resulting in a badly blood shot eye. The eye had about cleared when we had two fine and sunny days. I made the most of the good weather by spending time in the garden. My reward was about a dozen insect bites on my arms and shoulders plus two on each ankle. I looked like I had the plague! And boy did I itch! I took a leaf out of Maggie May's blog and found an ancient bottle of Aloe Vera Gel - purchased abroad several years ago when husband got sunburnt. It had no expiry or use by date but whatever its age it did the trick, for a time. Then I applied some more.

By the following weekend the bites had faded and I managed to bang my arm on the corner of a cupboard in our utility room, giving myself both a cut and a bruise in one fell swoop. Later the same day while eating our evening meal, extremely cold ice cream caught a sensitive tooth. An indescribable sensation travelled up my head like lightening and the next thing that I knew husband was picking me up off the floor. Two bumps to my head, a bruise on each shoulder and a whopping bruise on my left thigh were the result of this incident. Then on Tuesday afternoon, while at work, I noticed that one of my fingers was bleeding. I had not felt any pain. I am not sure if I have become accident prone or if this is some sort of jinx. Maybe I should simply stop getting out of bed.

I realise that by comparison with what some in Blogland have gone through or are going through healthwise, my problems are nothing more than minor irritations. Looking back this all started when I had swine flu back at the end if May and I had to stop going to the gym. So it is back to the gym and soon, hopefully, I shall be both fit and healthy.

Paradise Lost

I expect that you are wondering what I have been doing with myself for the last few months. Well, I have been here in Paradise.


Earlier this year, I had noticed this sign outside a house about half a mile from where we live. It is not the name of the house, so I wasn't sure what it was all about. I had been intending to take a photo of the sign for some time. Eventually I remembered to take my camera with me so that I could take a photo of it. I made sure that I was alone on the lane, or so I thought, even though it is unusual to see company of any sort. As I pressed the shutter I heard a car behind me, turning into the drive of the house. The driver glared at me. Too late, I had my photo! The next time that I drove by the Paradise sign had disappeared. Now that I have had the chance to enlarge the photo I have noticed that it actually says Paradise Autos which was the name of a second hand car showroom on the outskirts of Chester.

Perhaps where we live is Paradise even if the sign has gone. I realise that we are lucky to live in a cottage up a country lane. When the weather is good, it is idyllic, although I realise that it may not be to the taste of everyone. However, I have been out with my camera and have taken a few photos of the area to share with you.

I have started with the view into the farmer's field from the top of the lane.


The next photo looks back down the lane.


Here are the dairy farmer's cows in the field at the end of our garden. Out of interest, it did not rain until about a week after the photo was taken. So much for the old wives saying that when the cows sit down, it is going to rain.

So far pretty idyllic, but half a mile away this is the scene.

The end of the nearby motorway. When the trees are bare we can see this from our bedroom window. So maybe it is not so idyllic after all and recently the idyll has been shattered from another point of view. There have been a spate of burglaries in the village. Our little community on the edge of the village had escaped the thieves until last Thurday when our next door neighbour was burgled in broad daylight. That evening the lane was a hive of activity. We had two visits from a uniformed police officer wanting to know if we had seen anything. Then early on Friday morning we had a visit from two female detectives in jeans and trainers. Not quite Barnaby and Troy/Jones.

Until last week life here has been fairly uneventful. However, there have been a few incidents which I shall write about in detail over the coming weeks. Happenings worth a brief mention have been written about below. As neither husband or I had to go to work the following day, we stayed up on election night to watch the results come in, going to bed at about 3.30am. Something that we had not done for several elections. I was laid low for ten days, at the end of May, with what I initially thought was a cold, but after six days decided that it might be swine flu. It certainly was no ordinary cold but six days in it was too late for Tamiflu, which I would not have wanted even if I had thought about it on day one. At the beginning of June we had few days holiday in Ireland. Two and a half weeks later found us on the road again. This time we were heading down south to Wimbledon for the tennis. And for the last six weeks I have been trying to get myself caught up with everything once and for all, while struggling with an infected cyst on my neck which has meant several visits to the GP and his nurse. Also I am in the middle of some protracted and expensive dental work. I seem to have been spending my life in doctor's and dentist's waiting rooms recently. I realise that I have been fortunate and have taken for granted good health and teeth that rarely need attention. I am too busy for all this hanging around in doctor's and dentist's waiting rooms and as Tony Haywood infamously said 'I want my life back'.

Over the next few days/weeks I shall try to visit and catch up with my friends in Blogland. I have often thought about you all and wondered how you are getting on.