Today was Thursday Sept 3. On Wednesday we didn't go anywhere. We sat outside for part of the day before it got too smelly. We did a bit of cleaning, and then we relaxed and I kept my foot elevated for some rest and knee pampering time.
We got up early today and just showered and no breakfast then off to the market at La Roche Bernard. my friend had said it was the best one. We planned to eat breakfast there. Found it OK and found a place to park. Surprisingly, everywhere has had free parking. I imagine it wouldn't be quite so easy to find a place during the high season but some days, it seems like we are almost the only people here in France.
The market was bigger and they had more than just shoes and cheese. Stopped at the first place that said they had crepes but they didn’t
. So Hubby walked down two doors to buy us donuts and then came back with them and we had coffee in that shop. The owner had suggested he do this. Hubby was uncomfortable eating donuts from another shop in this one but as he said it was OK, we did it.
Then we found a cheese store and got 31 euros worth of cheese. Luckily hubby also remembered that we were buying rose garlic for my friend whose house we are living and we found some in this cheese shop. Probably much more expensive than my friend wanted. And later we found the garlic man who was selling for less than ½ the price but his garlics weren’t as big.
Didn’t really find much else to buy there except a basket –yea. Love baskets. There were some sausages but they were much the same that I had bought in Provence so no need to get more. And we weren’t hungry now for a crepe when we finally found them. So we worked our way out of the market and stopped in the one antique store we found but it was all furniture so nothing there either. Have been real unlucky at finding antiques.
We drive to Rochefort en Terre next which has been described as really picturesque
. It truly was. Again, managed to find a parking place but a lot of guess work on which way to drive and where to park as a lot of one way and very narrow streets here. We parked right across from the old church so we went in there first and had a look around then we walked to the upper street. As it was just past noon, all the shops were closed. So we looked for a place to eat and actually found another semi antique shop. It looked like it might have been more of an interior decorator shop but it had some good stuff. Nothing I wanted though.
We ended up at La Lion du Tour for lunch and ate in the courtyard next to a spouting lion head fountain. Sun was shining into the courtyard and we expect that the back wall was a former city wall of the old chateau that was in the area, maybe. Lunch was good but we couldn’t drag it out long enough to wait for the shops to open again so we finally just finished and walked down to the end of the street and bought some caramel nuts. Carmel seems to be a big seller here as well. Then we walked down the street and into several of the shops but couldn’t really find anything.
Mitchell wanted to go up to the old chateau which won’t be open to guests until the end of the year but it was a very pretty site and a great huge old building and some good views over the city with its crooked chimneys
.
Back to the car and I wanted to go to La Gacilly which my friend had said had good shops. I think I should have specified the kind of shops I wanted - mainly antique things. I am looking for some distinctly Brittany things but haven’t been real impressed with anything I’ve found. My friend has nicer stuff in her house but I can’t find the same anywhere and of course antiques. Seems like any copper pan I buy is coming from France so you’d think I’d be able to find some here but no dice.
With a bit if difficulty, found our way to La Gacilly and parked without a clue where to go but there were a few signs and people sort of walking in one direction so we followed and did find the "art" street. But it wasn’t anything Brittany wise but just people doing sculptures and paintings and pottery, all nice, but not what we wanted.
For our last push of the day, drove on to Josslin which had a fortress and castle of the dukes but by the time we found our way there and found a place to park, we were on the canal and at the very back of the fortress with its high walls and no clue how to get around to the gate. Still, we gave it a try and walked into the walled city around the fortress and found that we didn’t have time to go inside. That was a disappointment. If I hadn’t been so “got to go to Gacilly” we would have made it in time and probably enjoyed it a lot more. Oh well. Still got some nice photos of the canal and reflections.
Then back to our smelly home for the evening and using up our supplies for dinner. Again, the fields are really ripe and tooooooo smelly to sit outside at the picnic table. Luckily, we have a fan in the bedroom and it blows out any smell and gives us a nice breeze to sleep.
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