Saint Ignace de Loyola

Only one gite to change this week, so it gave me a bit of etra time in the garden. As it was so hot, 29°C, I cleared a load of waist high weeds and brambles from the old bread oven and the wooded area down by the stream. It's nice and cool down there. It made a huge improvement, really lightening up and opening out the whole area.

Once the day had cooled a little, it was back on the mower. I mowed the play field yesterday, but it left far too many grass clippings and looked a little messy, so with much aggravation I fitted the grass collecting bins and ran over it again. I wish the mower manufacturers made it a little easier to add and remove the grass collecting paraphanallia.

Big gardens are alot of work. Now I know why the owners of old country estates used to employ teams of gardeners.

Saint Juliette

Roadside picnic, beach, surfing, landrover, high tide

Saint Marthe

Met up with an old friend and Caroline's ex-landlord from many years ago in Reading. Keith (owner of Tiger Computing and The Linux Consultancy) worked at Digital (then Compaq and now HP) at the same time as Caroline and myself. Keith married Cecilia last Saturday and we picked them up from Dinard Airport (Hugh loved G-JOEY the Aurigny aircraft with the faced painted on the front) during their honeymoon for a quick tour of St Malo, Les Champs Geraux and our House and a very pleasant BBQ. Congratulations and good luck for the future.

Saint Samson

The roofing man came round today to give us a devi for the lucarne roofs and the kitchen on the new gites. The only problem being he only does roofs, so we then had to find a carpenter to build the rafters and other bits for him to tile. He said he would give us a devi based on the plans. Considering everyone seems to take all of August off as holiday here, we have been quite lucky to find anyone.

Saint Nathalie

This morning I finished sanding down the front door of the house and shutters for the windows downstairs. Caroline's has been chasing after me painting each item as I rub it down. Hopefully that is the last of the windows and doors for this year. There are still more to do, but if we just do one gite, or the house each year, we will rotate round. A bit like painting the forth bridge, by the time you finish, it's time to start again.

We had a meeting with the builders yesterday regarding the renovation and conversion of the barn into two new gites. Because of the high price of the work and the withdrawl of most of the grants, I'm am going to do a large proportion of the internal works to save money. The builder wasn't that happy, but c'est la vie. We signed the devi for the major works and he will be starting at the beginning of October 2004, once we are empty. The costs for renovation are much greater than building new. For the money we are going to spend we could just about buy two plots of land and build two new houses. Renovation is expensive. especially when you retain period features (such as exposed stone work and beams).

Saints Anne, Joachim

To save time on the mowing we decided to leave a couple of areas and let the grass grow long. The goats field and the area around the old bread oven down by the stream. With hindsight this was most probably a mistake. We now have waist high grass, too long for the mower and using a strimmer is hard work because you are always cutting grass you have already cut. So, with my medieval hat on I went and bought a scythe today to try out. It's not easy, but with a bit more practise and technique it should prove useful. The one good side effect is that we now should have a supply of hay for the goat in the winter.

After the yesterdays medieval fete Hugh just had to have a sword. A bit of plywood, a bandsaw and a sander, and a few minutes later, one very happy four year old.

Saint Nathalie

Fete des Remparts. Brilliant, involving, friendly, intimate, the best festival I've been to for years. Most of the center of Dinan was closed off and had straw thrown down on the streets, a huge medieval market and four different 'worlds' showing different viewpoints, with the big attraction of jousting.

The whole medieval pageant is set in and around the castle and the walled city of Dinan giving it a real authentic flavour. One of the most refreshing things was the lack of political correctness and nanny state health and safety regulations. If you slipped in donkey muck, or walked into a camp fire with a pot of boilng soup on it, tough luck. I think this alone made it such an involving festival, you really got the feel of 'The Olden Days'.

Dressage and falconery display. The horsemanship was superb and much of the falconery was performed from horseback with the birds flying over the crowds and onto the surrounding castle walls.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images (about 20K)

Part of an medieval encampment, with various trades displayed, such as butchery, calligraphy, cooking, etc.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images (about 20K)

Part of the 'weapons world' was a great sword and hatchet battle, displays of various weapons and the opportunity to have a go.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images (about 20K)

Jousting Tournament. The big spectacular. More of a staged show than the rest, but fantastic. Displays of skill with the lance and sword then a face to face jousting battle with lances breaking and finally the 'good guy (in blue)' facing off to the 'bad guy (in black)'.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images (about 20K)

Saint Christine

Hot and sunny all day today, farmers out harvesting again, and more mowing and strimming for us. Only two gites to changeover this Saturday, so we had a little extra time.

First day of the Fete des Remparts in Dinan today, and the reports back rate the event as excellent. We are all going tomorrow and have tickets for the jousting. Looking forward to it.

One of the guests staying in our gites told me the etymology of the word sabotage today. The French word for clogs is sabot and the people who threw their clogs into the machines were then called saboteurs. Looking up saboteur in a French/English dictionary also refers to botcher as an alternative to saboteur but in relation to work.

We have had a bout of showers of the last two weeks and the moles must have multiplied 10 fold. There are mole hills everywhere, I reckon about 50 hills scattered around. In the past I have just scattered the tops of the hills so as not to kill the grass, but now they are getting to be a real pest and damaging the lawns and flower beds. To my untrained pest control eye, I think there must be about 5 colonies, each occupying their own area. One of the guests staying in the gites is helping with the mole hunt by mapping out the hills and then guessing where the tunnels run. I've lent him a spade and he is often out there just standing, waiting, spade poised. No luck as yet.

This afternoon I dug down between two active mole hills and located the tunnel and placed a trap (one I bought in England and never used) in the run. Fingers crosssed. I have had limited success with gassing and poison worms so I hope I have more luck with the trap. Mike, (our guest), is determined to catch one mano-a-mano.