Mur de Bretagne > Vannes 80km and Vannes > Le Pouliguen 70km

[Originally posted Jul 18, 2014]

I'm taking a vacation . . . . from my problems!

Vacation from her problems!  Katy has just plopped down onto the sand at the public beach in Le Pouliguen (near La Baule).  I’ve always thought her (and many others I suppose) love for the beach is strange.  People will fly half way around the world, suffer the ails of airline travel, risk lost bags, pay an arm and a leg for 4 inches of extra leg room, battle the awkwardness of speaking another language, get stuck in traffic, get sand in and on every known and unknown crack or crevice of the human body just to get to the beach.  And when they get there?  They just lie down, close their eyes and bask in “the beach”.  

The last 48 hours have been very French.  So many great things about France and the French (besides the mustard).

First, they eat late.

8:30, getting closer.

Growing up dinner was typically around 5 or 6pm.  That always left a late night hunger that required attention somewhere between 10 and midnight.  This is one of America’s largest fears: transient hunger.  My mother says that for my dad, it was always a late night PB&J (although my mom has worked hard for him to kick the habit - and the waistline).  For my petite brother it was a bowl of cheerios (which he would, as he approached the last bite, fall face forward into his bowl and his night of sleep had begun).  These extra meals have created America’s new national past time: overeating and talking about dieting.  But the French have figured this conundrum out - just move dinner back.  At our first WS stay in Morlaix, we sat down to dinner at 8:30.  I thought this was just because that was when Clothilde arrived home from work.  But two days later as we discussed plans for the evening with Philippe, 8:30 was again suggested as dinner time.  Ok I thought, wondering what snacks I had in our bag.  Last night I was on the phone with Sandrine (more to come on her later) and she said, I want to have you for dinner, we are eating not too late.  Maybe 8:30 or 9. (not too late?, that’s almost my bedtime)  When we got to Sandrine’s home around 7 most of the food was out on the table and I thought, maybe an earlier dinner.  8pm rolled around and still nothing.  By 8:30 the other guests had arrived (Sandrine’s aunt and uncle, cousin, three nephews and some friends).  Finally, dinner is served (or so I thought).  At 8:37 we were invited for a ride across town to visit the home of Philippe and Elizabeth and to see the beach in La Baule.  We arrive back at Sandrine’s and dinner begins at 9:37.  Belly definitely rumbling at this point, the food was delicious.  Dinner was great.  So many great things about a French meal - but all of this compounded by two English speakers at the table.  The conversation was a mixture of french being shouted at others (I think other languages always sound like yelling), the occasional English said to us (always accompanied with hand gestures) and then our responses translated into French (again with hand gestures) to the non-English speakers present.  By the end of the meal you would have thought we were playing Charades.  At 11:02 the table broke out into a table pounding: gateau, gateau, gateau.  (This is one of the few french words I know, so I joined in. Cake. Cake. Cake.)  Dinner concluded at 11:40 or so, leaving no time for that awful fear of going to bed with the slightest thread of hunger.

Second: round-a-bouts.  Although not property of the French, I’ll mention them here.  The round-a-bout is superior to the four way stop in every way.  Of course it allows for a better flow of traffic, no need to stop at absurd red lights when no traffic is around, of course they make you feel like you are in one of the Grand Tours, but what I like the most about them is: the land of second chances.  When you approach a four way stop you damn well better know which way you are turning.  If you hit that red light and you are in the wrong lane: game over.  Now you are trying to cut across three lanes of traffic and you’re holding up the line.  But with a round-a-bout?  (Well, actually I prefer to call them the circle of opportunity).  You jump in there and then you have options.  With each road departing from the circle a light turns on in my head (do I want to go there?  I wonder what’s down that road?  Will a better option present itself later?)  Feel like you made a bad choice and should have exited?  Just stay in the circle and that option magically returns.  I prefer to make one full loop of the circle just to make sure I’m satisfied with my decision.

They believe in life, liberty and fresh bread.

Pain.

The worst part of my childhood was when my mom decided we would start freezing our bread.  Frozen bread?  A travesty.  Such a thing would never happen over here.  Bread is key - baguettes are bought daily and always eaten fresh.  At dinner with Philippe and Alix we were asked if we eat baguettes at home.  After thinking about it for a moment I realized that we only eat “French bread” when we are having spaghetti.  I guess for us Americans we like to kill two birds with one stone and just combine the two countries when we are having our meals.  I have now asked multiple people here if they ever have their cheese with crackers.  The response has always been the same, NO! avec pain.  Even at the campsite where we stayed a sheet was taped to the front desk where people could put in their orders for baguettes, pain, pain au chocolate, croissants etc. to be delivered fresh in the morning and available for pick up by campers. I’ve done a lot of camping back home but never was “how many baguettes would you like in the morning?” an option.  We really are behind the times on this one.  Fresh baguettes or frozen white Wonder bread (Grandma Sycamore’s if you are lucky)?  That’s a no brainer.

In cycling related news, the last two days have been more what I expected our trip to be like.  About 50 miles per day, only on the bike for 4 hours, a crepe or other treat at the halfway mark.  Our stop in Vannes was great - dinner was delicious, Philippe and Alix were great, we got some laundry done, Katy sewed up the seams in my shorts, I hopefully adjusted the eccentric bottom bracket to tighten the timing chain so no more derailments happen.

7/17 Expenses €3 Baguettes et Pain au Chocolat

7/18 Expenses €6.50 Carrefour, €1.50 Crepe avec Caramel Beurre Salé, €3.80 Chocolate and Sucre

Le Gulf de Morbihan

Seaweed.

When in France.