Wednesday 26 March 2008

Bretagne

We are in Brittany for a few days, and since I am typing on an English keyboard, my entries will be mostly in English. Ironie de la chose. A few things I have noticed so far:

-Cities and towns are always very beautiful here. In England, there aren't that many beautiful places. I am not saying England does not have nice (as in fun) places, but aesthetically, France wins hands down (although it's difficult to beat Bath). That doesn't mean much: Liverpool was not beautiful, but I loved that city to bits. Let's see if French towns are fun. I am sure I will enjoy the wine, but I know I will miss British beers.
-I didn't shiver with emotion when we got to Saint-Malo (as it is from Saint-Malo that Jacques Cartier left France to discover Québec). But from the harbour, it is a beautiful city.
-There are loads of chickadees in the garden, instead of the magpies we usually have in England. I miss the magpies. Chikcadees are more my brother's and his girlfriend's sort of bird (and try to find where the skull joke in the link comes from, if you succeed, I owe you a beer). In the garden of my parents-in-law there are also supposed to be salamanders and mice (aaaaaarrrrrghhhh!). We saw a heron on the way to the in-laws. No hawk yet.
-I had apple cider with the dinner. From Normandie. Enjoyable, but I want to try a wider variety and try some in England too, so I can compare.
-Travelling by boat is slow, but so much more enjoyable than by plane or train. There is space, the food is good, I don't feel sea sick and I even manage to sleep well and wake up before the alarm starts. Something I will definitely do again.
-Scotch is really good. I tried some in the duty-free boutique, as there was free samples. I bought two bottles for some friends of my father-in-law (got paid back in Euros). I wish kept them for myself. To my grat surprise, I didn't feel sea sick after tasting three or four of them. But I felt a bit dizzy. VeggieCarrie thought it tasted horrible.
-French biscuits and pains au chocolat are absolutely delicious, even bought at your average supermarket. Still, I can't force myself to drink coffee. I prefer tea, even here.

5 comments:

holly wynne said...

No coffee?! I'm beginning to re-think our blog-friendship :).

Well, that and I'm jealous of all your travels.

PJ said...

Ah, les squelettes qui disent "Pishnédashniten", c'était ma spécialité en secondaire 3. Je ne gribouille plus vraiment de nos jours, remarque, j'écris beaucoup moins à la mitaine qu'avant.

Guillaume said...

Holly, I simply don't like coffee, but I am willing to give it a try as French coffee is much better and the trip is still young. Anyway, we discovered something yesterday: the French have no Starbucks (not around here anyway) and they don't seem to know what it is. But what I cannot wait to try are the bars, which are non-smoking now.

holly wynne said...

Hmm. While I love Starbucks (I used to work there), it's kind of cool that they don't have it. As long as it's replaced by local brews, that is. I hope you do give it a try. The French have their own roast, after all!

Guillaume said...

I like to drink sometimes cafes au lait (lattes), but only occasionally. If you go to Montreal, try the Brulerie-Saint-Denis, they make nice ones. We have loads of chains: Van Houtte, Secund Cup and of course Starbucks, but also a lot of independent places. Here in France, there are simply too many bistros, serving both alcohol and coffee at a reasonable price, chains don't have much chances.