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The True Story of Malcolm !

Sept 14, Golfe du Morbihan, France

Greetings and salutations,

I think we may have found paradise! As you will read later this has been recognized as truly a wonderful and special place for at least the last 6000 years.

We left Paris last Saturday but not before going to a large flee market with all matter of interesting memorabilia including paintings, clothing old and new, some furniture, lots of dishes, coins, old postcards (many with writing), at least one galvanometer, vinyl records, fire and military helmets, war memorabilia, glassware, silverware, etc etc etc. Our hostess, Madame S., took her dog Charlotte who had the best time running around off her leash visiting the many other dogs who had brought their owners. I imagine there were in fact many fleas exchanged at the market. I think this is a weekly outing for the two of them as the route was well rehearsed and they both knew many of the participants.

Our trip out of Paris to our new destination was flawless. There were no missed turns, no gestures from other motorists and no extra turns around the round-a-bouts. Our only problem was that the plastic sheet I’ve been wrapping around the three suitcases that ride the roof rack during travel days finally disintegrated completely just before we entered a torrential downpour. So for the rest of the trip K. got to ride with one bag up front and Mc two bags under her feet in the back. Mc actually looked like she was riding in luxury, laid back with her feet up. Later in the week we found a nice blue tarp just like the roofers use for only 3 euros (about 3 bucks the exchange rate plummeted this spring and summer to our disadvantage).

We arrived in the town of Baden in good time and as instructed in an e-mail I called E. from the phone booth by the Boulangerie across from the church. I had purchased the phone card at Le Poste earlier in the week especially for this call as we had previously learned in a most unpleasant way that very few of the phone booths over here take coins anymore. E. is the caretaker as the owners live in Paris and he speaks a most pleasant “King’s English” with a French accent. He came right over, took a couple of our suitcases and escorted us to Pachacamac, our new home for the week. The name comes from a cartoon “Tintin and the Sun Temple” in which both the Sun God and a boat that holds “Tournesol” in quarantine share the same name. Someone here must have an affinity for these futurist, fantasy type cartoon books as there is a rather large library of them in the house, all in French of coarse.

Pachacamac is in a beautiful, small gated community on a little peninsula extending into the Gulfe du Morbihan at the mouth of the Auray river. The ‘gate’ is actually a ten inch diameter rod in the center of the road that lowers when you punch in a code. It takes a certain amount of faith that it won’t re-extend as you drive over lifting your car up and trapping you like a turtle. The house is probably 20-30 years old and made of granite block in a style typical for this part of Brittany. It has six rooms, a huge castle style fireplace, our nicest kitchen yet with lots of dishes and a large yard filled with pine trees extending right down to the water. There are two hammocks that I’ve checked out a couple of times. I especially like using one to watch the stars at night. C. and Mc on the other hand use them to study centripetal force. There is a piano that is in tune! C., Mc and I have all missed our piano so this was a great bonus for us. Each day we gave C. and Mc the choice of practicing their horns or playing the piano and they did some of both. The house has a Foosball table and pin-pong. In Baden there are two tennis courts which we could use so L. and I got out several times.

There were fresh flowers, a tin of the local cookies, a bottle of wine, a bag of the local caramel candy and a bottle of local apple cider to welcome us. E. and I went around and read the various meters as oil and water are charged by volume here. He found my pronunciation of “wada” curious especially when contrasted to his very crisp British “water”. He then escorted us back to town, showed us how to reserve a tennis court by using a key from the house to secure a padlock on a calendar bar with holes in it designed for this purpose and then he left us at the Champion food store so we could get groceries for the week. We spent 180 euros which is a record, we are finding that feeding teenagers is getting expensive.

Britagne has a long and colorful history. Troops from here went to America to help fight our War of Independence and Benjamin Franklin lived in the nearby town of Aurey for awhile. During the French Revolution they supported the king which cost them dearly. There is a strong Celtic influence that persists to this day. If fact L. and I heard bagpipes in the distance when we were playing a game of tennis on Sunday. For awhile Brittany was an independent country. They had their own language which is quite different from English or French but it is quickly dying now. In that language Moriban means inland sea which is an apt description of the area as you can see in this satellite photo. There is a narrow mouth connecting the gulf to the Atlantic just across from our little peninsula. Twice a day the tide comes in and goes out which means all the water has to pass through a relatively narrow channel. This causes the strongest tidal current in Europe and it is something you need to pay attention to when riding around on the water. There are some 40 islands and numerous inlets around the gulf. Fishing is big as are oysters because of large tidal flats that are ideal for farming oysters. These farms are just getting ready for their busy season. They’ve moved in a big flat bottom boat that is completely grounded every time the tide goes out.

We had some rain the first couple days including a brief, fun thunderstorm. Since then the weather has finally been perfect. Plenty of sun but not too hot and a little breeze to soften the heat that does come along in the afternoon. Much to C.’s delight we’ve gotten to a beach the last four days. Our first beach was on another peninsula near here that projects out into the Atlantic. It has a long arc of sand that gently slopes into the ocean. The children were surprised when they encountered their first nudists, mostly guys unfortunately. To be honest I don't think there is much that separates the nudists from the guys wearing the small Speedo style swimsuits that are popular here. In the sand dunes just behind that beach there were old WWII German pillboxes and gun mounts that L. and I explored. Our second beach was an hour or so north of here where the coast is more rocky. It is a sandy spot tucked into a small cove formed by a mostly dry riverbed. Yesterday we found one with good waves for body surfing. Today was mostly a school day but this evening we swam for awhile just out front beyond the grounded oyster boat (low tide). We’ve also done some canoeing the last couple of evenings and even paddled out to a small island, paying close attention to the current of coarse.

The sun sets just across the water from us and we’ve had a beautiful sunset every evening. The sky turns yellow and the sun is an orange globe that reminds C. of sun at the start of The Lion King. So we played the Lion King song at sunset from an MP3 file on the computer which we've connected to the houses stereo system by means of a small FM transmitter that plugs into the earphone jack.

The nights are very quite with only the sound of a soft breeze in the pines, an occasional fish jumping in the water, the hoot of an owl or the call of a loon. In the morning there are all kinds of bird songs. I’ve quickly become accustomed to hiking the trail around the peninsula with my morning coffee.

On Wednesday we drove north to Concarneau where the Old Ville is a fortified city built on a small island in the harbor. You cross a stone bridge and enter the city through a gate. There are no cars. Most of the Renaissance style buildings have been converted to shops. It was fun to wander the streets.

Thursday was a school day. Mc is still having some attitude problems although she is making an effort to get over it. Even C. has had a hard week. Partly it is because her friends have started Junior High but she was also affected by the Sept 11 anniversary. They all have gotten good grades and comments on their first round of tests. K. is a good teacher and she’s been more patient then I would have guessed.

Yesterday we visited several ‘megaliths’. These are stones positioned by people in 4000BC. They aren’t unique to this area but this appears to have been a very important place even back then. There are thousands of these stones but no one knows why they were put up. We went to a nice multimedia show called "Archeoscope" and to a museum in Carnac but didn't find any answer to WHY? Some of the more popular sites are fenced off but at other sites you can walk right up to the stones. Often times the stones continue on into corn fields. Even though most sites are completely unsupervised we were pleased that there was no graffiti.

Enough for now. Let me know if these pictures mess up your download or format.

Malcolm