PAD Day 24 - All the luxuries

Today my parents and I set off for our Cornwall adventure. We hired a
car in London, and after only a couple of wrong turns we were onto the
motorway zooming towards the south west corner of England.

We've just rolled ourselves back from the Ship's Inn after a FANTASTIC
meal. I had scrumptious roasted pork belly, Mum had perfectly cooked
Atlantic salmon and Dad had the great British classic Bangers and Mash.

My photo of the day is from my parents room in the B&B. Despite the
bright orange walls, it has all the luxuries including... drumroll
please... a fridge in the cupboard!!! This brings a whole new meaning
to the term "mini-bar". Mum thought it was a toaster :)

PAD Day 23 - Rememberance Day Parade

Rememberance Day Parade

This Photo A Day thing is proving more difficult than I thought. It was easy while we were in France - so many new things to snap. Back on home soil it is much harder to pick out something interesting when you see your surroundings every day. Luckily I had a helping hand today, when the parade for Rememberance Day formed up just outside our house!

** Yesterday flew past in a flurry of train journeys as we returned from Rennes to London. Sorry - no photo of the day.

PAD Day 21 - Only in France

Drive through Patisserie - Only in France!

Friday was relatively quiet. We drove north again and cruised in and out of the little towns along the coast.

This was definitely my photo of the day - a drive through patisserie!!! It was super busy too - can't go home without your fresh baguette or your tarte aux pommes. So good!

PAD Day 20 - Mont St Michel

Mont St Michel

When I mentioned I was going to Brittany, my French teacher was keen for me to visit Mont St Michel. It is a old monastery (and ex-prison) that used to be on an island of the north Breton coast, which is now connected to the mainland by a causeway. Apparently this is due to be replaced by a bridge as it has caused the tidal movement in the region to change so much that it killed off all the fish (or so I hear).

This place was AMAZING. From the top, the views of the flood plains stretch way into the distance and the scale of the building was phenomenal. This is my family standing in one of the fireplaces in the massive kitchen (plus the leg from an annoying Japanese tour group that followed us around the building/castle)!

I'm not sure how many stairs we had to climb, but we had certainly earned our lunch by the time we eventually made our way back down to the restaurant area.

PAD Day 18 - St Malo Surprise

LBJ - Little Brown Job (name copyrighted by our friend Liz Marshall!)

St Malo was a real surprise. It's always mentioned as a summer playground for the rich and famous. I was expecting to be completely underwhelmed by a super touristy, crowded city, so it was a wonderful surprise to find a charming walled old town with wonderful views out over the nearly abandoned beaches.

We enjoyed a brisk walk around the wall, where we were amused to see the boats in the "harbour". We saw numerous boats like this throughout Brittany - the tides here are massive!


And because there is no photo for PAD Day 19, here's an extra one for today. This is my fellow Photo A Day photographer - my Mum :)

PAD Day 17 - Forest Meandering

Forest Meandering

Brittany is reknowned for it's forest areas, so we decided a day meandering through central Brittany was in order.

The area is covered in fields of grazing animals and crops of maize and vegetables used for animal feed. However, all this is interspersed with small, thick, beautiful forest sections. Accompanied by a light rain that made the trees glisten spectacularly, we drifted down the tiny country roads just enjoying the scenery. It was so peaceful - just the cure for a year of overcrowding in London!

PAD Day 16 - Blustery Atlantic Coast

Blustery Atlantic Coast

Our original plans had been to cover most of Brittany during our week-long stay. These plans were quickly revised as overly ambitious after our first day of sightseeing. We drove north to the coast and ventured along the steep cliffs for a couple of hours, then there was just time to grab some dinner and venture back to the warmth of the log fire in our cottage before bedtime.

The Atlantic coastline reminded us all very much of the south coast near Albany (Australia), where my parents live. The biting wind threatened to sweep us off the cliffs, though the viciously thorny bushes and into the hungry sea. There were some brave souls out surfing, but most people were rugged up against the rain and the wind like us.

I was a little surprised when I turned around from taking a picture of a defensive cliff side fort from a break in the trees, to find I was surrounded by frogmen (of the wetsuit and snorkel variety). They (frog)marched purposefully down the track ahead of us, then clambered down the cliffs and into the freezing ocean. Very odd!

We had purposefully timed our visit for after the tourist season as we aren't into touristy shops and elbowing through crowds to see the sites. Travelling in the off seasons is fantastic - you often have the places to yourself, which gives you the feeling that you may be the first person in the world to discover this treasure or that wonder. It does cause some slight issues for dinner, as many places shut up shop when the crowds depart. This makes it harder to find grub, but on the upside when you do, it is more likely to be somewhere the locals eat.

On the first night, we found that the bustling town we'd been through in the morning had closed down with the sunset, so we knocked on the door of the pub whose blue neon sign we could see from our cottage window. We were dubious as all the lights were out in the restaurant area, but we were delighted to find ourselves welcomed inside and seated for a delicious four course meal complete with cider and coffee! What a find!

PAD Day 15 - Rennes Market Day

Rennes Market Day

The photos for the next seven photo days will be from our family trip to Brittany, France.

We caught the Eurostar from St Pancras train station in London to Paris, where we had to rush through the Paris Metro system to change stations to catch our next train to Rennes. We were all glad to find that our hotel was just opposite the train station when we pulled in at midnight, and it wasn't long before we were all soundly off to sleep - even the rock hard beds couldn't keep us awake!

While Mum and Dad enjoyed breakfast downstairs, Phil and I took the opportunity to sleep in. But the call of exploration in France soon had us up and ready to pick up our car. My French lessons are definitely paying off - for the first time ever, I was able to converse with the lady at the car rental place!!

On our way out of Rennes, we couldn't resist stopping off at the massive Saturday farmer's market. You could buy everything here - flowers, bread, wine, cheese, croissants, unskinned rabbits, and all manner of strange veges. Lunch of the day seemed to be saucisse galettes (sausages wrapped in a savoury pancake), so Phil, Dad and I eagerly lined up at the galette vans and had our first taste of the speciality of the region. So good!!

Just around the corner from the flower section shown above, Dad was seranaded by a Romanian accordian player. They were soon firm friends and Dad gave him a small gold kangaroo pin for his wonderful tune.

After a couple of hours we were ready to move on, so we hopped back in the car and took off for La Garenne - a roomy stone house in St Gueltas (south of St Malo), which was to be our home for the week.

PAD Day 14 - Autumn Fire

Autumn Fire

Autumn is absolutely my favourite season in the UK.

While everyone is moaning about the weather getting colder and the days getting shorter, I love watching the leaves change from luscious green to fiery oranges and yellows, wrapping up in a warm scarf and gloves and venturing outside to huff clouds of warm breath into the chill morning air, and snuggling up under the doona with a good book on the weekends.

In the dark evenings, as I pass under the street lamps that struggle to light the footpaths through the spooky mist, I always feel like I've been whisked back in time to the days of Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper or Oliver Twist.

I've been watching the leaves on the tree outside our front window shed their summer greens and change into golden peacock feathers - orange with greeny/blue eyes. They have almost all been swept away by the cold autumn breeze now, but I'm looking forward to them sprouting back again in spring ready for next autumn.

PAD Day 13 - A spud a day keeps the doctor away

A spud a day keeps the doctor away

As they say "A spud a day keeps the doctor away" - or is that an apple?! Oh well - my favourite lunch at work includes both. It is slightly embarrassing in that I have this lunch of tuna potato and fruit salad so often that the servers in the lunch bar get it ready for me as soon as they see me coming. It makes everyone in the queue laugh :)

** The observant among you will have noticed that I skipped photo days 10, 11 and 12. I had an eventful couple of days where hobby photography just didn't make it anywhere near even the bottom of my to do list. Apologies.

** I've just had a thought - Is "spud" an Aussie-ism? For those who require a translation: Spud = Potato!

PAD Day 9 - Puzzling Progress

Puzzling Progress

Actually, the progress on my 18000 piece jigsaw has been fantastic! I've done all but one stubborn piece plus the gold border around the third quarter. Phil is going to Vancouver to work for a month soon, so I'm hoping to get this quarter polished off and a good chunk into the final quarter before he returns.

PAD Day 8 - Camera shopping

Due to work and holiday commitments, I've been a bit (read very) slack on uploading my photo a day photos. So here's a quick catch up...

Camera Shopping

Mum and I spent a Saturday in the local camera shop, Jessops, buying a new Canon point and shoot ready for our trip to France. She had been very disappointed with another camera she had bought recently and decided that she needed a backup, because it isn't often that you get the opportunity to take photos in France!

I'm happy to report that the new Canon IXUS 95 IS is doing brilliantly. In fact, it is so good I'm tempted to buy one myself. MUST RESIST!!!