Visit to Rochefort-en-Terre

Wednesday 18/12/19

Charmaine is visiting at the moment so we have been getting out more than usual.  Unfortunately French strikes and weather scuppered the owner's plans to visit and have the oaks pollarded so their trip fell through.

We haven't told the cats she's a vet...

Luckily, however, the flights into Nantes were still running with no problems so we drove through to pick Charmaine up.  We had done our research beforehand so we knew there was a parking lot that didn't have height restriction and we managed to squeeze Bokkie and and take the short walk to the terminal.  

The weather is quite grim at the moment, and we are spending a lot of time curled up in from of the fire with the cats and some books.  We managed to get out as well and took an evening trip to Rochefort yesterday.  

This town puts on an amazing Christmas light display and attracts visitors from far and wide.  We set off to our planned parking spot only to find that the river was overflowing its banks preventing us from reaching the bridge to the footpath.  We drove into the village to see if there was another option but were overwhelmed by the number of visitors and returned to the original spot and walked up the road.

It really was a lovely atmosphere and even an unexpected shower didn't dampen the spirits.  Well worth the visit, many thanks to B&T for telling us about it.

Tomorrow we will try to visit the market at nearby La Roche-Bernard, the weather forecast looks a bit iffy so we'll have to take brollys and hope for the best.

Hamba Kahle on Facebook

Brittany video of the day 14/12/19

Brittany pic of the day 12/12/19

Brittany pic of the day 11/12/19

The resident buzzard doesn't often venture into the garden so this was quite a thrill

Brittany pic of the day 10/12/19

When the weather turns cold find somewhere warm to shelter

Brittany pic of the day 09/12/19

Supervisor checking the state of the lawns

Brittany pic of the day 06/12/19

As we're not blogging so much on the sit I will add random photos from time to time.

Magical sunrise straining through the morning mist

Winter in Brittany

Wednesday 04/12/19

As the years draws to an end, winter has been setting in and we have gradually been putting areas of the garden to sleep.  The produce from the potager has finally ended with us harvesting the last of the carrots and spinach before the frost wiped them out.  The final fruit harvest was the medlars, a first for us.  

This medieval fruit has to be bletted before it can be used so, when the time was right, we harvested all the fruit and set it up in the grange to soften (rot?) until it was ready.  The preparation is similar to normal jams and jellies and a mix of bletted and un-bletted fruit gives the correct balance of pectin versus flavour.  We were trying for jelly but ended up with a thick syrup, still very pretty and tasty.  Quite a surprise from such an ugly fruit.

The French call the medlar ' cul de chien' or dog's arse!

The jelly is the most stunning colour - and taste.

The weather is quite changeable, it can rain a lot but when the skies clear the sunshine is wonderful, although the temperatures plummet.  For two people with nothing to do we have certainly been very busy and look back on every day with wonder.  We wonder what happened to it while we were out gardening!

Building anvil of a Cumulo-nimbus

When the sky opens out we are treated to the most wonderful sights.

We have a busy month coming up, the owners B&T are returning briefly with a tree-man next week to trim some of the oaks and remove some dead ash trees so we are making sure the property is nice and neat.  If we never see another leaf or acorn again...

A very shy Ragondin at the bottom of the garden.  The farmers aren't very keen on them though.

After that, Charmaine is coming to visit us for a week and then Debbi and Ettienne are visiting for Christmas.  We are certainly working our way through the alphabet.

We are loving being in Brittany (especially the cosy evenings snuggled with the cats by the fire), and have also started planning our Southern African trip next year.  Here's hoping everyone who reads this blog has a wonderful festive season - stay away from the Christmas sillines (Black Friday sales are just a marketing gimmick..)

Our year in Europe - a summary

Thursday 07/11/2019

It's hard to believe a year has passed since we moved out of our house and moved into Bokkie full time.  We had so many questions (and fears) but have come a long way, literally & figuratively, since making the move.  If anyone had told us we'd be spending the next winter in a lovely house in Brittany we wouldn't have thought it possible, yet here we are.

What a lovely view to wake to each morning!

The weather has been quite changeable so we split our time between inside jobs and the garden, and have also managed to attend the local Limerzel chestnut festival and a nearby crepe school which serves the public whenever they have training courses on - delicious!

We have now spent 365 nights since we sold and moved out of our house; 153 in France, 97 in the UK, 60 in Portugal, 48 in Spain 4 in Belgium and 3 in Germany and fleetingly passed through Luxembourg.  Along the way we discovered the concept of house-sitting and ended up using this to break up our travel when needed as well as provide accommodation when we headed back to the UK for a while.  All in all we spent 162 nights looking after houses and pets, 101 nights on free aires, 78 nights on campsites and 24 nights wild camping.

We have driven 10,294 miles (16,470 km) and Bokkie has guzzled her way through 1,583 litres of diesel at a respectable average of 29.19 mpg or 9.79 l/100km.  She also burned through 319 litres of LPG which fed our fridge, cooker, hot water heater and external Cadac braai.  Apart from a few times when we hooked up to mains power on campsites, Bokkie generated all her own electricity from the solar panels and her engine when driving.

To make things simpler for us I have converted all our costs into pounds and the biggest single expense was groceries at an average of £289 per month, followed by diesel at £168 per month and campsites at £116 per month.  Our total direct costs worked out to around £29 per day with house-sitting helping to keep costs down, as well as allowing us to experience living in some of the most amazing locations, meet some lovely people and look after the most adorable pets.

Jess and Jasper chillin' with Flaffie

Jasper in a naughty playful mood - who can resist those eyes?

Inspecting the walnut harvest

Gorgeous Admiral butterfly

Sharing mowing duties - a lovely way to be out in the sunshine

What does the future hold?  We're lucky enough to be spending the rest of the winter in Brittany and then are off to South Africa for an important birthday and a trip into the Okavango.  After that, we're not 100% percent sure and have some more thinking to do.  We love the freedom to be able to be so flexible, and have enough time here to decide what our next step will be.  We love Bokkie to bits and can't wait to see where she'll take us next.  For the moment she works as our car and gets to rest up in the hangar when not needed - a well deserved resting place over winter.

Near Noyal-Muzillac - Bird life

Monday 14/10/19

We've had a mix of weather so have been spending our time working in the garden, collecting walnuts and sweet chestnuts, and hiding from the rain indoors.  The lawns have had their first cut of the sit and look wonderful, (despite the best efforts of the local mole population) and Toni has been cooking and baking up a storm.

The bird life in the area is amazing and I have added some photos; most of them taken through the lounge window.

Blue tit

Buzzard

Male Chaffinch

Garden warbler

Great tit

Greenfinch

Greenfinch

Magpie

Robin

Wagtail (White, I think)

Wren

Wren

Let me know if I have any incorrect identifications - I'm keen to identify as many birds as I can during our time here.

Near Noyal-Muzillac - Back again

Friday 11/10/19

If Bokkie had feet they would be up at the moment.  She has the next six months off as a motorhome and will only be used as a van for trips to the shop or an occasional sightseeing trip, but we are now settled into 'our' home until April.

We came into the sit a day early as it had started raining non-stop and our hosts were keen to travel slightly earlier to get set up in the UK.  Our trip down had worked out so that we were very close when they contacted us - we did some shopping and went to a nearby aire to empty our tanks before making our way to the house.  

It really was lovely to get back to the property, as expected the owners, B&T, had tidied, mowed and trimmed everything beautifully and it all looks almost winter-ready.  They have also kindly left us a huge amount of produce from the garden to enjoy: (huge) butternuts, onions, shallots and potatoes, and the potager still has spinach, chard, beetroot, parsnips and carrots growing. The walnuts are starting to drop so that is our current big project: collecting, drying and storing these for next year.

We've not come across Medlar before but will try preserving these.

 Jasper has grown up so much and is as friendly as ever and even old-girl Jess welcomed us home.  

Jasper welcoming Bokkie back.

Because we had the the three week sit earlier we knew what to expect and settled in very quickly, even though it always amazes us how much stuff we have in Bokkie - and we carry much less than most!  As we knew we were here for the winter we had raided our storage in the UK for warm clothes and anything else we would need.  It is really amazing to have such a lovely house to see out the winter.

We had a few meetings with B&T to go through the winter house and garden routine and had some training sessions on all the equipment.  Before long they were on their way to catch the ferry to their winter home in Southampton and we were left in charge.  We'll see them again in December for some tree surgery on the property, and we are hoping to see a few visitors over the next six months as well.

We won't blog regularly - only if something really interesting happens or when we get some really nice photos together.  I will also do a cost and stats update once we have completed a full year on the road - in early November.

Jess is more difficult to catch on camera but we have no such issues with Jasper - he adores company and comfort

Port Foleux

Sunday 06/10/19



Bokkie is parked in a port town where the rivers Etier and Vilaine meet.

Busy Port Foleux

We had a fairly disturbed night's sleep; the town was quiet enough but it kept pouring with rain and we would invariably wake up each time it rattled on Bokkie's roof.  We made an early start even though we had a fairly short drive today and we topped up with diesel along the way.  Being Sunday, the roads were beautifully quiet - hopefully most of the people were in church!

Some of the aires are nicely positioned but unfortunately this one doesn't let us park in any of the prime positions so we don't really have front row seats to any of the goings on, but it's a pretty place all the same.  The weather cleared up nicely so we crossed over the Etier and went for one of the forest walks which was lovely.

Looking up the Etier

Never seen a tree do this...

Bonus pic;- pretty crab-apples to brighten up the dashboard rockery...