Despite saying that last week’s blog won’t be very long I managed to stretch it out … This week I will start with the same claim and suspect it may be more accurate – certainly there aren’t many photos!
The fantastic weather we had enjoyed the previous week continued into this week and we had awarded ourselves Monday off as our first ‘proper’ beach day since we moved here. Dave had made a fantastic picnic that we took up to the north coast just to the west of Roscoff where there are lots of beaches where dogs are allowed – while technically dogs are not allowed on most Finistère beaches one of the lovely things about the French is they tend to be very pragmatic about such rules and, as long people are considerate, dogs can be taken most places.
We chose a beach in Dossen facing the Île de Siec which is only an island at high tide. As lots of the beaches here this one had a very gently sloping shoreline and as we arrived at low tide the sea seemed a very long way out and there was at least 800 metres between the waterline either side of the causeway.
Brandon loved his first trip to the coast and Garratt has become a real water baby and they both enjoyed swimming in the beautifully crystal clear water.
As we had to get back to Kergudon before 6 to welcome some B&B guests to Stable we left the beach just after 5 when the tide had risen to make the Île de Siec an island again and had forced us to move from our perfect spot further up the beach. Altogether it was a great day and has given us more fabulous beaches we can recommend to our guests.
I know it sounds like we are slacking but we took another day off Thursday to travel to Bénodet and spent the day with some great friends. We had been to a bar in Bénodet before in the off-season but were not familiar with the town. It is a very popular town for holiday makers and has a large number of hotels and campsites nearby which we thought would make it very touristy but, having spent the day there, it is a lovely, relatively small seaside town without an amusement arcade in sight. It was certainly very busy and the small beach was very popular, so much so that at high tide there was very little space between the sun bathers and, while it was lovey to spend the day with our friends. It made us appreciate the wide open, empty, beaches of the west and north coasts.
The remainder of the week was spent on lots of relatively minor tasks so no major achievements to report. While we have many major projects on our ‘to do’ list, we have reached a point that running the business and just keeping on top of things takes an increasing amount of time – this time of year Stable is also very busy with B&B guests so there is cleaning to be done and bedding to change.
One very important task which I started is to clear and sort my man-shed. Over the last 13 months as we have converted the buildings we have lost ‘dumping space’ and so my shed has assumed that role. I confess to being, much to Dave’s annoyance, a bit of a hoarder and am loathed to throw anything away that may have a use some time in the future. As such the shed had got to a point that I could barely get in let alone find anything effectively.
As I had continued to work around the buildings I had taken tools out of the shed and not been able to put them back, they had started to be ‘stored’ all around, not least in Dave’s gym and our own lounge – something else which, rightly, caused Dave annoyance, so I promised to sort the shed and let Dave have his gym back.
It has taken 2 days so far and I am probably about half way through – but I have found a number of useful things that I had forgotten we had! Another couple of trips to the déchetterie will certainly help clear things up.
Not so many days off next week and back to the serious work – although of course there is the perfect excuse for some fun and down time as it is Dave’s birthday next week and we will celebrate appropriately (although sadly he will be at work the evening of his actual birthday.)
À bientôt.