{"id":2579,"date":"2018-12-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kergudon.com\/https-www-kergudon-com-sunday-16-december-were-back\/"},"modified":"2020-05-12T15:55:34","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T15:55:34","slug":"sunday-16-december-were-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/sunday-16-december-were-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday 16 December – We’re Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re back!\u00a0 I mentioned in my last blog on 25th<\/sup> November<\/a> that there would be a gap of a couple of weeks.\u00a0 I would love to say that since that blog I had been working away madly and the man shed is now complete, the gravel pile all spread and the garage bays emptied.\u00a0 I would love to say it but sadly, it isn\u2019t true!<\/p>\n

The reason I haven\u2019t blogged for a couple of weeks is that, as last year, we took the opportunity of this quiet pre-Christmas time to nip back to the UK and have a whistlestop tour of friends and family and do some of those things in England that we can\u2019t do here.\u00a0 We want to say a massive thank you to everyone who hosted us on our visit including someone whose \u2018line manager\u2019 had to pop to Buenos Aires for some G20 thing \u2013 it was great to catch up and we only regret that we couldn\u2019t see everyone we wanted or spend as long with people as we would have liked.<\/p>\n

It was a really good journey that started off exceptionally well.\u00a0 We knew that we would be sailing to the UK on Brittany Ferries\u2019 \u2018Mont St. Michel<\/a>\u2019.\u00a0 What we didn\u2019t know until very near our sailing was that one of David\u2019s gym members, who works for Brittany Ferries, would also be onboard.\u00a0 She was extremely kind to us and looked after us very well, including allowing us to visit the bridge.\u00a0 Many thanks to her.<\/p>\n

\"Mont<\/a><\/p>\n

For those who know us, you will know that I have spent many hours on ships\u2019 bridges, although rarely commercial vessels, and Dave never has.\u00a0 Having been allowed to visit the bridge during daylight mid-channel, I was more excited when we were invited back for the night entrance into Portsmouth Harbour.\u00a0 Having sailed in at night frequently, this was the first time following dredging for the new carrier channel so, while the lights of Southsea were pretty much as I remembered, it looked so much easier navigationally \u2013 although the Round Tower \/ Fort Blockhouse gap was no wider.<\/p>\n

\"Portsmouth<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Two of the people we stayed with work in the dockyard team with the Queen\u2019s Harbour Master, one being one of the Admiralty Pilots, so it was good to have something to chat to them about!<\/p>\n

The timing of our visit is also determined around the Varsity rugby that we used to attend with David\u2019s Dad each year.\u00a0 While Landivisiau Rugby club put on a decent match, which we attended in our first year, nothing beats Twickenham for an occasion.\u00a0 Sadly the attendance at Twickenham this year was almost what Landi rugby can attract and, even more sadly, the win went to the dark blues, but it was a fun day and Landivisiau doesn\u2019t yet have anywhere like the Admiral Nelson pub<\/a> at Whitton.<\/p>\n

\"Varsity<\/a><\/p>\n

Our visit went without major incident until our last few hours in the UK.\u00a0 Pulling away from our final stop to head to the ferry we had a very flat tyre.\u00a0 Fortunately our final visit was with a friend who is an engineer, and the sort of engineer who has every possible tool in his garage which proved useful!\u00a0 The wheel was very reluctant to come off the car and the space saving spare, which was under 2 dogs and LOTS of luggage, had not been checked in months so was very low on air itself.\u00a0 Thankfully, with our friend\u2019s help, we managed to change the wheel, inflate the spare and then had to limp home on the space saving tyre.<\/p>\n

On the positive side, we made the ferry and was placed on it so that we were the 3rd<\/sup> car off.\u00a0 Also, positively, as the Plymouth \/ Roscoff ferries aren\u2019t frequent at this time of year, we had chosen to sail to St. Malo which is only 2\u00bd hours from us with good tyres and so only 3 when speed limited.\u00a0 Having got home and inspected the flat it was evident that it was beyond repair and it had worn excessively on the inside.\u00a0 This was very infuriating as, suspecting that the tracking was out a few months ago and that the tyres weren\u2019t wearing evenly, David had visited a garage to get them to check only to be reassured that all was as it should be.\u00a0 Evidently not.<\/p>\n

We knew that we would have to replace the tyres early next year anyway but this forced us to do so a little early and, having had them changed, the garage checked the alignment and it was way out.\u00a0 I blame the road conditions in West Oxfordshire which were by far the worst we experienced anywhere but it may also be the many miles we have done sometimes heavily loaded!<\/p>\n

One advantage of being away for the period we were, we missed all of the problems associated with the \u2018Gilets Jaunes\u2019 movement.\u00a0 I was going to mention them in one of my earlier blogs<\/a> as the first weekend of protest was when we drove to Morbihan to collect our new beds.\u00a0 However, I forgot to do so as, despite being delayed by about 5 minutes by a march in Carhaix, we hadn\u2019t experienced any problems.<\/p>\n

As the ferries weren\u2019t running from Roscoff, we had to sail to the UK from Ouistreham near Caen and our sailing was early afternoon.\u00a0 David\u2019s gym members had sent him horror stories about chaos on the roads in Normandy (the Normans always seem to protest with greater enthusiasm!) to the point of suggesting we set off a day early!\u00a0 We didn\u2019t but we did leave home at 6 am giving us just over 6 hours to do a 4 hour journey.\u00a0 While we saw evidence of the protests, including a number of fire damaged road signs and a small huddle of protestors on one roundabout, we didn\u2019t experience any delays.\u00a0 As such we arrived very early which allowed us to give the dogs a good long walk along the river Orne near Pegasus Bridge.<\/p>\n

While we were in the UK we watched the increasing violence used by protestors under the guise of the Gilets Jaunes movement principally in Paris.\u00a0 Speaking to our friends and neighbours they are equally appalled and acknowledge that, while they generally support the aims of the initial protests, it has been hijacked by the extremists and anarchists out just to cause trouble.<\/p>\n

Having been told that the protesters were blocking oil refineries, we made sure that we had a full tank of fuel before getting on the ferry but, again, reality and rumour didn\u2019t match and we haven\u2019t experienced any issues with getting petrol here.\u00a0 The one advantage of the movement is that they do seem to have vented a lot of their frustration on the many speed cameras along the highways!<\/p>\n

It is evident that it had been very wet and windy here since we left and it has rained pretty much every day since getting home.\u00a0 Thankfully we haven\u2019t seen any damage caused while we were away but the weather has prevented me carrying on with the shed.\u00a0 As such, as well as getting the car sorted and doing the post-holiday admin (laundry!) we have focussed on getting the g\u00eetes ready for our guests at Christmas.<\/p>\n

As at least one of our guests read my blog, I won\u2019t show any pictures of the decorations in the g\u00eetes until next week so as not to spoil the surprise.\u00a0 However, we have also decorated Kergudon itself so here is a glimpse of our own home with the first batch of mince pies David has baked today as well as icing 4 cakes \u2013 which I will show again next week.<\/p>\n

\"Mince<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Christmas<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Last night we did visit the Christmas market at Locronan, a preserved village approximately 35 minutes from us.\u00a0 Our French teacher from the course we used to attend had arranged a visit with her current students and had extended an invitation to us.\u00a0 While Locronan\u2019s Christmas market is small, with only about 15 huts in the village, the Gendarme presence was obvious following the attack in Strasbourg.\u00a0 However, we think small is better as the real reason to visit Locronan is to see the lights which are strung along the rooflines of the village which would be spoiled if there were hundreds of Vin Chaud stalls everywhere!<\/p>\n

\"Locronan<\/a>\"Locronan<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The coming week will be spent ensuring our g\u00eetes are fully \u2018Christmasified\u2019 to welcome our guests.\u00a0 Lots of festive pictures in next week\u2019s blog.<\/p>\n

Salut.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re back!\u00a0 I mentioned in my last blog on 25th November that there would be a gap of a couple of weeks.\u00a0 I would love to say that since that blog I had been working away madly and the man shed is now complete, the gravel pile all spread and the garage bays emptied.\u00a0 I…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ben-and-daves-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kergudon.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}