At the start of my last blog I apologised for breaking a promise that I hadn’t written in a couple of weeks.
At the end, I didn’t make a similar promise as I said that we had some great friends arriving and I suspected that we might not have the most productive week.
As things turned out, we haven’t had the most productive 4 weeks and I haven’t blogged in all that time. Sorry.
The friends who were staying are some of our best friends from our previous life in the UK and we are delighted that they have chosen to spend their holiday with us every year since we opened. Their daughter was a babe in arms the first time they visited and has only known her summer (and autumn during COVID) holidays at Kergudon.
When they come and stay with us, we gatecrash their holiday and while we can’t say that it is a holiday for us, we do have some time off projects and spend as much time with them as we can.
They were very fortunate in that much of the time they spent with us was hot and dry. We have had an unseasonably dry few months to the point that the departement of Finistère declared a state of drought when they were with us – it can happen here! – so they were able to spend a number of days on the beach and / or at the beach by Lac du Drennec and / or the pool and we joined them when we could.
Be advised, blatant marketing pitch coming …
It reinforced to us that we are so well located to be able to be flexible depending on the weather. There are so many fabulous beaches with crystal clear waters within easy reach of us either on the north, west or south coast depending on where the weather is coming from.
Over their time with us they visited their favourite Pentrez plage (St. Nic) and Lestrevet / Pors ar Vag on the west coast and Dossen (Santec), Camaret and Amiets on the north coast.
We had a day walking through the forest of Huelgoat and many evenings eating al fresco on either our or the Priory (their gîte) terrace when the chiminea and firepit provided heat and charm into the late hours!
Their daughter honed her Tom Cruise cocktail skills setting up her bar on one of the Priory garden furniture units while their son spent as much time as possible entertaining the dogs.
Being a family with young (ish) children (10 and approaching 13) when we ate out we chose more family-friendly places including the amazing pizza place, Ti Wanik in St. Thegonnec Loc-Eguiner (where they have a selection of fun wooden games to play when the kids have finished their pizzas but the grown-ups haven’t!); and one of our favourites, Chez Gaby on the beach at Carantec.
During their stay I did manage to complete a couple of tasks that I had started before their arrival including clearing the whole of the pétanque pitch which they were good enough to use having seen my efforts(!), and the other half of the talus along Streat al Louarn. Here we are winning the battle on this patch of Japanese knotweed (it can be defeated) and I have cut the lonicera hedge back at least in width if not height yet, which has exposed the gate light that was damaged in Ciáran (back in 2023) but had disappeared into the over grown hedge. We have bought replacement lights but we decided not to fit them until we have seen the last lorry of the pool project!
We have also taken delivery of furniture for the pool house so we were able to take back our own terrace seating to use ourselves. The pool house will be a lovely place to relax and sit after a long swim whether the pool shelter is open on dry days or closed when wet.
Our friends left a couple of weeks ago and David’s uncle and aunt arrived a few day’s later. Not entirely because of their being with us, our project work didn’t pick up too much! It did allow us to visit some of our other favourite restaurants with them for dinners and we returned to La Faïencerie in Daoulas; Bistro du Pont in Landerneau; Le Viaduc in Morlaix and Le Chardon Bleu also in Landerneau. They visited many other of their own favourites for lunches when we should have been working!
Over the 4 weeks since I last blogged, it is evident that summer is coming to an end. When we were eating with our friends on the back terraces, it was evident the sun was setting less and less to the north and some of the mornings recently have had a distinctly autumnal feel. Sadly Dave’s uncle and aunt didn’t enjoy the same dry, hot weather as our friends and the last week has been much wetter – at least the garden profited.
There is still the chance of an Indian summer and Septembers and Octobers can be lovely here, whether it remains dry and warm or more autumnal there is the change of colours and misty mornings to enjoy.
Dave’s uncle and aunt left yesterday so we are back on our own in that our guests now probably wouldn’t want us to bother them in the same way we do with our friends …!! Which should mean we are able to pick up all the work we haven’t done in the last few weeks. It also means I should be able to update again next Sunday and get back in the habit of writing my blog.
À bientôt.