Babyhood

Kevin and I had a short trip away to Brittany (Pauline went to her grandparents’). The Breton countryside is really beautiful and green and it was so good to be by the sea again, even if wasn’t swimming season. Even on the Wednesday morning when we left Moret the weather was fantastic and sunny. We caught a bus from the Gare de Lyon to the Gare de Montparnasse and we had a lovely view from the big picture windows the new Paris buses have. The TGV ride to St Brieuc lasted just over three hours and Kevin was quite fidgety but our “wagon” (how DO we say that in English?) was more than half empty, so he was able to walk up and down, climb on seats and wriggle about without disturbing the other passengers. I had put books, toys and crayons in his little Buzzy Bee back pack, but he just wasn’t in the mood for any of that stuff! Eating lunch kept him occupied for a while though. Pat, Rom and Mélissa met us at the station and showed us around St Brieuc first. It’s a fairly boring, functional town but with a pretty medieval market place where we had afternoon tea. The children were really happy to see each other again, but they were cross that I hadn’t brought Pauline. Throughout our stay the two boys always ended up playing together, so Mélissa sulked and threw a few tantrums, feeling left out of course.

Their new house at Trégueux is an intriguing mixture of small old house with a large, modern extension and as a result, there are odd angles and funny little staircases in unexpected places. It’s a bit of a mish-mash of styles, and rather cluttered with all their furniture. However, it was comfortable and warm at night, that’s the main thing! They are only three kilometres from the beach, so it was lovely to stroll along the sand and breathe in the iodine air. The children collected bucketfuls of scallop shells (all empty, sadly!) in an astonishing variety of colours. Their garden is vast and full of fruit trees. They have so many apples Pat has to give them away, she just can’t spend all her days making compote and jelly (I would!). We had a quick and easy raclette dinner (melted cheese poured onto boiled potatoes, selection of ham and cold meats and green salad), but she promised us a full-on Breton menu for the next day. She had also made îles flottantes for dessert, which is an blob of poached meringue floating in a sea of very runny custard. Kevin and Rom had a bath together and begged to be allowed to sleep in Rom’s room. I said they could for the first night, but if there was too much monkey business Kevin would have to sleep in my room. Well they laughed and giggled and made farting noises until very late and were then up at six the next morning watching cartoons on TV. By 10 am when we were ready to go to St Malo for the day, Kevin was pale and yawning. He was so tired that when I sent him to the toilet just before we left, he didn’t see that the lid was down, sat down and peed all over his clothes and the floor!

Pat's hubby had taken two days off work in honour of our visit, and drove us to St Malo. It was over an hour’s drive, passing the Cap Fréhel and its lighthouse on the way. The countryside is very green and lots of rolling hills and dairy farms to look at, and the houses are very pretty, all built in the local grey and pink granite or dark grey slate. The coast is wild and rugged and reminded me very much of home. It was another beautifully sunny day and we saw St Malo at its best. Pat had warned me that it can look very grim on a grey day, as all the town buildings are high and very close together, casting a perpetual shadow over most streets. It looks like a gorgeous, perfectly preserved medieval town, but I learned that it was completely destroyed during W.W. II, and then faithfully rebuilt in 1949. So all the architecture, including the ramparts and old city wall are perfectly solid and stable. We walked from the beach across the wet sand to a tiny islet, or big rock, which can only be reached at low tide, to visit the (unmarked) tomb of the writer Beaumarchais. It was a steep and invigorating climb to the top of the rock. Apparently he wished to be buried where he would only hear the sound of the wind and the sea. By then we were all hungry, so we walked into town to the best crêperie for some lunch. When Romuald ordered an andouillette and cheese galette, Kevin immediately said he wanted the same. I tried to persuade him to have a cheese and ham one, knowing that andouillette tastes like urine!, but he would not be dissuaded. Amazingly, he ate it all, much to my relief. I had the Bretonne: spinach, egg, bacon and onions, it was fabulous. The children ordered the crêpe surprise for dessert, it was just a sweet crêpe with a face made of sweeties! After all that we needed another walk, so we did the tour of the old city wall which took just under an hour and gave us splendid views. We also popped into a casino, where I watched people playing the fruit machines, but was too intimidated to have a go myself! It was the first time I’ve ever been in one. The noise, smoke and flashing lights were all a bit overwhelming.

On Friday morning Pat and I left the children raking leaves in the garden with her hubby, while we went to the fish markets at St Brieuc. I was amazed at how much cheaper the seafood was there. We bought mussels for lunch, and for dinner an extravaganza of oysters, crab, bigorneaux (cockles?) and clams. Kevin sampled every single thing, I’m happy to report, even the raw oysters with lemon juice! I was in shellfish heaven, as you can imagine. We ate the mussels with hot chips, like they do in Belgium (and London), the crab with home-made mayonnaise, the cockles dipped in vinaigrette and stuffed the clams with garlic and parsley butter and warmed them under the grill. Surprisingly, after all that, we all slept very well! The long runaround on the beach probably helped our digestion somewhat! We went home the next day.