THE REST OF THE HOLIDAY

AUNTY BERNIE COMES TO VISIT.............

My friend from primary school came to visit with her partner last week and it was a flying visit at that.  She was in Zurich and so drove here and spent two short nights.  It was great to see her and Mellisa though and we ate all the local foods, drank the local wines and then sent them on their journey again.

ROAD TRIP..................

After that it was a very short visit with a very long road trip to Brittany.  It took 10 hours to get there but we did it in two stages coming home.  Manu's best friend, David, has been very ill with Cancer so we went to catch up with him and Grandmere and Grandpere of course.  Manu's Grandmother is 92 and was thrilled to see us all as were we.

Of course we did all the things we love to do in Brittany like visit the market and eat Oysters and drink cider.  The market in Rennes is the second biggest in France and so takes a while to get round.  They make fabulous gallettes (buckwheat flour) which you eat filled with cheese, piping hot and with butter running down your arms, all well worth it.

Look at that seafood O my gosh.

Mmmmmm crepes with Nutella.

Then it was off to have a coffee with Manu's Aunt and Uncle, yip we never stopped.

Then it was off to Manu's cousin, Regis, and his cider farm.  For the first time in Brittany the Cider farmers had an open house.  It was busy and we spent the day drinking cider, apple juice for the kids, eating apple fritters, apple crepes, and socializing.  Great fun.

 Those are all the apples behind the kids for the cider

 This is like a puree of apple that is cooked on a low heat for 20 hours resulting in a paste of concentrated apple spread.  Very strong but nice.

 Best apple fritters

 Manu with his mom getting pickled on the cider

 Manu's cousin Regis, the farm is a family affair with his parents semi-retired now and his sister and wife also involved. They have 3000 clients though so it's a thriving business.

Apple juice

 Roast pig for an evening function they were catering for.

The apple orchid.

The Sunday was family day with a roast chicken from Pierrett's friend Michel, it is the size of a turkey this bird and super tasty.  Neighbours Pierre and Jeanne came round for drinks and then lunch with Meme, Manu's grandmother, then a walk to walk of the heafty lunch.

 The neighbours

 The Chicken and Manu under instruction
 Meme

And if that wasn't all enough Oysters for dinner.  Gosh we ate like kings for the weekend.

Monday we left Sam and Ben with the grandparents and headed off for Vendee, about an hour from Nantes to see Manu's friend David.  We had a great day and I'm happy to report David is on the mend slowly but surley, it's been a long road.

And that as they say is history.  Now back home, kids went back to school today and it looks like our cold, wet weather is heading this way.  Six weeks till the next break in the meantime, homework, cutting wood, making soup, speech therapy and jujitsu.  Shew tierd just thinking about it.