ACROSS THE FARMLANDS TO GAVRES

June 3-5, 2005

In the morning our rosy-cheeked farmwife hostess gave us lots of bread and about 20 flavors of homemade jam for breakfast.  She called ahead for a reservation in the next stopping place, Vannes.  Since it was Saturday everyone was worried about us getting a spot, but we got a reservation on the second try.

Our route today took us over the Villane River and over the back roads, north of the town of Vannes, through the very posh village of St. Ave, and on to the suburb of Kerbiquette.  This is a very nice neighborhood, which probably does not allow B&Bs, since there were no signs at all.  Luckily Don was able to pinpoint the house address on his GPS, so we pulled right up to the front door.  Our hostess was in the front yard, working on her garden, and she spotted us and ushered us in through her gate.

After putting our bikes away and seeing our room we took showers.  By then our host had also arrived, so we enjoyed a visit with M. and Mme. Le Parc.  They seemed to understand my French and even complimented me on it.  After getting to know us a bit, he showed us his garden.  He has kiwi trees, along with other fruit trees, a potager (vegetable garden) and lots of pretty flowers and roses.  He was quite proud of his garden and I really enjoyed seeing it. 

After the garden tour I made arrangements for a saladiere (salad bowl) and some assiettes (plates).  While Don took his nap I made a green salad for dinner.

Gustave and Annick were busy the whole time cooking something, bubbling and stirring, on a little extra stove they keep on the sun porch.  Since I was out there at the dining table working on my salad, I couldn’t help noticing all of the stewing going on, so I enquired what they were cooking.  Well, it was Annick’s special recipe for Rhubarb/Gingombre jam.  She gave us a cup and we enjoyed it along with our salad and roasted chicken.  Boy, is that stuff good!

I slept like a log that night and we got up, packed up, had our breakfast, collected our jar of jam, got the recipe, and headed off for our last day of point to point.

Many thanks to the Le Parcs for such a nice stay with two very generous and pleasant people.

56000  VANNES
Le Parc, Gustave &  Annick
12 Allee des Fauvettes
Kerbiquette
tel. 02 97 47 01 33
 

Now we are close to the ocean and there are many river crossings to accomplish.  We went over a bridge at Auray and then another one at Pont Lorois, passed through Plouhinec and traveled out onto the long peninsula to the tourist beach town of Gavres. 

The last 4 miles, as we passed through an abandoned military installation, it began to rain on us, so we stopped and suited up in our rain gear for the last bit of the trip.  We though it was a propos.

We lucked out and found our contact in Gavres right away, and she took us to the house and showed us around.

The house is a typical vacation house, with a nice view of the bay, close to a big beach.  The décor is very cute, with everything in a nautical theme, blue, white and yellow.  Compliments to the owners for having lots of plates and silverware, and good pans and knives.

We took our showers and walked around the town a bit, stopping at the little SPAR for milk and eggs and a few things to tide us over for a day, until we could explore and find out what other shopping options were available.

That night we took the opportunity to check in with the family, placing telephone calls to Gary, Kirk and DJ.  We also got caught up on our email.