Maison de Granit - Treguier, France - Brittany Coast

                 
As if a week in Paris isn't good enough, we took a gamble (but not much of one) on spending a week in Treguier, France - straight west of Paris on a river just off the English Channel - a 3.5 hour bullet train ride from Paris, then about 50 minutes by car. The area is known for its agriculture, buckwheat crepes, oysters (biggest oyster beds in the world), mussels, scallops, butter and sea salt. How good a combination is that?

The reason it wasn't much of a gamble is that Lucia Watson (of Lucia's Restaurant, Minneapolis) owns the place with a friend (who apparently lives in Santa Fe most of the year.) I thought it was a good bet that the place would be cool and have a good kitchen. We were right on both counts. I had read about Lucia's place in the Star Tribune a year or so ago and remembered it when it was time to book our trip.

So for two days I've been so overcome by a kind of inertia, that I haven't even been able to write. It is good inertia. After run, run, run in life, then run, run, run in Paris. Time to slow it down.

Here are some images - with a sample of our daily schedule below the images. :-)

A home up the hill from us.

One of those cute doorways.

Our street. Lucia's home is the home with periwinkle trim.
Look at the farmland beyond!

Another happy window.

The marina down the hill.

The country side where we run.

Local creperie.

View out the back kitehen window at Lucia's - sitting at breakfast table.

So, here is a sample of our day in Brittany:

              Get up at 9:00
              Make coffee and drink it in the Living Room on big overstuffed sofas.
              Walk up the hill to the boulangerie and buy croissants - eat them.
              Yesterday we went for a run along the river out to the farmland. Heaven for an Iowa
                           farm girl.
              Bathe in a short funny tub with a kind of bench built in and hand sprayer.    
              Figure out what will and won't be open so that we can manage food. (It was a holiday the
                          second day we were here and you couldn't begin to see any sense in what was and
                          wasn't open. Like the big market was closed, but a little local fish market was open.
                          While the one next to it was closed. Then they were all closed by two. Then a few
                          opened again later.)
               Make a fire and read. (Though I spent too much time doing emails the last two days. So now                             I've shut it off.)
               Maybe go out for a walk.
               Read more. Stoke the fire.
               Walk to the antique shop where I found a nice old linen bed cover.
               Open the wine. Light the candles. Start dinner.
               Eat. Talk. Sit by fire. NO TV IN HOME!  YIPPEEEEEEEEEEE!
               Bed at 9:00. I read for 2 hours. Lee falls asleep.

Seriously. Major chill.