Brittany continued...

Gday all,

we are at the stage of our trip where we are traveling faster than I can keep up with the Blog! Our time at Brittany passed all to quickly.After our trip to Mount St Michele we spent some time around the area of Brittany where we were based.The Brenton's were originally Clelts, and as such very close to the English, especially Cornwall. We noticed immediately the difference between the Franco's, even though they use French as their everyday language. Brenton is still spoken, and their is a move to re-establish it, in their schools and workplaces. As a PR exercise for example, Mc Donalds uses both languages on their signs. We visited the walled city of St Malo, which is connected to England via Ferries (high speed catamarans built in Tasmania!) and is a favorite holiday spot for the Poms. We walked around the city on the Ramparts enjoying the marvelous coastal and ocean views. Much of the city was bombed by the Allies during the wall, and was rebuilt, faithfully to the original. We especially fell in love with a river town called Dinan. This is a fortified Medieval town,built on the banks of the river Rance. We spent a wonderful day there, walking around the cobblestone streets.We also hired a boat, and did a little cruise. Like many of the rivers,it is connected to the canal system, and we could of gone anywhere in our little tinny! Later we visited the Abbey Beauforte, in a town called Piampol. This is a 800 year old Abbey, with a chequered past, but incredibly beautiful. It was pouring with rain and the girls were cold, so we could not spend as much time as I would have liked. You will see a photo of the girls warming their feet in the old Chapter House. Regretfully we had to leave our little house by the river and on Sunday 9th we packed the car for the 540k trip to Paris to take the Euro Star to London. We dropped our car at the return point.I was ratherproudof the factthat we had driven 5436 kilometres without a dentin the car! It was emotional moment for me when we left it behind!