Chateau La Bourbansais
Built in 1583 upon Gallo Roman ruins it was enlarged by 3 generations of parliamentary families in the 1700’s. Traditional French gardens flourish and the guided tours of the living areas of the Chateau with its period furnishings allow you to experience the ambiance of the past. Critical restorations were done in 2007. It is located about 2 hours from home.
Mandy visits with Gillian
Making her yearly pilgrimage to Dad and Mom’s, Mandy joined us for Christmas again this year. This time she brought her friend Gillian, a Montana girl currently finishing her Masters degree from the Manchester Royal College of Music in England. 
Following her graduation, she will study for her PHD in composition. The girls spent two weeks exploring the area with Mandy as her tour guide. They biked and walked for hours daily. Mandy is quickly becoming an old hand at this and is familiar with many of the local sights. The two of them loved mom's home cooking and ate and ate and ate.
One of the sights we returned to were the WWII D-Day invasion beaches in Normandy. I have been there a couple of times before but never felt that I got my fill. It was always a drive by, so to speak, on our way to or from Paris. I wanted to dedicate an entire day there slowly going from one beach to another and spending some time at the cemetery and museum at Omaha Beach. The girls wanted to tag along so the three of us went together. (Janice had had enough from the previous visits)
What’s new?
This past month has seen a number of significant developments for us. To start with, my friend Carl put a website together for us. This for the purpose of renting out our home here during the summer and other times we are gone. We are absolutely thrilled with the result and you can take a peek at www.my-holiday-in-brittany.co.uk He spend an enormous amount of time on it and it shows. Bear in mind that the site is specifically geared to target the British market so there are a few terms that would seem a little off to an American reader. It was also carefully designed and optimized for the Google search engine and contains little idiosyncrasies to that end, including a few deliberate misspellings and ...the name itself. Finally, it only contains photos and information on the "public" part of the house as the sauna off of the courtyard and the entire 3rd floor are inaccessible to renters since it houses our as yet unfinished master bedroom and bathroom / dressing area. A locked door at the bottom of the staircase ensures that the area remains private. If you do look at the web site, I would appreciate any critical comments you might have, as seen from fresh eyes.
We started renting our house out as a holiday home ( see what I mean?) the first year we bought it. We had minimal luck the first two years and chose to change our approach. The third year was considerably better but left a lot of room for improvement. Last year was our best year yet and we feel that we may have finally found the winning formula and look forward to a busy and profitable summer. We will want to give this a few years to make sure we are not just being lucky in the short term. If this keeps up and our costs here continue to be offset by our rentals, Janice could end up with her wish to have a tiny weenie itsy bitsy little house in Italy.
As a result of our dealing with English clients we have found it necessary to have a bank account in the UK. As you know, England has not adopted the Euro for its currency and so our clients pay us in Sterling pounds. The problem was that British law does not permit foreigners to open a bank account in the UK. We found a cumbersome work around for a while but this past month we arrived at the solution; an offshore bank account in Jersey (a British island off of France). It’s like a Swiss bank account but..... without the money. They deal in Sterling and allow us to have a checking account without the UK banking restrictions.
Finally, we made one more important improvement. Last month I wrote of our bringing a huge pile of receipts to scan and store digitally. This month we moved a step further by copying everything on our computer to an off site, internet based storage facility. I know that to some this will be old news, something you have done ages ago. If so, shame on you for not telling me about it sooner. You see everyone knows that it is important to back up their computer but recently I started thinking that even though I have a backup drive we could loose both our computer and the backup in a fire or theft. By moving all our data and pictures to an online storage site we can access the entire contents of our computer anywhere in the world. Also, since we have less than 25 Gigabytes to store, it’s free. We know that some people worry about security and data theft but we worry far more of possible data loss.
Pineapples anyone?
As bizarre as it seems, this is the second winter where we have seen salvaging occurring along the coast. Last winter a large vessel dumped a number of cargo containers at sea off the coast of England during a storm. People quickly rushed to the shore to collect sealed packages of diapers and other goods destined for UK stores. A lucky few even found BMW motorcycles still in their crates. A recent storm dumped a number of cargo containers full of pineapples and tobacco off our coast on our local beaches just a few miles up the road. Word spread like wildfire and locals quickly stocked up.
Speaking of local happenings, this month we discovered that there is a rock quarry nearby that is exclusively contracted to the NASA space agency. One of only two such quarry’s in the world, they supply some of the unique raw materials used in the fabrication of the tiles on the bottom of the Space Shuttle. These tiles act as a heat shield during re-entry and are used on other spacecraft as well. This place never ceases to amaze me.
Kid number 4 launched!
Always an event for weary parents to say nothing of their pocketbooks is the launching of a kid. Some go easy, some go hard but go they all must. It is with great satisfaction that our youngest baby girl Cassie Anna passed her California state board exams last month and is now a licensed Cosmetologist. All finished with school and entering the world of work, she is eager for her independence. Currently, she intends to remain in California and consider her options. We are both relieved and proud of her accomplishment.Cassie turns 21 this week.
Whew! Fly, little hatchling, fly!
So how am I doing?
I wish I could take credit for the better aspects of our little blog but I am afraid that I can’t. There is not a single element of this that has not been the result of someone’s suggestion on how to make it better, easier to use or navigate, nicer looking or whatever. I do however, take full credit for implementing their ideas and following their advice. I am always looking for better ways to do what I do so if you have a suggestion, please don’t hold back.
Every month I struggle to keep my letter to you shorter as I am not trying to write a book or be so long winded that you will feel that you can't be bothered to read it. I also know that it is a little ‘off putting’ to some people that it is not a personal letter just to them, but it's a compromise I have to live with. I write about the things I would tell you about if we were sitting down and visiting with you.....or with a number of other family or friends if I were sitting down and visiting with them. The blog allows me to have a 'virtual' visit once a month with everyone that I am not near at the moment. If you are still not convinced of its merits, just consider the last time you would have had the time to write a nice long chatty letter to all your family and friends within the same month. Yikes!!!
Check this bad boy out!
18 months ago we asked our village blacksmith to make us some implements for the fireplace I built. At the time, we went into one of those ‘price is no object’ fireplace shops, found the nicest set we could never afford to buy, photographed the heck out of them then went to our blacksmith and said: “Can you make these for us? He assured us that he would forge the items in our 6 month absence while we returned to the Island for the summer.
Yea, right.
Six months later he had only completed the andirons. They were spectacular to be sure and we were sure grateful to have them but we had asked for a custom forged wood holder, 
fire screen and fireplace tools also. Well, 18 months later we have the second item, our fire screen. We love the work he does but at his advanced age we worry that he will kick off before he has a chance to complete the set. [Editors note: “advanced age” is a fluid and moving target. It is now officially defined as anyone older than I at any given time]
Bonaparte Beach
A mere 20 minutes away from the house lies Bonaparte beach. Interestingly, it was at this beach that from January to August 1944, 135 Royal Canadian Air force and other allied pilots were spirited from 
France back to England by the French resistance as well as British escape and evasion rescue teams. There are a whole slew of these kinds of historical markers everywhere around here as well as all over Normandy as they were the obvious transfer points back to England across the channel during the war.
Today, it is a source of great French pride to have participated in any effort to resist the German occupation. It is hard to find any of the elderly who do not claim to have been or have assisted in the resistance. It is funny to see how in most cases, revisionist history makes heroes out of the meek and creates enhanced memories out of pure fantasies.
Flax ponds
Many of the large Manoirs or Longeres in the Brittany 
area were funded by wealthy flax growers, harvesters and exporters of its linen products. For many years Brittany was renowned for the quality of the linens produced here. My bride and I found several of the old creek fed, stone lined, traditional flax ‘ponds’ just a few minutes from our village. It was here that the flax was submerged in water for days until it was broken down enough to be carded in order to separate the fibers and spin them into linen thread. From there the fine linens were woven.
