January 2011

Chateaux du Taureaux
(Castle of the Bull)

Built in the mid 1500’s as a military defensive position within sight of Morlaix

Turned into a prison in mid 1700’s and remained so for 150 years

Political prison in 1800’s

Germans took it over during WWII

Now open for visits and no, I did not take the picture

And we are off!

Well, happy January to you. Another year, another .50c after taxes. Life just doesn’t get much better than this. We had relatively quiet holidays, hanging out with the locals and doing all things French. It’s like, so retro.

Janice is back at her art classes, where she attends 4 hours a day, 3 days a week. The yearly after Christmas sales are in full swing and she is doing her best to single handedly keep the French economy afloat. After all the years of saying no to herself because kids shoes and orthodontics bills had priority, she is out to make up for lost time and buy what she refers to as 'grown up' clothes. Goodbye Wall Mart, hello 'La boutique de Francine'. She makes me look like a cradle snatching old fart.

I have started hanging out at our village blacksmith's again, hand forging some items for a project I have going here ( which I will show you next month) and some items I want to take back to the Island when we return in June. As always, I will have to be careful to keep it under 50 pounds (23 Kilos) so I can get it aboard the aircraft as they are beyond persnickety about that now.

I had a couple of friends drop by the forge recently -to watch a real man work- and had that 'you're out of your ever loving mind' look in their eyes as they watched me beat some metal to death with very little result. Unless you have tried your hand at it, it is hard to wrap your head around just how much work it really is. This is work that is more suited to a young stud with rippling muscles than...hey wait a minute...that's ME!

One of the bonuses is that I get to breathe so much coal dust, I might as well be working a mine. My kids aren't worried though, they figure I will be pushing up daisies before black lung disease sets in. [ To see pics forging, see The Epistle, March 2008]

I can spend days creating something that can be machine made in minutes and would look better in many peoples eyes. Some blacksmiths will purposefully leave some unevenness in their work so that it is evident it was 'hand made'. I need make no such effort. I don't particularly enjoy all the work but I sure do enjoy the result and this is the only way I am going to get it.

This is also the time of the year when we bottle our wine. Just like last year, a friend with connections ordered 1254 liters (a mere 300 + gallons) of premium Bordeaux white and red wine directly from the vintner, who by law is only permitted to sell a limited amount of his wine under his own label. What remains can be sold but not under the house label. We buy it in bulk and bottle it ourselves. [ For pics of the bottling process, see The Epistle, January 2010 in the archives]

This makes almost 1700 standard sized wine bottles which are divied among family and friends who partake in the adventure. Our take? A mere 132 bottles, priced at less than a similar quantity of Coke (Coca-Cola) All that forging makes a guy pretty thirsty...

Otherwise, the news from this side of the pond is that while real estate values on homes in America continue to decline or barely hold their own, home prices here are rising an average of 10% a year and 20% in Paris last year alone. Property in Paris this coming year will run an average of $750. per square foot. How’s them apples? This mind you, in a middle of a recession. How sweet it was to diversify.

So what else is new? Well in our ongoing effort to make it easy to keep in touch we now have—yet another new phone number! [Kids, call your father now!] This one you might be interested in… Over the years we got a local phone number where ever we were, and we got a US based phone number where a message could be left on an answering machine for us to retrieve.

It was handy for US based businesses like our bank or the insurance company to contact us as they could not call Canada or Europe. Short of Skype-ing us or making an expensive call to Europe, friends and family were pretty much out of luck…until now. [Well? Have you called your father yet?]

Now, you can reach us anywhere in the world or in outer space if we can get a signal, and actually call us direct for the cost of a call to California. Sorry, but that is the best we can do. If we are anywhere near where we can hear it ring, even while traveling, we can chat. It is a number available to family and friends alike, so make a note of it: 805-762-4646 Add it to all the other numbers and addresses you have next to our name in your address book. So the only question remaining is... why oh why have you kids not called your father yet?

Callot Island

Callot island in the background
Hurry honey, the tide is coming in!

We recently jumped in the car to explore a new place in our area and came across “Callot” island. It is just a quiet place to take a Sunday walk and it is within spitting distance of the ‘Castle of the Bull’ below (right side of pic) but it has a quite unique feature. We drove across to it but signs warned to be mindful of the tide schedule as the road is ‘submersible’.

Chateaux Du Toreaux
(Castle of the Bull) and yes I did take the picture

Twice a day the area where our car is in the photo would be completely under water when the tides come and go. Brittany has the greatest tidal high’s and low’s in Europe and they are quite impressive. We have another similar submersible road that crosses a bay near the house but you can either cross if the tide is out or not if it is in. The difference is that here you can no-fooling-around get stuck on the island until the next tide if you don't pay attention.

Another one of our favorite beach walks is at the "Port Blanc" [ White Port] This time I shot a 20 second video to let you get a glimpse. Depending on the time of day, 2/3 of the water you see is either in or gone with small boats lying on their sides on the bottom of the bay in the mud until the tide returns. It looks just like a drained bathtub with all the toys lying on the bottom of the tub.

Port Blanc
(If you are not familiar with You Tube,
just click on the right pointing triangle. If you are
familiar just keep your wise cracks to yourself please...)

After many winters of coming here you have to wonder just what the attraction is. No place holds the same emotional tug for everybody but the photos of our neighborhood below either tell the story or it is simply not for you. There is no doubt that the cultural aspects are significantly different at times, in ways that can be taxing. Again, I think it's the kind of thing you either bend and sway with the currents or you can't bring yourself to ever feeling at home with. My limit is several months a year, then I need to get back to the real world.

Just click on any picture to enlarge.

Sometime when we walk these streets
I wonder if we are on a Universal Studios back lot

I am NOT writing about the plane

A couple of months ago, I told you I would not be writing about my plane for another 7 months when we return to the Island. So I won’t.

Sort of.

I won’t say anything about really missing working on it although what I really miss is getting closer to the launch date. The reason I am not even bringing the subject up is because recently I was sent a link to a You Tube video that was shot some time ago. I have, from time to time, given you links to photos and such of the Thousand Islands that I believed were spectacular enough to be worthy of your time in viewing. But now, I am giving you the best link yet.

This is a video of the exact plane I am building, with floats and all, being filmed all over our neighborhood in the Islands. All the footage is shot within a few miles around our island. This is by far the best footage of our area and of the model of airplane I have that I have ever seen. It’s a two for one! It is only 7 minutes long and the last half has the must see footage. l will be checking and if I find you have watched it, your subscription to 'The Epistle' will be automatically renewed for another 12 months, free of charge. If not, then it's "Hasta La Vista, baby".

Go on. Humor me and just click on the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crzDrDL7GDE