Earlier this April, we got up early one morning, hopped on the Metro, and headed for Montparnasse station to catch a train for a week in Brittany.
Arriving in Brest, we were picked up at the train station by (grandma Françoise) Maminou and (great) aunt Colette, Milo finding himself in a familiar loving sandwich on the way back to Maminou's.
Just as it was starting to heat up in Paris, we now were going to experience springtime in Brittany, which is much chillier, though in some ways even more lovely than in Paris.
She also had a chair just the right size for Milo – which he thought was just OK – and a car that was just the right size for Milo – which he thought was AWESOME.
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| Milo imitating a Parisian driver. |
Milo soon got a chance to try out his new boots, when we went to spend an afternoon at Logonna, the seaside summer house of great grandparents Robert and Maïé.
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| Milo with his grandma maminou and great grandma Maïé |
There, Maminou helped Milo dip his toes in the sea for the very first time.
Late that afternoon, Perrine and I got a special present, when Maïé and Robert got the house ready and warm enough to be comfortable for spending a night there, and left us there to enjoy two full days together, while Françoise took care of Milo.
It was the longest we'd ever spent away from Milo, and we felt strange and a bit like kids again. But just spending the night at Logonna, in a beautiful house of ancient stones with the sea so close, has that affect on you anyway!
In the evening just before sunset, we had an apéritif with little bigorneau sea snails (periwinkles) and oysters collected from the shore down below. Afterwards we had dinner by the big fire.
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| Perrine showing off her Marilyn Monroe-esque mole (a periwinkle cap) |
Over breakfast in the morning, we watched the fog roll out and the the rainbows tumble down...
Meanwhile, back in Brest, Milo was learning about lots of new things with maminou – including how fascinating goldfish are!
Our first afternoon at Logonna we took a trip to Plomodiern to visit our friends Fred at Marine and meet their sweet and bright newborn son Alexandre. They showed us their ambitious renovation project and we swapped baby stories, and shared excitement about another pair of future parents, friends Julie and Yann (who we saw later in the week).
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| An expectant Julie |
The highlight of our romantic getaway was our second day, when we drove up to the north coast to the port town of Roscoff. There, we took a short boat ride to spend the day on Ile de Batz. The island is small enough to walk around in a few hours, and is special because it's a rather lively place, with 500 some inhabitants many of which are produce farmers. The island, with its microclimate generally protecting it from spring frosts, has been providing the mainland and England with the season's first vegetables for centuries, and is famous for the quality of their produce – organic by tradition, fertilized only with seaweed. Around the port is a small village, inland are farms and fields, while the coast is rather wild and preserved.
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| Not a bad view from the local soccer field... |
(The potatoes really are as good as they say, we bought some from a farmer which Françoise later cooked up with a roasted chicken! Num!)
We had a lunch of wonderful crepes (and my favorite Breton beer) overlooking the sea, before taking a long walk around the island.
It was the most enjoyable day we'd spent alone together in a long time. And to top it off, we made it home in time to have a wonderful dinner with maminou and lots of welcome back hugs from Milo.
Our last day, grandpère Robert and Maïé come over, bringing with them a splendid crab lunch.
Robert and Milo spent most of the lunch clowning around, and it was hard to figure out who was the biggest kid between them!
We headed home that afternoon, sad to leave, but with cheeks red from sun and wind after a happy week of spring in Brittany.
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