Lost

Fairytale Lanes
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The next day we drove down the Brittany coast to Ploubanazac. There we secured our car into the smallest garage, courtesy of the hotel, and then took the ferry to the Ile de Brehat.

Ile de Brehat is a beautiful island reminiscent of Carmel, California. Many old-world cottages, cobblestone streets and flowers growing everyone. Unfortunately, most of our visit to the island it rained. We decided to take a walk, which turned into a hike when we got lost. The island is so small that we couldn't’t have got lost for long, but long enough to end of soaking wet. Finally, after catching a tourist tram, we ended up back at the Bellevue Hotel. As part of our hotel charge we are given dinner and then breakfast the

View from our room
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following morning. For some reason, people think that we can speak French. We say “Bonjour or Bonsoir, Madam or Monsieur” and that is about it. Well, when we went down to dinner the cute petit waiter explained the entire dinner to me in French. I knew that I was getting Langoustines, and some dessert at the end, but had no clue what else I was getting. The waiter then turned to Madeline and told her in very fast broken English what she was getting. After a few minutes we were served a huge plate of seafood, some of which I had never seen. We had large prawns with the head and eyes still attached, cone-shaped sea snails, little tiny shrimp with everything still attached, clams, mussels, and some very tiny little black cone shaped snails. Madeline was about ready to have a heart attack thinking that I was going to make her eat it. Well I ended up eating most of our two plates. Everyone else in the restaurant seemed to have a little silver toothpick-type tool to get the meat out of the smaller snails, but I never found it. This was only the first course! Next came a baked cod with some kind of creamy spinach sauces, cooked shredded beets, pasta, and garlicky green beans. It was very good and Madeline ate it and enjoyed it. A side note: when we came to France we were expecting small portions, but the portions are huge!!! A side note: wherever we eat, it seems like we are the only Americans there. The French eat everything on their plate and do not leave even a spot of food. What is their secret to staying thin???? I hope I can find out while I am here. The next course, again, is the cheese course, and it is fun to try new cheeses. Lastly, was the dessert, and Madeline ordered a chocolate mousse with crème fraische. We barely made it up the stairs to our room.

Flowers growing out of a stone wall
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Most of our trip we have had, by European standards, very large rooms. Our room on the Ile de Brehat was so small that you could sit on the bed and almost touch both walls on either side. We had a lovely patio but could not use it due to the rain. Still we slept well and it was a fabulous experience.