Whew! Scorcio Maximo! It’s been a hot week – highest temperatures of the year (in the UK) so far. Thank goodness our government is planning to issue licenses for new oil fields in the North Sea and coal mines in Cumbria. Climate change? Net Zero? Who cares?
To continue our journey home. . . It was a damp, drizzly day as we packed up our belongings, put a wet dog in the van and set off to our next destination, Josselin in Brittany, home of our lovely friend Jane. The journey was fine, it did stop raining and the sun was shining again when we finally pulled up outside her home. Two nights with a proper bed and a decent shower – lovely.
We first met Jane and her lovely husband Arthur (along with her mother and son) on our French Cycling holiday in the Dordogne in the summer of 2005 and we became good friends. In all those years, though, in spite of our best intentions, we never visited them in Europe. For many years they lived near Geneva and then moved down to Spain. They did visit us once in beautiful, downtown Moreton Pinkney which was a treat (for us, obviously – not necessarily for them). Arthur sadly died a couple of years ago and Jane relocated to Brittany.
Josselin is a lovely little town and Jane’s house is in a delightful position, on a bank overlooking the castle and the Oust River. She’s been there just about a year, I guess, and has done a fair bit of work on the house. It had, we understand, a very dilapidated and dangerous spiral staircase which, in fact, led to the demise of one of the previous occupants. The Hungarian writer Zoltán Szabó lived in the house between 1979 and 1984, fell down the spiral staircase and died a few days later. Szabó was a writer, sociographer, publicist and editor, one of the powerful classics of the sociographic literature in Hungary. He founded in 1939, the movement “spiritual [nationale] defense” against the Nazi influence in Hungary. From 1949 until his death he lived and worked in exile in England and France. Thankfully, Jane has had the treads redone so that they are more or less even and has installed a sturdy metal handrail to make it a bit safer. She’s also, as we speak, having her kitchen extended so I guess we visited just in time!
Jane’s terrace has a magnificent outlook overlooking Josselin Castle. The castle was first built in 1008 in an excellent defensive position on a promontory overlooking the river. It’s been knocked down and rebuilt on several occasions, including being destroyed one time by Henry II of England who was also Count of Anjou. In the Breton War of Succession in the 14th century, after a series of inconclusive battles, those involved in the dispute came up with the Combat of the Thirty.
Fought on 26 March 1351, the Combat of the Thirty was an episode in the Breton War of Succession fought to determine who would rule the Duchy of Brittany. It was an arranged fight between selected combatants from both sides of the conflict, fought at a site midway between the Breton castles of Josselin and Ploërmel among 30 champions, knights, and squires on each side. The challenge was issued by Jean de Beaumanoir, a captain of Charles of Blois supported by King Philip VI of France, to Robert Bemborough, a captain of Jean de Montfort supported by Edward III of England.
After a hard-fought battle, the Franco-Breton Blois faction emerged victorious. The combat was later celebrated by medieval chroniclers and balladeers as a noble display of the ideals of chivalry. In the words of Jean Froissart, the warriors “held themselves as valiantly on both sides as if they had been all Rolands and Olivers”.
I’ve often thought this would be a good way of resolving conflict except, instead of choosing knights, etc. to fight, the leaders of the opposing sides should be obliged to engage in hand-to-hand combat. Much quicker and easier to bring conflicts to a conclusion than bombing the crap out of innocent civilians.
After two nights with Jane it was time to bring this particular adventure to a conclusion. On Monday morning we set off bright and early for our ferry from Caen to Portsmouth and ultimately our return to beautiful downtown Moreton Pinkney. As it happens, Jane had also booked to travel on the same ferry so we were able to extend our time with her even longer! The drive to Caen was fine and we arrived in plenty of time for the ferry. Once again, Daisy’s paperwork was all in order and we were shepherded through to the holding area to await the call for boarding. It was then we were told that the ferry was going to be about a half hour late due to traffic in Portsmouth harbour when it had departed. That half hour delay turned out, in fact, to be a two-hour delay and the only thing we could do in the interim was to sit on the blazing hot tarmac and twiddle our thumbs.
The late departure from Caen obviously meant a late arrival in Portsmouth. Instead of arriving about 8.00 pm we eventually arrived closer to midnight – how did a half-hour delay turn into a four-hour delay? Goodness knows. The folks waiting to get back on the ferry to go to France must have been even less impressed than we were.
Still, we made it through Customs and Immigration fairly quickly and were soon on the road home. We’d only gone about ten miles, however, when we were overtaken by an ambulance, blue lights flashing. Relatively quickly Ms Google, who was guiding us home, suggested we might like to take a little diversion. We guessed that there must have been an accident so off we went along the “scenic route”. Or, at least it would have been scenic if we could see anything. Not only was it pitch dark but we also enjoyed driving through a few foggy patches. Lovely!
Eventually, though, Moreton Pinkney hove into view and our French adventure had sadly reached its conclusion. We had a great time, we visited with some great people, ate some great food and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Here’s to the next time!
In other news . . .
We had a lovely evening last Saturday – we took Nick, Lucy & Annabelle along with Adam, Ava, Jessie and Julieta as well as Ava’s parents to a concert at Warwick Castle, Proms in the Park. Ava’s father is a big fan of Western classical music so Penny had arranged this as a special treat for him. And, it was a lot of fun – we took a bountiful picnic and a truck load full of camping seats – and enjoyed a couple of hours of classic proms-type music, all the old favourites.
Ava set off on Thursday to accompany her parents on their return to China. The two months they’ve been here has flown by and, I believe, they’ve thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They’ve certainly crammed a lot in!
And finally, Annabelle and Jessie started back at school this week. Annabelle is in the first year of secondary school, at King’s High School in Warwick and Jessie is in the first year of Key Stage Two, i.e., Year 3. Both seem really pleased to be back at school and we’ve every confidence that they will both rock it! As it happens, Jessie had a letter to bring home the first day of term – her design for a Health & Safety poster was chosen to be displayed amongst some others at a local building project – she gets to go see it in situ on Friday!
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, be careful, wear a f**king facemask in crowded places and keep your distance. And keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg
Best yet! Stunning photos – helped, of course, by having stunning subjects! My Sunday morning equilibrium restored.