We ate (and drank) our souvenirs!

We decided early in our trip that this would not be a trinket-buying expedition. We had spent too many months cleaning out our basement before we left to want to bring more things into the house, and besides, the campervan isn’t really big enough to cart extra stuff around Europe.  So we are eating – and drinking – our souvenirs instead.  

We are in Brittany (or as the French say, Bretagne), the southwest peninsula of France, the home of crêpes and hard cider. As it turns out, we just happened to camp last night in the village where one of the region’s most famous products, Kerisac Cider, is bottled.  We bought five bottles, one of each of the five kinds they make, and we plan to drink them before returning to the US.  Sorry if you were hoping to get a bottle when we get back.

We have also bought oranges in Valencia, olive oil in Granada, muesli in Austria, cheese in Switzerland, pasta in Milan, strawberries in Provence, wine in the Côte du Rhone, nougat in Montélimar, praline in Lyon, chêvre and yogurt on the goat farm.  And all along the way, we’ve been eating local spring produce and wonderful breads and pastries.  We also dine out occasionally, as we did tonight at a wonderful little crêperie in Rochelle-de-Terre, twice voted by the French as the “most beautiful village in France”.

Even though we won’t be coming home with a lot of souvenirs, we will have done our small part to support local farmers and producers, and we will enjoy remembering the different tastes of our travels – without filling up the basement again. 

We’ve spent the past week in rural areas and small villages as we work our way from Lyon to Normandy. It’s interesting how the feel of the landscape and the architecture changes as we move west. The Loire valley was full of castles, and we visited many of them. In Brittany, canals wind through forested and farmed land and many houses and churches are built of flat stones or slate, rather than the blocks of stone or marble of other areas of France.  And everywhere we are greeted by spring and early summer flowers – tiny daisies, elegant wild irises, and roses in every imaginable color and size.  

Here are some pictures of what we’ve seen this week:
  

The castle at Loches, where Joan of Arc met the king after her victory at Orleans in 1429. Notice the dogs at the door. That black one looks a lot like Jacob! 



The Tapestry of the Apocalypse, including the Fall of Babylon (above), is the oldest surviving French tapestry, and hangs in the castle in Angers. 
it was commissioned by Louis I, the Duke of Anjou, and completed in 1382.

An entryway and a tower stairway in the Angers castle






Life along the canals





 

 Distinctively Bretagne architecture


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