St Marine/Benodet

Back on board 28 July – ALMA all ok after our week away in the Alps. We had a great time in Les Carroz – enjoyed seeing the Tour and catching up with friends Tim and Chris and Aubin and Jackie. Also greatly enjoyed catching up with David (our son!) as we haven’t seen much of him over the last year or two – he’s gone out to Les Carroz to write his Masters dissertation in peace and quiet. Enjoyed talking with him about his work on the environment and resource allocation – he has really caused us to think about how we are using resources and the legacy we leave for future generations (quite apart from the debt burden!!).

Journey back to St Marine was quite easy – French railways seem to operate very efficiently and there’s a great bus service between stations in Paris and also from Quimper (where we got off the train from Paris) and St Marine – we enjoyed the bus journey through the Bretagne countryside and fare was only 2 Euros each!!

One of the “events” in Benodet/St Marine was the arrival of the langoustines – it’s the season! “L’Arrivage” was scheduled for 6.30pm according to the notice board outside the fish shop and everyone seemed to be talking about this. We passed the shop at 5.30pm but it was all locked up so we went for a cup of tea. We strolled back about 6.20 and yes there was now a big queue!! We just managed to get some fresh langoustines but the last of the large ones were taken by the customer (German) in front of Helen – she was a little unhappy at this but I managed to prevent an incident. Anyway, they were delicious – as also were some fresh mackerel.

This is a beautiful river and a great place for a holiday.