Two Potter Around Northern France (4 Viewers)

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Very brave eating foraged mushrooms. Something I'd love to do but ... too frit!!!
Take your mushrooms to a pharmacy for checking whether safe or not.
I've been very cautious on this trip and passed over things which were probably edible but it wasn't worth the risk. After the Notorious Oyster Incident I'm not going to risk another digestive problem in the confined space of a MH or caravan. :)

I've only got one book with me which doesn't cover all the species. I left my main book behind as it is too big to fit easily into the van. Possibly a mistake but perhaps not, caution is a good thing with fungi.

Just before we left I found some of these on Dartmoor.

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It's the Scarletina bollete which has the disconcerting habit of turning a little blue when you cut it. :)

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But the blue colour vanishes when they are cooked.

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Very tasty but a pity the blue colour vanishes. ;)

The point of the above is I only ate them after making sure it was safe. I think I can recognise all the really deadly ones but even so I never trust my memory and always double check from more than one source.

I don't advise anyone to try fungi unless they are confident of identification and as Lot lover advises, French pharmacies should be able to advise and folk should use them.

As a simple example, you might think all mushrooms with a white cap and pink gills are safe to eat but this is wrong.

Bon appetite!

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It was chilly this morning at Rochefort en Terre, just 3C outside according to the thermometer. I also stood outside for over half an hour last night looking for the Orionid Meteors but didn't see one. This was about at ten and the peak is supposed to be after midnight but that's way past my bedtime. :) There were also too many streetlights and trees. In hindsight, I should have gone to the CCP aire at Pénestin and done the job properly by getting the chairs out etc. It was a perfect night, clear sky and no moon. Online reports I've read suggest it was a good display. They will still be around for another week or more so I may give them another go although the weather forecast is not looking good for clear skies for some time. :(

When we left the aire we didn't drive off straightaway but took a swerve round the book exchange at the bottom of the carpark at the entrance to the village. To reach it you have to ignore the no MH signs. :)

It is more than a book exchange but has other objects folk no longer need. When I found it on Charlie's first walk after breakfast it had a new looking sledge hammer with bright yellow fibreglass handle but this had gone just an hour later!

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The purple thing on the top shelf is the frisbee I "won" from the nurses in Puy en Veley and Mrs DBK added a couple books to their collection.

As there are no services at Rochefort en Terre we stopped at the aire at La Vraie Croix, north east of Vannes. This is a good aire close to a small village which looked quite lively - it even had that rarest of things in French villages - a grocery!

The service at the aire were a bit odd, the water tap was in a wooden shed which had a collection of notes fixed to the inside from motorhomers expressing their gratitude to the village. Mostly in French but a couple from the UK. An aire worth trying if you come this way. Completely free of course. :)

Then it was off to the Intermarché at Elven for LPG, found using the Mylpg.eu app.

And our final halt for the day was the CCP aire at Arradon a little south west of Vannes.

The coast isn't far from the aire and we walked on the coastal footpath to the Pointe d'Arradon.

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The above photograph shows why I could never be a professional photographer. If you look on the right one of the people seems to be under a whirlwind of pine! I should have crouched down so the tree was above the horizon. :)

In this shot is something interesting. Just left of centre and too far away to see from here.

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It's a tidal mill, the Moulin du Paluden.

I went back later for a closer look.

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The angle of the sun made photography difficult but the above shots, taken from the landward side should show the mill is in the middle of a low dam or perhaps causeway as the coastal footpath runs along it. The dam is across the mouth of a small bay and as the tide rose and fell the water entering or leaving the bay would be diverted through the mill.

At the base of the mill are three arches which seem to open up into a space below the mill. In the last shot you can see right through to the other side.

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But what sort of mechanism did the tide drive? A conventional water wheel or perhaps a vertical axis wheel or turbine?

I need to do a bit more reading. :)

And the date? This is on the end of the dam and sounds about right.

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This sign near the mill gives a bit of history. Curiously it says the mill only worked on the falling tide. This suggests it was a conventional water wheel and one designed for the water to flow in one direction only.

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The Google translation is:

"The mills & tide with Pestuaire de la Rance, the Gulf of Morbihan is one of the favorite land of tide mills in Brittany. The first are reported on our coast at the end of the XII century. Three mills still run along the Arradonnaise coast today, that of Campen, Paluden and Pomper. They were used exclusively for the milling of grain (wheat, barley and rye) and were only exploited by a small labor force: a miller, his family and a clerk or two, the "baker The tide mill was accessible as much by the coast as by the sea. Small sailing boats came to accost the mill to unload grain and ship the sacks of flour, It was originally a seigneurial property that allowed his owner to expand its authority and to seek new gains Subsequently, with the extension of the village liberties, the mill became a capital which the dynasties of millers, often envied by the villagers, sutransmitted and made prosper. These mills were located on a sheltered water surface so that the dike did not immediately suffer the onslaught of the sea. The water slowly accumulated behind a wall dike (bridge and vellum) during the rising tide. Then this energy, released from the ebb tide, actuated a wheel which dragged the wheel. Thus, the miller worked at the rhythm of the tides, that is to say, day and night. The yields were mediocre and most of these small mills ceased their activity at the beginning of the XX ", such as Campen in 1920 But the Second World War granted some others a reprieve. The mill of Pomper thus remained in activity until 1960."

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I woke up this morning and realised we only have just over a week left before we have to board the ferry at Roscoff on the 31st. So we need to get a shift on - but not so fast a departure I didn't have time to collect some mushrooms from the field opposite last night's aire. Mrs DBK served them up with lashings of garlic on wholemeal toast for lunch again. :)

We drove for an hour and a half to the base of the Crozon Peninsula and the aire at Le Faou.

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We have been here before and it was damp then too.:) But it is a gentle dampness and we have been spared the horrific floods which have hit some places further south in Europe.

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We've grabbed the end pitch overlooking the creek. It was high tide when we arrived and we've watched it go all the way out and now it's coming back again. Such are the pleasures to enjoy on a damp day in Brittany. :)

But I did take Charlie for a walk this afternoon but sadly no mushrooms were to be found. The fields around here are very rough with rushes growing in them which suggests they are very damp.

At the head of the creek there was something odd to be seen.

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It's a plastic mulch held down on the sea bed by blocks of concrete.

A sign near by gave an explanation.

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It is to combat the North American invasive plant spartine alterniflore or Smooth Cord Grass which looks like this (not my photo).

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It is a thug of a plant which smothers anything in its way.

An image on the board above shows the harbour in 2009.

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I'm guessing the circular patch is the Spartine.

The mulch was put down in 2018 by local volunteers. A Google translation of the notice gives more detail.

"Operalion spartine. This operation was conducted by the citizens of Faou with the support of the Regional Natural Park of Armorica, within the framework of a participatory day of the environment on June 16, 2018. The operation was to cover the 2000 m spartine task with an opaque tarpaulin to deprive it of light in order to kill it but also to exhaust its rhizomes. The tarpaulin was covered with paving stones to keep it in place. Regular monitoring is ensured to ensure the good condition of the tarpaulin, and to systematically remove any regrowth of spartine. The tarpaulin should gradually cover with mud which will limit the visual impact in the short term. the invasive plant concerned The salt meadows in Brest harbor are threatened by the proliferation of an invasive plant: the spartine alterniflore. This plant, native to the United States and Canada, was introduced during the 19th century by ship and ballast water. It proliferates to the detriment of the many native salt marsh plants, by its rhizomes, whose velocity of propagation can go up to 1 m per year in circumference. In a few decades, a small spartine plant can become a vast monospecific meadow of several hectares. The consequences of this invasion are numerous: This experimentation was already tested by the botanical conservatory in 2005. The tarpaulin was removed and indeed the spartine did not grow back. Other tests are underway to try to reduce this duration of tarpaulin to 3 years disappearance of salty meadow plants typical of the Brest harbor that it smothers: obione, salicorne, Aster maritime ... and small sea lavender , protected at the national level filling and siltation of our port. recovery of the mudflat and disappearance of marine animals living in the mud, to the detriment of the fish and wading birds that are in Port di Faou in March 2018 NATERA 2882 Dature park regosa cunrige Park an Arvong nourish standardization of the landscape ... Today 60% of salt meadows at the bottom of the harbor are no longer made of spartine (source: Hourdé, 2014)."
 
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Before we left Le Faou I took Charlie for a walk and saw that the Smooth Cord Grass has taken quite a hold in the creek near the aire. The mulch I saw yesterday is only at the head of the creek, just a few hundred metres away there was extensive growth of the stuff. They are going to need more plastic. :(

We then had a frustrating laundry session. The Super U in Le Faou has washing machines, so we tipped in a load and then went shopping in the Supermarket. No one else was using any of the machines so we expected to be able to use the tumble dryer when our washing was finished but our plan was thwarted by someone else turning up and putting a full load of wet laundry they must have washed at home in the dryer just when we needed it!

A scan of Google maps suggested there was a laundrette on the route we planned to take so we bagged up our washing and set off for it.

"It" turned out not to be a laundrette but a LeClerc supermarket with the mirror image of the facilities we had left, right down to the tumble dryer being in use! Fortunately it finished ten minutes later and after the French motorhomers had collected their stuff we could finally get our washing dried.

The machines took contactless payment and checking my bank account today the exchange rate was a little over 1.12 with no fees using a Barclays debit card.

The laundry we used is at the small village Tal ar Groas in the centre of the Crozon Peninsula. The supermarket has a free aire with services (CC55152) and though not the prettiest of places around here it would make a good overnight stop, especially if you had several loads of laundry to do. :)

With dry laundry on board we drove to the aire at Cameret sur Mer (CC 1198) in unexpected sunshine after a very overcast morning.

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The aire costs €7 a day but is next to the coast and some megalithic alignments.

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The stones are unusually arranged. There is one long line of stones with two shorter lines at right angles to it at roughly the one third and two thirds points on the long line. From the air it probably looks a bit like a wide Pi (π) but without the curly bits. :)

These are the Alignments de Lagatjar and the information board suggests many were found fallen over but have been repositioned.

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Records suggest there were some 600 stones here in the 18th century but by 1883 there were only a hundred and even less now I think. One theory suggests it is an astronomical observatory but with so many of the original stones missing who can tell now?

We walked to the nearest beach this afternoon, the Plage de Pen Hat.

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We intended to walk to the end of the headland but it appears to be closed off so we just let Charlie have a run on the beach instead.

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On the way back we came across this curious ruin.

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They are the remains of a house built by a French poet about a century ago.

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I returned to the beach this evening hoping for a good sunset but this was the best Nature could do

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But the stones looked a little spooky in the dark. :)

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The one third from the left has an uncanny resemblance to the farmer in the Shaun the Sheep films. :)
 
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I was originally planning on two nights at Cameret but the forecast for today wasn't brilliant and high winds were expected. There is a spectacular walk to the other headland, south of the one we didn't get to yesterday :) but it needs good weather and most certainly not gales - the cliffs are very high. :)

One factor was the expected lack of sun wouldn't recharge the batteries but I was pleasantly reassured how little power we used overnight. Our van has a Webasto diesel heater, which is a powerful beast but it does use more power than a gas heater.

We had the heating on last night set at 14C and after Mrs DBK used her hair dryer this morning we were still on 80% capacity. It dropped to 70% during the hair drying but soon recovered to 80%. I'm not sure how accurate these battery monitors are but if correct we needn't have been worried about about a lack of power today.

On a chilly night last week the outside temperature dropped to 3C but we still had plenty of power, about 75% in the morning. Batteries are two Varta LDF90s giving a theoretical safe reserve of 90Ah. I am probably worrying needlessly. :)

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Inevitably today turned our better than expected but we had long left Cameret before this dawned on us, although the high winds arrived on time and the van is currently rocking a bit. :)

We have come to the CCP aire at Cléder which we have visited a few times before.

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We've mainly come here to sit the weekend out! The forecast is a bit grim.

This is a recording of the Ventusky weather app predictions for tomorrow. A front is coming through. The change in wind direction is remarkable.



But this afternoon was very nice, breezy but warm, it was nearly 17C at six this evening.

We walked up the coast, expecting to see a few fungi but there were almost none. My guess is salt spray disagrees with them on this exposed coast. But on a little meadow a short distance from the sea we found these.

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They are the very tasty Parasol Mushroom. These are young ones in the "chicken drumstick" stage. They would have opened into a saucer sized disc if left alone. Regrettably I must confess we snaffled them as they were and will eat them and others we found nearby tomorrow. :)

As always, please don't eat any fungi unless you are sure of the identification. One of the clues on this one is it smells of boiled milk. And these ones do but I checked on other characteristics as well. :)

We have found on previous trip all the geocaches around here except for one near this monkey shaped rock.

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It's huge, at least 6m or 7m high but no more than 2m thick. And Mrs DBK found the elusive geocache. :)

A couple of shots of the coast here.

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I've booked Charlie into the vets for Tuesday. We will make the appointment if we survive this weekend. :)
 
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We had a dry morning so we went for a short walk.

I've photographed the sights around here before but I took a few more with phone today.

This small guardhouse, built in 1744, was one of a chain which kept a look out for enemy shops. The notice doesn't explain how they passed the messages along the coast. Semaphore, flags or perhaps just a runner or rider?

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Heavily eroded rocks on the shore.

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There are a couple of these stone lined troughs near the aire.

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Goémon is the name given to seaweed which was collected, dried then burned in these troughs. The ash was sold to a factory which extracted iodine from it. The industry was at its busiest in the second half of the Nineteenth century.

It has been windy almost all day although it has died down a bit now but is forecast to return from the north later this evening. The wind today had been blowing from the south and it had been unusually warm, almost reaching 17C. But the wind was causing the flap over the EHU socket to lift with a clatter - so I've tied it down! :)

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And now another toast photograph. :)

The Parasol Mushrooms we collected yesterday...

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...were served up by Mrs DBK for lunch.

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A firmer texture than "normal" mushrooms and a filling meal. But we only ate them after checking they ticked all the identification boxes.

Smell like boiled milk.
White gills
Ring loose on the stem - it can be slid up and down.
Snakeskin pattern on the stem.
The top of the open ones came to a point.

And no ill effects - so far! :)

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I've also done a bit of birdwatching today. There were some Brent geese on the beach this morning and a solitary Curlew. The high tide this afternoon also pushed half a dozen Turnstones close to me and a big flock of 60 or so Sanderlings. I wasn't 100% sure of these when I first saw a few some distance away earlier but now they are in a large flock they have been doing their characteristic wave chasing. As a wave breaks they rush up the beach away from it but as soon as the water starts flowing out again they rush back down the beach to find whatever food the wave brought. They are tiny birds and their little legs move so fast it is as if they are powered by clockwork. :)
 
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I love your photos a descriptions of mushrooms. I have been enthralled by mushrooms for some years now and would love to go on a mushroom foray. Wouldn't a mushroom foray meet be great?
It seems to have been a very good year for them almost everywhere. I read some rare ones, like the Hedgehog Mushrooms have been found in some NT properties this autumn.

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There have been a few comments on other threads about problems some folk have getting into CCP aires and this afternoon we witnessed an unusual variation on this theme.

A huge Concorde MH arrived at the entrance and tried to get in. Unfortunately, the road outside is a bit narrow so he came in at an angle and got stuck with about two metres of the front of the MH beyond the barrier. So he reversed to straighten up and........the barrier, sensing there was no vehicle there, promptly closed. :(

No amount of card waving at the sensors would persuade the barrier to open. The system had decided his MH was already inside the aire and it wasn't going to allow him in twice. It wouldn't open even when the card was waved at the exit sensor, presumably because it didn't sense a MH present.

I took Charlie for a walk at this point and suggested they ring the help number, which they must have done because they were inside unloading their Fiat 500 from the MH's garage when I got back. On which subject if you have a car you can enter and leave CCP aires by entering a code into the keypad over which you normally wave your card. I'm not sure where you get the code as we don't have a car with us, but this is what you do if you have. You could use your card of course but that might prove expensive. :)
 
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I am enjoying many aspects of your blog. I would love to forage for funghi have neither the knowledge nor the confidence.

As our resident MH Fun wildlife expert ...a highlight of our trip to France was seeing two kingfishers (martin-pêcheur) swoop low in a circle to the side of our boat in the Cher just upstream from Chenonceau. They stayed near the bank, coming from under the trees. No photos I’m afraid. I thought I saw a flash of blue and kept watching ... and luckily was rewarded.

I thought they were solitary birds though ... is two unusual?
 
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I am enjoying many aspects of your blog. I would love to forage for funghi have neither the knowledge nor the confidence.

As our resident MH Fun wildlife expert ...a highlight of our trip to France was seeing two kingfishers (martin-pêcheur) swoop low in a circle to the side of our boat in the Cher just upstream from Chenonceau. They stayed near the bank, coming from under the trees. No photos I’m afraid. I thought I saw a flash of blue and kept watching ... and luckily was rewarded.

I thought they were solitary birds though ... is two unusual?
I believe they are normally solitary outside the breeding season but they don't read the bird books so not all birds may know this. :) Alternatively, it might have been an adult and a late juvenile.

And thank you for the French name. I saw one, fleetingly as always, by the tidal mill in the Morbihan. I was wondering at the time if it might be Roi de Peche, but clearly not! :)

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I believe they are normally solitary outside the breeding season but they don't read the bird books so not all birds may know this. :) Alternatively, it might have been an adult and a late juvenile.

And thank you for the French name. I saw one, fleetingly as always, by the tidal mill in the Morbihan. I was wondering at the time if it might be Roi de Peche, but clearly not! :)


And the Spanish name Martin Pescador!
 
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We're slowly creeping up on a vet. :) Charlie has his appointment with a worming tablet tomorrow afternoon so today we drove most of the way to the vet, stopping at the free aire at Port de Diben, Plougasnou, CC3472.

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This is a good aire with great views over the harbour.

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Beside the flagpole is a quotation from General de Gaulle.

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We have seen memorials like this before on this part of the French coast.

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The sub-title is about losing a battle but not the war.

The words were written by de Gaulle in London in June 1940 and are a call to the French to join him and continue the fight for France's freedom from the UK. The Free French Force was thus created and a number of vessels carrying volunteers left from this area and presumably from this very port.

I must find time to read up about this although I've been put off by the descriptions of de Gaulle being insufferably pompous!

Incidentally, running the above through Google Translate revealed it couldn't translate the word "Tel" in the third paragraph from the bottom. I'd not come across it either and checking online wasn't much help. It is an obscure French word which can be used in several different ways and with different meanings each time.

In this instance (I think!), de Gaulle is talking about the freedom of France and the word could be translated as "this" so the sentence reads "This (freedom) is my objective, my only objective." But in another sentence it could mean something else. I can't think of an equivalent word used like this in English although there probably is one. :)

Today wasn't too wet and we had a short walk this afternoon to the Pointe de Diben just beyond the port. This is reached after an ankle-breaking walk over a short stretch of loose boulders each about the size of a human head.

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At the point there is a geocache.

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It's somewhere near the base of the thin blade of rock to the right of centre in the photo above.

We gave it a miss, our EHIC cards having expired is our excuse. :)

But, I hear you ask, what have you been eating?

Mrs DBK's homemade bread this morning, toasted and eaten with homemade marmalade for breakfast. The bread was made in the van yesterday but the marmalade was made at home. I think making marmalade in a MH would be a challenge though doable if you didn't try to make too much.

Lunch, or what was left of it when I remembered to take a photograph, was multi-coloured tomatoes, mozzarella, olive oil and a recent twist by Mrs DBK, pesto, which gives an added layer of taste to this dish.

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I can't recommend pesto on tomatoes enough!

I cooked supper a couple of night's ago.

Earlier in this trip we ate Tartiflette in a restaurant. We had first come across this dish at the Banon cheese festival in south east France. It is a relatively modern dish although based on an older recipe.

The essential ingredient is Reblochon cheese.

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Purists will buy it from artisanal fromageries but we're not posh and the Super U's own brand was good enough for us.

I'm going to work on a MH friendly recipe for Tartiflette so what follows isn't definitive because it uses an oven which many MHs lack.

But if you have an oven this is what you do. :)

Par-boil some potatoes, drain and leave to cool a bit so you can slice them.

LRM_EXPORT_60855113484226_20191028_181647987.jpeg


Floury potatoes are probably best but these were fine after fifteen minutes boiling.

Put sliced shallots and smoked bacon lardons in a frying pan with a glug of oil.

LRM_EXPORT_60900053447177_20191028_181732366.jpeg


When the shallots are soft and the bacon nice and hot add half a glass of wine.

LRM_EXPORT_60869042482658_20191028_181701916.jpeg


Reduce the liquid but not so far it becomes dry.

Our frying pan is ovenproof because you can remove the handle but you could use a separate ovenproof dish instead. As I was going to use the frying pan in the oven I put the fried shallots and bacon in a dish to one side then started adding the potatoes to the frying pan.

Traditionally the potatoes are cubed but I sliced them. After putting a layer of sliced potatoes in the frying pan I spread half the bacon and shallot mixture over them before adding a second layer of potatoes. This was then covered by the rest of the filling before the final layer of potatoes was added.

LRM_EXPORT_60894983785564_20191028_181727296.jpeg


I then added pepper and salt and poured over some double cream.

Now for the Reblochon cheese. For two, half a cheese is enough I think. So cut the cheese in half then cut the half in half again but this time through the equator, so to speak.

LRM_EXPORT_60904453330925_20191028_181736766.jpeg


Then place it on the dish!

LRM_EXPORT_60851024639696_20191028_181643899.jpeg


Put in the oven and watch it melt. :)

LRM_EXPORT_60890206235618_20191028_181722519.jpeg

LRM_EXPORT_60884259898173_20191028_181716572.jpeg


When finished after about half an hour it might look like this.

LRM_EXPORT_60872681645469_20191028_181705555.jpeg


Then eat!

LRM_EXPORT_60847521961051_20191028_181640394.jpeg


This dish scores a 12 on the Yummyness scale, which normally only goes to 10. :)

It wasn't perfect, it needed a clove garlic but we had run out but it was almost perfect.

I'm going to work on a more MH friendly version which can be done without an oven. This should be possible because when we saw this being made in Banon no ovens were used, just big pans with lids. :)
 
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spitfire

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We're slowly creeping up on a vet. :) Charlie has his appointment with a worming tablet tomorrow afternoon so today we drove most of the way to the vet, stopping at the free aire at Port de Diben, Plougasnou, CC3472.

View attachment 342102

This is a good aire with great views over the harbour.

View attachment 342066

Beside the flagpole is a quotation from General de Gaulle.

View attachment 342067

We have seen memorials like this before on this part of the French coast.

View attachment 342069

The sub-title is about losing a battle but not the war.

The words were written by de Gaulle in London in June 1940 and are a call to the French to join him and continue the fight for France's freedom from the UK. The Free French Force was thus created and a number of vessels carrying volunteers left from this area and presumably from this very port.

I must find time to read up about this although I've been put off by the descriptions of de Gaulle being insufferably pompous!

Incidentally, running the above through Google Translate revealed it couldn't translate the word "Tel" in the third paragraph from the bottom. I'd not come across it either and checking online wasn't much help. It is an obscure French word which can be used in several different ways and with different meanings each time.

In this instance (I think!), de Gaulle is talking about the freedom of France and the word could be translated as "this" so the sentence reads "This (freedom) is my objective, my only objective." But in another sentence it could mean something else. I can't think of an equivalent word used like this in English although there probably is one. :)

Today wasn't too wet and we had a short walk this afternoon to the Pointe de Diben just beyond the port. This is reached after an ankle-breaking walk over a short stretch of loose boulders each about the size of a human head.

View attachment 342073

At the point there is a geocache.

View attachment 342074

It's somewhere near the base of the thin blade of rock to the right of centre in the photo above.

We gave it a miss, our EHIC cards having expired is our excuse. :)

But, I hear you ask, what have you been eating?

Mrs DBK's homemade bread this morning, toasted and eaten with homemade marmalade for breakfast. The bread was made in the van yesterday but the marmalade was made at home. I think making marmalade in a MH would be a challenge though doable if you didn't try to make too much.

Lunch, or what was left of it when I remembered to take a photograph, was multi-coloured tomatoes, mozzarella, olive oil and a recent twist by Mrs DBK, pesto, which gives an added layer of taste to this dish.

View attachment 342076

I can't recommend pesto on tomatoes enough!

I cooked supper a couple of night's ago.

Earlier in this trip we ate Tartiflette in a restaurant. We had first come across this dish at the Banon cheese festival in south east France. It is a relatively modern dish although based on an older recipe.

The essential ingredient is Reblochon cheese.

View attachment 342078

Purists will buy it from artisanal fromageries but we're not posh and the Super U's own brand was good enough for us.

I'm going to work on a MH friendly recipe for Tartiflette so what follows isn't definitive because it uses an oven which many MHs lack.

But if you have an oven this is what you do. :)

Par-boil some potatoes, drain and leave to cool a bit so you can slice them.

View attachment 342086

Floury potatoes are probably best but these were fine after fifteen minutes boiling.

Put sliced shallots and smoked bacon lardons in a frying pan with a glug of oil.

View attachment 342081

When the shallots are soft and the bacon nice and hot add half a glass of wine.

View attachment 342083

Reduce the liquid but not so far it becomes dry.

Our frying pan is ovenproof because you can remove the handle but you could use a separate ovenproof dish instead. As I was going to use the frying pan in the oven I put the fried shallots and bacon in a dish to one side then started adding the potatoes to the frying pan.

Traditionally the potatoes are cubed but I sliced them. After putting a layer of sliced potatoes in the frying pan I spread half the bacon and shallot mixture over them before adding a second layer of potatoes. This was then covered by the rest of the filling before the final layer of potatoes was added.

View attachment 342090

I then added pepper and salt and poured over some double cream.

Now for the Reblochon cheese. For two, half a cheese is enough I think. So cut the cheese in half then cut the half in half again but this time through the equator, so to speak.

View attachment 342091

Then place it on the dish!

View attachment 342092

Put in the oven and watch it melt. :)

View attachment 342093
View attachment 342096

When finished after about half an hour it might look like this.

View attachment 342097

Then eat!

View attachment 342098

This dish scores a 12 on the Yummyness scale, which normally only goes to 10. :)

It wasn't perfect, it needed a clove garlic but we had run out but it was almost perfect.

I'm going to work on a more MH friendly version which can be done without an oven. This should be possible because when we saw this being made in Banon no ovens were used, just big pans with lids. :)
Looks delish !!

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On Tuesday we took Charlie to the vet, one we've used several times before at Perros-Guirec to get him wormed and given a fit to travel stamp. Fortunately he passed with a clean bill of health. His missing claw is now starting to grow back. :)

On Tuesday night we stayed at the Parc du Radome north west of Lannion. This is a free to stay aire (CC1253) and a very good one too. The surface is plastic hexagons over grass, so grip wasn't an issue in the wet and despite only having 20 spaces it has a double service point. Very dark at night with no street lights, deliberately so I think as there is an astronomy club based here. They have a weird UFO shaped observatory made of wood. :) Downside of this aire is they want €5 for water so we dumped only and didn't imbibe.I

About a mile from the aire is a huge menhir, about 8m tall, the Menhir de St Uzès. If visiting this after leaving the aire don't follow the signs to the menhir as this will take you onto a very narrow road. Don't take the next right either but take the following right where there are some houses. We found this way was best when lesving after we followed the signs to the menhir. :)

We spent our last night in France back at Clèder where I used up the remaining half of the Reblochon cheese to make Tartiflette again. I had some garlic this time but no cream or creme fraiche so I used milk instead. One day I will get it right and we bought three cheeses to take back to the UK to try. They should freeze. :)

We spent this afternoon at the aire in Roscoff beside the now disused railway station, CC79402. I don't remember seeing this in Campercontact before so I'm not sure how new it is. it has acres of space and should be quiet at night. Free but without services we will use it again the next time we come over so we can spend a day in Roscoff which has a great deal of history, including a six year old Mary Queen of Scots and Alexander Dumas writing about onions. :)

Reflections on the Trip

We've had a great time but we took a gamble on the weather and lost. :)

There is much to see in Northern France but October isn't the ideal time to visit but luck plays a big part. We've had good weather in October in Brittany in other years but this year fate caught up with us.

Looking at the forecasts for the last few weeks the place to be was probably southern Portugal or southern Spain.

Spain and Portugal are certainly calling me back for another reason. France is wonderful but the wildlife, with the exception of the group of wild boar we saw, is a bit tame. We have seen no vultures or interesting raptors. Birds which can fill the sky overhead if you go to the right parts of Spain. The numbers of wolves and even bears is growing in Spain too and potentially visible if you know where to go, especially in the Cantabrian mountains of northern Spain.

Then there are the migrating cranes I wrote about on an earlier thread today...

Time to start planning for next year. I can't wait. :)
 
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We have just left Roscoff on the Amorique bound for Plymouth. The ferry is very quiet. Were folk put off sailing on the 31st of October and arriving 1 November? I'm only slightly disappointed we will miss seeing what might have happened. But we are stocked up with water and have food for a couple of days just in case no one has told Plymouth nothing has changed. :)

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If we had been leaving the EU we would be doing it in style. A French jazz group with at least a dozen members are travelling on the ship and they have just kicked off with a live performance. They are about fifteen feet away from us. :)

DSC_0488-960x540.JPG
 
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On Tuesday we took Charlie to the vet, one we've used several times before at Perros-Guirec to get him wormed and given a fit to travel stamp. Fortunately he passed with a clean bill of health. His missing claw is now starting to grow back. :)

On Tuesday night we stayed at the Parc du Radome north west of Lannion. This is a free to stay aire (CC1253) and a very good one too. The surface is plastic hexagons over grass, so grip wasn't an issue in the wet and despite only having 20 spaces it has a double service point. Very dark at night with no street lights, deliberately so I think as there is an astronomy club based here. They have a weird UFO shaped observatory made of wood. :) Downside of this aire is they want €5 for water so we dumped only and didn't imbibe.I

About a mile from the aire is a huge menhir, about 8m tall, the Menhir de St Uzès. If visiting this after leaving the aire don't follow the signs to the menhir as this will take you onto a very narrow road. Don't take the next right either but take the following right where there are some houses. We found this way was best when lesving after we followed the signs to the menhir. :)

We spent our last night in France back at Clèder where I used up the remaining half of the Reblochon cheese to make Tartiflette again. I had some garlic this time but no cream or creme fraiche so I used milk instead. One day I will get it right and we bought three cheeses to take back to the UK to try. They should freeze. :)

We spent this afternoon at the aire in Roscoff beside the now disused railway station, CC79402. I don't remember seeing this in Campercontact before so I'm not sure how new it is. it has acres of space and should be quiet at night. Free but without services we will use it again the next time we come over so we can spend a day in Roscoff which has a great deal of history, including a six year old Mary Queen of Scots and Alexander Dumas writing about onions. :)

Reflections on the Trip

We've had a great time but we took a gamble on the weather and lost. :)

There is much to see in Northern France but October isn't the ideal time to visit but luck plays a big part. We've had good weather in October in Brittany in other years but this year fate caught up with us.

Looking at the forecasts for the last few weeks the place to be was probably southern Portugal or southern Spain.

Spain and Portugal are certainly calling me back for another reason. France is wonderful but the wildlife, with the exception of the group of wild boar we saw, is a bit tame. We have seen no vultures or interesting raptors. Birds which can fill the sky overhead if you go to the right parts of Spain. The numbers of wolves and even bears is growing in Spain too and potentially visible if you know where to go, especially in the Cantabrian mountains of northern Spain.

Then there are the migrating cranes I wrote about on an earlier thread today...

Time to start planning for next year. I can't wait. :)
Loved following your trip, particularly as you take time out to visit the various megalithic sites on your travels. Apologies for being pedantic, however, the menhirs you mention above is most likely Uzec not Uzes, only mention it because I know how thorough you like to be.

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