Days of wine and rosé 
Brittany Trip 2006
It’s been a wonderful summer for us with some fantastic boating visitors (19 of us to accommodate in/near our home in Brittany!!!)
The neighbours formed a guard of honour as
les rosbifs arrived in style, 4 boats dwarfing the little street. Whiteshoes and family completed the whole trip by sea and canal…absolutely amazing!!!The seas of Southern Brittany were churned up several times as we explored the islands and little ports of the area. It was fantastic to have the company of able skippers and all proceeded safely and happily.
Summer wouldn’t be summer these days without putting Martin through some sort of camping torture and indeed he was heard swearing all over a certain remote island as cartloads of requisites were moved about, eventually to find a pitch near toilets which were served by flowing water only twice a day…nothing a few ‘Desperadoes’ couldn’t cure (if you can’t beat ‘em…
)
The neighbours were invited round to meet the invaders and gallons of rosé (contributed by Pete & Viv)were consumed with Jackeen, Whiteshoes & Mike’s BBQ skills put to the test. Language fluency increased in proportion to alcohol quaffed! Martin was heard to declare his English improved considerably as the night wore on!
Antoinette’s idea to visit a Loire Chateau was a resounding success and some wine-tasting was inevitable (the owner of the vineyard was due to set off on his holidays the following day ; wife, kids and RIB!!!)
The harbourmaster/s did a sterling job of fitting us in (‘many zodiacs this year!’). The route from the mainland to the islands became stamped on our brains (just as well as one timely mission to rescue a watch took a little longer than planned!!!!)
Boating trip it was but there was also time for other pursuits, exploring the local hostelries, practising our French on the morning bakery run !!! Oh and a golf game which as I recall was won by the Irish Team, Whiteshoes???? Despite Mr. Timex himself playing like a demon, Jackeen had the edge and collected some illicit earnings on the 18th. Sadly my Big Bertha let me down on this occasion & I only hit one decent drive but considering it was two years or so since we all played we didn’t damage the course too much! The amazing Ryder Cup win might fire us all up to get back on the driving range!
Some ski-ing took place also but that's another tale!!!
One family’s sojourn in ‘malaria alley’ wasn’t too pleasant but they were rescued and brought under cover as soon as was practicable. The diesel smoke
did little to deter the horrible mosquitoes which invaded because of an unusual offshore breeze.
One engine wasn’t too happy with long distances, so rather than risk it we deferred the longer trip to Florence & Philippe’s place. But we girls (Jill, Holly, Becky and I) won’t forget winning the ‘back from the islands race’ and steaming into the harbour in first place (albeit after 3 stuffs/ early showers!) Well done team!!!
Huge thanks to everyone who planned and put in effort so that all would be happy & comfortable. We couldn’t possibly thank you individually here because we would forget some act of helpfulness that contributed to making this such a memorable trip for us and others. But the six teenagers who came along need to be mentioned because they were absolutely wonderful, helpful, polite and uncomplaining. Many thanks gals and guys!!!
It’s been great meeting up with peeps since we arrived back for work! And huge thanks for the dinner invites, souvenirs, a disc of photos from Anto & Martin, some beautiful additions to our house from Tony & famille and an absolutely amazing photo-montage from Nautibuoy who most obligingly is about to buy a fab Polish ferry (love the polish texts gArf!!!) so we can cut costs as we head home to Brittany in future!!!!
No doubt the stories will keep us going for the winter. A few can never appear on RIBnet really
But will be confessed in Church at the appointed time. It has been difficult to get back to the grindstone!! But a terrific invite to the Boatshow as well as a trip on America’s Cup racing yacht ‘France 3’ reawoke us to the joys of the Solent. Now we look forward to the arrival of Nautibuoy’s Parker RIB while a certain hopeful RIBster has apparently been ragging & sticking it the minute our backs were turned!!! (BTW ta v. much for invite on Deauville trip Brian but we were involved in something else
)
Thanks all who came along and contributed to an extremely memorable summer. Planning begins for next summer as soon as we clear the backlogs at work!!!!
Kathleen & Paul
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