Britain vs France - on the field and in the orchard

Cycling Tuesday: 14.8km

Cycling Wednesday: 14.8km

Swimming Wednesday: 0.95km

Walking Thursday: 3.9km

Walking Friday: 3.8km

Moles:

Pip: 1 this week; 7 year to date

Tim: 3 year to date

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There are only a few reasons why we have UK Satellite TV and don't have French TV. Actually only one, French TV is, by common consent among every French person I've ever asked, terrible, really terrible. However, sometimes it has something that we can't get easily anywhere else; like England-France rugby from Twickenham last weekend. As we had John, a keen rugby spectator, staying with us (and I can't resist any opportunity to get ammunition to get one over the hockey team) I linked up the France 2 direct internet feed via the iPad and Apple TV so we could glory in another victory for the whites. Bearing in mind that our internet connection relies on 3km of cables from the village, strung along a set of crazily leaning (and presumably rotten ...) posts the quality was pretty good. Not HD but perfectly good SD quality.

There's been another sort of Anglo French rivalry in our orchard. In 2011 we planted three plum trees; that great staple of British orchards, Victoria, and two French varieties "Quetsche" (a damson) and Reine-Claude d'Orléans (a gage).

Victoria fruited in the first season, has done very well this year and our single tree has produced 8kg of beautiful fruit:

Quetsche has produced a few (13) very pretty fruit but hasn't really competed:

And Reine-Claude d'Orléans shyly produced a few flowers, set some fruit but then dropped it all in a big sulk when the weather was cool in June.

England 19 - France 14; plum production - I think there may be a pattern there .........  !!!

Time to be a Tourist ....

Cycling Monday: 13.3km

Cycling Tuesday: 15.0km

Cycling Wednesday: 15.0km

Cycling Thursday: 20.3km (on Belle-Ile)

Walking Friday: 3.8km

Cycling Sunday: 7.3km

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We're on holiday! 

Well, not really in the sense of going away somewhere but Linda, a good friend who was with us on day 1 at La Basse Cour when the removal van arrived, is staying with us so we've stopped doing any major projects and we're doing the sort of things that a tourist would do. It's interesting to see the place you live through different eyes so last Monday we went to the weekly market in Questembert. We occasionally visit the market through the winter when the really hardy stall holders still turn up but last Monday the town was packed in the sunshine, it took all my inside knowledge to find a sensible parking place and then we mixed with the tourists in the crowded streets. 

I've also, after spending most of the five years in a bag, got my beautiful azure blue Bianchi Via Nirone bike back regularly on the road (it's the bike that has been in the bag, not me ..... ;o). Hence the increased cycling kilometrage last week.

And on Thursday we did something that we had talked about for several years and took the ferry to Belle-Ile for the day. The ferry leaves Vannes and spends an hour winding in and out of the islands in the Golfe du Morbihan before picking up passengers at Port Navalo and then going at full bore over the 12 miles to the main port on Belle-Ile, Le Palais. Belle-ile is 18km long and 6km wide with a network of cycle routes so it's ideal for hiring a bike and exploring. It was a very attractive place, outside Le Palais it was quiet despite being in the peak of the holiday season. The island has two distinct sides, the calmer landward side and the west facing Côte Sauvage, it's attracted many visitors over the years including Claude Monet who painted the western coast: 

Belle-ile is somewhere we'd like to visit out of season and spend a couple of days exploring in a bit more depth.

The harvest continues ...

Monday walking: 3.8km

Tuesday walking: 3.9km

Tuesday cycling: 2.4km

Wednesday walking: 3.8km

Wednesday swimming: 1.15km

Thursday walking: 3.9km

Friday walking: 3.8km

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Last year we grew too many potatoes (victims of a badly judged "buy 2 get 1 free" offer) and they were undersized and we still had lots in stock in March when they started sprouting. By contrast we ran out of onions in December (and shallots in November).

So this year we concentrated a bit more on quality in the potatoes and quantity in the onions.

Here are the results:

Charlotte potatoes - about 25kgs:

And the onions (with shallots at the back):

The dry weather is helping to season the onions and we should be able to start plaiting them into strings at the end of the week.

And, new this year, our Goutte d'Or fig has started producing some lovely sweet figs: