A visit with the Bitos*

Nico's parents, Ana Maria and Germán, came to visit us in mid-May as part of a European tour.  They saw the sights of Barcelona, Budapest, Vienna, and a little communal Christian farm in the countryside of northwestern France, on a street that Google maps has dubbed, "unnamed road".

We took them to some of our favorite spots, and a couple places we'd never been before, then Ana Maria stayed another week to help with the boys while I went on a bit of a solo pilgrimage... see the next post for those details.  :)


Day 1: Monday, May 14th
Welcome!

First things first: when they arrived we took them to dinner at Penn Ar Bed, the affordable seaside crêperie that was recommended to us when my family visited three weeks earlier.  Standing in one spot, looking in opposite directions...

...you have the restaurant behind Nico...

...and the beach behind Moisés.

Just outside the restaurant, a path runs parallel to the beach.  We walked along after dinner to watch the sun setting over the ocean.

Day 2: Tuesday, May 15th
A day on the farm

We took it easy on their first full day.  We spent our time on a farm tour, working a new lego set, reading books, and just being together again after six months apart.

Day 3: Wednesday, May 16th
Locronan and Pointe du Raz

While I worked in the garden, Nico and the boys took Ana Maria and Germán to medieval Locronan (see Kishiah's visit for the interesting history of Locronan).  Tourist season has hit, so all the stores and the church were open, none of which we'd ever been inside.

Nico, Yanni, Moisés, and Germán in front of the 15th century church.

Yanni, Ana Maria, Nico, and Moisés take a break on a bench in Locronan.

When the harvest ended, I joined up with everyone and we drove to Pointe du Raz.  Several people have recommended the hike there to us, but we hadn't yet seen it for ourselves.

Abuelito teaches Moisés about the lighthouses, los faros in Spanish, that they are seeing off the coast in this picture.  Moisés soaked up all the details of what lighthouses are and how they used to work.

Nico and Ana Maria totter along at Yanni pace.  Behind them are a statue of Mary dedicated to men lost at sea and a modern military lighthouse, or phare in French.

At the mid-point of the hike, you find yourself on the very tip of the peninsula, or presqu’île in French, literally meaning "nearly island".  From the hiking path, the rugged, exposed rock appears to quickly disappear into the ocean, until you go off the path...

... to find that the landscape unfolds and continues up and down and over and around.  Dry land ends in a rocky crag offering adventure and begging any willing explorers to scramble around the rough terrain.

On a windy lookout of Pointe du Raz.

Day 4: Thursday, May 17th
Point l'Abbé Market

The boys and I took los Abuelitos to the market in nearby Pont l'Abbé.  Out of the hundreds of stands that pop up every Thursday morning, this is one of my favorites:

Bowl after open bowl of spices and looseleaf tea blends cover every inch of this table.  You can smell the stand before you see it!  And it smells so nice.  When you order a spice, the owner pulls out a tiny scooper on a long stick and, remaining behind the table, he reaches over to shovel a bit of your request into a small bag to weigh on his scale.

Day 5, etc: Friday, May 18th - Saturday, May 26th

On Friday Ana Maria and Germán toured Mont-Saint-Michel while Nico baked and I prepared for my first childless week in five years and eight months, to the day.  After dropping me off at the bus station Friday evening, Nico and the boys visited with los Abuelitos for the weekend.  Then as the workweek began, Germán made his way back to the states but Abuelita stayed for a week of fun with the boys so Nico could continue his apprenticeship while I was away.

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*Originally, Yanni called Nico's parents "Bita" and "Bito", short for "Abuelita" and "Abuelito".  He doesn't really say that anymore since his speech has developed quite a bit, but the cute abbreviated names are hard for a sentimental mama to forget!  :)

Sheep Shearing

We arrived at Guenvez toward the end of Fall.  As we began to understand where we were and what was what and who was who, we noticed that the shepherd, whose sheep grazed Guenvez's fallow grain fields in the winter, sometimes brought two other people with him.  We first saw the trio from afar - a man moving sheep fencing while two quick darts ran to and fro, up and down trees, and in and out of holly bushes.

In pure joy, Nicolas ran over to meet the shepherd and Moisés to join the darts, who turned out to be 5- and 7-year-old brothers, Auguste and Octave, respectively.  Over the next few months, as the sheep needed to be herded from field to field and as they pushed through lambing season, Yohan and his boys would come around to either check on the sheep or see who could throw dirt clods the farthest, depending on their interests.  No matter what we were doing when we saw them arrive, Moisés would clatter out the door to join the frolicking of other boys his own age.

Octave and Auguste are in a bilingual French/Breton program, so with Moisés' English and Spanish there are four languages between the three buddies, with none in common.  Fortunately, "play" is a cross-cultural tongue and their fun never stops.

A few months in, I got to meet the mama, Amélie, who just so happens to speak fluent English.  :)  We consider this family a blessing and an answer to my hopeful prayer request to find an English-speaking mama with a child Moisés' age in France.  We have been on several adventures with Yohan, Amélie, and their boys, though between their animals and Nico's bakery apprenticeship, it's often hard to have all four members of both families present.  So far, the only time both papas, both mamas, and all four jumping beans have converged was for a Sunday evening sheep shearing in mid-May.

When the shearers communicated that they were on their way, Yohan hollered to the 100+ ewes and lambs and they ran towards him, at first just a few, then the rest of the timid creatures followed.  The sheep were lead through a bottle neck (to the left in this photo) between bushes and fencing, and down a passageway to a pen where they'd be held captive for the shearing.

Les brebis et leurs agneaux, the ewes and their lambs, cuddled together and bleeted such a racket that you'd think they didn't do this every year.

Yanni's purple wool hat and patterend wool coat don't quite fit in...

Nico helped Yohan separate all the lambs (temporarily!) from their mamas, since the young sheep wouldn't be sheared this time around.  As Nico and Yohan each found a lamb, they told Amélie if it was mâle or femelle before they set it across the fence, and she took the first inventory of their flock since lambing season.

Moisés, Octave, and Auguste helped crowd the mamas into one side of the pen to open up a space for the shearers to set up their clippers.

We ended up having to wait quite a while for the sheep shearers to arrive.  The boys found a handful of plastic yellow dog training collars in the truck, Yohan trains dogs in addition to animal husbandry, and by linking the collars together, the trio endlessly amused themselves while they waited.

Mathilde, a visitor at the Ark that week, joined us to the agrarian event.  Here she entertains Yanni with a French flower-petal-plucking rhyme, simliar to "he loves me, he loves me not".

The shearers finally arrived and everyone sprang into action!  These sheep were the third and final flock of the day for the father and two sons.

Nico leads a lamb to lie down in green pastures.  No, no.  Nico delivers it to slaughter.  No, no, no.  Nico carries a sheep to the next available shearer.  The nature of sheep really does provide amazing metaphors and insight to human nature!  We found bible jokes easily.

The "bosses" and the boys wait with the sheep for the next barber seat opening.

Elisabeth sorts the raw wool into large containers.  As quick as she can, she pulls the dirty-beyond-use sections from the workable fleece before another fluffy coat is tossed her way.

The family team sheared 70-80 sheep in a couple hours, racing the steadily setting sun.  We were impressed by how long they could hold their back-saving posture, bending forward from their hips, upside down over the sheep.

Yohan finds the final fluffy stragglers...

...and then they're free to return to their bawling lambs!
Lighter and cooler than before.

Four boys run back after chasing the last of the sheepish mamas down the passageway to their babies.

Tour de France with the Blantons: Round 2

On Friday night Nico caught an overnight bus back to the Ark, and on Saturday morning my siblings made their way to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport to fly back to the US.  But for Mimi, Grandpa, Moisés, Yanni, and I, the adventures continued to the Loire Valley!

Day 8: Saturday, April 28th
Travelling between Paris and Amboise

We said "goodbye" to the HoBeau where we stayed during
the Paris leg of the trip, and where my parents would return
later to see the sights for a few more days in Paris.  Then,
we rented a car and drove a couple hours southwest to
Amboise in the Loire Valley... an area known for its castles.

In Amboise, Mom had found us an AirBnB-type apartment right
next to Château Royal d'Amboise... this is the view from our window!

Day 9: Sunday, April 30th
Amboise - Market and Castle

Amboise hosts the region's weekly outdoor market on Sunday mornings.
We strolled down the Loire River to find hundreds of pop-up tents with
vendors selling plants, clothing, shoes, mattresses, jewelry, leather products,
hats, coffee, and a wide variety of food, both raw and prepared.

Without Nico there to help us, I became the French "expert".
I stretched my brain to navigate us through purchasing
fruits and veggies, cheese, coffee, and fresh pasta for dinner.

In the afternoon, we toured the neighboring castle, Château Royal
d'Amboise.  Here are the groomed gardens and elegant mansion on top
of the high fortification.  The royal hub was "put on the map" when
Charles VIII made it his home base at the end of the 15th century.

Charles VIII married Anne de Bretagne, thus usurping Bretagne under
France's control.  The flags in this photo alternate: France's emblem in
yellow & blue and Bretagne's emblem in black & white, harkening back to
the end of the 15th century when Charles and Anne lived there.  It was fun
for me to feel like I was following a bit of Anne's history since I feel some
connection to Bretagne now, and also nice to see Anne's roots acknowledged
after having been forced to become queen at the age of 14.  Our apartment
is in this picture, on the corner closest to us of the second block back.

Here is the small, yet very beautifully detailed chapel,
perched on the edge of the castle wall. Every castle had
a chapel; royal culture was highly influenced by catholocism.

Two sides of the fortified wall boast large, round
turrets, Inside each, horses used to pull carriages round
and round a wide road that inclines slowly and steadily
up to the courtyard at the top of the fortifications.

Three generations of happy people visiting a castle!

Day 10: Monday, May 1st
Château de Chenonceau and Château du Clos Lucé

Château de Chenonceau

Built in the early 1500's, Chenonceau had its fair share of drama, between kings, queens, and mistresses, for 400 years before playing an active role in the world wars of the 20th century.  A military hospital at Chenonceau served 2,200+ soldiers during WWI, and in WWII, the Cher River over which the castle arches, was the border marking the edge of Nazi-occupied France.  During that time, Chenonceau played a role in the underground-railroad-style escape route for Jews and others fleeing Nazi-occupied regions.

On Monday morning, a 20 minute car ride took us to the entrance of Château
de Chenonceau - the valley's first "pleasure castle", rather than fortified castle.

Like Versailles, every inch of this castle was ornately decorated.  For
example, this is a ceiling.  Most ceiling tiles had the initials of the
original builders: TB and KB for Thomas Bohier and Katherine Briconnet,
or the royal H and C for King Henry II and his wife Catherine de Médicis,
who were very influencial on the castle's later design.

Just an average fireplace at Chenonceau. High up on the
flue are the engraved coat of arms of Francois I (left) and
his wife Claude de France (right). Claude is one of only two
children of Anne de Bretagne that survived into adulthood. 

Yanni wonders where the party is. This is the first floor of the Grand Gallery
- the part of the castle that crosses the river. At first built as a bridge to more
easily get from the castle to the hunting grounds, Catherine de Médici
eventually had three stories built on the foundation of the bridge to use as
ballrooms and banquet halls... and eventually a military hospital in WWI.

I was particularly impressed with the pre-fossil-fuel kitchen.  It's the
perfect model for a community kitchen (haha) because it's built for a
castle's-worth of fancy people, so it was huge.  There was a butchery and
a bread oven and a whole room for the pantry.  Pictured here is a wood cook
stove four times the size of my own, and behind it is a hearth with a spit,
possibly large enough to roast an entire boar from the nearby hunting ground.

Château du Clos Lucé

Rain threatened in the afternoon, but we took our chances
at Château du Clos Lucé, a "guest castle" for Château
Royal d'Amboise, with just a short walk separating them.

The chapel of Le Clos Lucé was my favorite space. I eventually gave up trying
to get a decent photograph of the tiny room because it seemed to be constantly
filled with a tour group speaking one language or another, but the ceiling
pictured here was never crowded. :) I was touched with sentimentality here for
Anne de Bretagne. While she lived at Château Royal d'Amboise, she lost a
number of children in infancy, in fact, in her lifetime she had 16 pregnancies;
ten were miscarriages or stillborn, two died the day they were born, and two
died as toddlers. She came to this chapel - away from the hustle and bustle of
her own castle - to mourn and pray. It struck me that I wasn't reading about
something an ocean away or standing in a life-size replica, but in the actual
space where she wept for her children more than 500 years ago.

In 1516, Francois I invited the intellectual company of Leonardo da Vinci to
join his court, held at Château Royal d'Amboise.  Leonardo accepted and spent
the last three years of his life living in Le Clos Lucé.  Apparently the 22-year-
old Francois and the 65-year-old Leonardo were good buddies by the end, as
several paintings of Leonardo's death have Francois mourning at his bedside.

In the large park outside Le Clos Lucé, functioning models of many of
Leonardo's inventions are scattered about.  Yanni got a kick out of spinning
the paddlewheel, begging "one more time" a hundred times...

...and Moisés insisted that we be sure to see every
single model and enjoyed watching the mechanics of each one.

Day 11: Tuesday, May 2nd
Returning home

Car fun on the way back to Paris, where the boys and I would
catch a train to Quimper.  My parents planned to see the sights
in Paris for a few more days before returning to the US.

These sweet people are still happy
at the tail end of our long adventure!

Tour de France with the Blantons: Round 1

Around Christmas, my parents and three siblings compared their varied schedules and found a single week in the spring where they were all free to visit us in France.  From then on, we counted down the days to April 21st from both sides of the Atlantic.

Finally, winter ended and the arrival date approached!  Nico and I were approved to borrow the community car as we needed it during the weekend of their arrival and we made our way to the Quimper train station by 4:15pm on Saturday, April 21st to watch their train come in at 4:30pm.  The "arrivals" screen showed their train à l'heure so we quickly found the correct platform and joined a small group of other eager people, posed like prarie dogs facing left together, watching for the nose of the train to appear around a curve.

Soon enough, we heard a whistle!  We giddily waved as each car passed until, towards the end of the train, we saw three of the five familiar jet-lagged faces peering through a window with amused smiles as their hands waved back at us on auto pilot after 24 hours of sleepless travel.  What joy!  Those of us easily prone to tears had watery eyes as we hugged and gathered all the luggage.

The following photographs are a mixture from all of my family's cameras.

Day 1: Saturday, April 21st

My family's arrival at the train station!

Day 2: Sunday, April 22nd
Catholic mass and Medieval Locronan

Instead of driving into town for the mass on Sunday morning as usual, we
joined the Ark on a stroll to the small local chapel in the town of Saint-Joseph.
The chapel is only open one day per year in honor of Saint Joseph's day, and
was packed, with overflow benches just outside the door. On the left in this
photo, tables were set up where you could get a drink of Kir (sparkling wine
with black currant) or Cabernet d'Anjou after the mass. While the mass was
still being played out, a small crowd of pre-gamers had gathered, maybe
because the chapel was so packed they couldn't get in... or maybe not.

We ate at a local crêperie on the beach for lunch, highly recommended by
Christiane and Robert. As you can see in the reflection in the window... we're
really right on the beach. By the way, that's Lara Mack! She had a small window
of time where she could visit us, that happened to overlap with my family's visit.
We joyfully welcomed her for the 36 hours or so that she was able to join us. :)

On the way to the Quimper train station where we would part ways with Lara,
we stopped to walk around Locronan - our favorite nearby old medieval town.
(See Kishiah's visit for the interesting history of Locronan.)

Day 3: Monday, April 23rd
A day at Guenvez

My family hung out in the bakery for a little while and watched Nico pulled
pizzas out of the oven and slide all the bread in.

Lunch in the communal kitchen.

Nico and Sylvain (Benoit's brother) took my family
grocery shopping at Géant.  This is the USA section of
the international aisle.  Click on the photo to get a window
into France's understanding of United States cuisine.

Nico took my parents and siblings on a tour of the farm while

I packed up our family to join in on the France sightseeing tour.

Moisés and Yanni show the onions in the market garden beds.

Nico, Moi, Yan, and Josh pose in front of a silo, "to show how big it is".

Day 4: Tuesday, April 24th
Medieval Dinan

After rolling out of Guenvez a little later than we had hoped, our
first stop was the medieval town of Dinan. Here, some tourists
pause under an arcaded building to decide where to go next.

A section of Dinan's fortification wall still stands, including this governor's tower
from the 15th century. No longer necessary, the barricade provides a nice hike
through the modern city of Dinan with beautiful, sometimes nearly 360 degree views.

After Dinan, we drove to an AirBnB near Mont-Saint-Michel.  The house
was a duplex, with the owners living in one side and providing the other
side for travellers and vacationers.  They had several baby goats, chickens,
and a handful of rabbits which the boys loved!

We heard that Mont-Saint-Michel is beautifully lit up at night, so a handful
of us tried to go see it.  But it was late and we were tired, so we didn't want
to put in too much effort, as in, park the car and ride a 10 minute bus.
This was as close as we could get... hah.

Day 5: Wednesday, April 25th
Le Mont-Saint-Michel and Normandy Beaches

Le Mont-Saint-Michel

Le Mont-Saint-Michel at low tide.  Apparently the land is so flat, that the tide
advances and receeds at 18 feet per minute.  Before the bridge was built, it
was truly a pilgrimage to cross the sandy bottoms to the famed island.

Because of the pointed shape of the top of the island, many "crypts" were
built over the uneven surface, their roofs creating level ground on which to
construct the cathedral.  Marj and Moi hug two of the massive pillars
that bear the weight of the cathedral above.

A couple stragglers still chowin' down in the mess hall. 

Yep, this is what it looks like: a human-sized hampster
wheel.  While Mont-Saint-Michel was used as a prision
from 1791 to 1863, six prisoners would climb in and
walk two-abreast to power this wheel, lifting supplies up
to the abbey area from below.

Inside the church.

Moisés ponders in a side chapel.

On our way out, looking up at the cathedral from below.
There is a golden statue of Saint Michael on the point of the
spire. It is said that, early in the 8th century, Saint Aubert of
Avranches had visions of Saint Michael telling him to build
an oratory on what was formerly Mont-Tombe.  Saint Aubert
ignored the first two of these visions, and finally on the
third one, Saint Michael pressed his thumb into Saint
Aubert's forehead and left a mark.  So... he built the oratory.

Normandy Beaches

On the way to Paris we stopped at Pointe du Hoc, one of the American
landing points on D-Day. We were stunned to see the "moonscape"
still remaining from "10 kilotons of bombs - with nearly the
explosive power of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima - but
dropped over seven weeks"¹ in pre-D-Day bombing efforts.

The cliffs of Point du Hoc.  Troops had to wade through the ocean
from their boats and haul their wet bodies up ropes and ladders,
backpacks and all, with the constant threat of gunfire from above.

As time heals all wounds, Omaha Beach is fronted by fancy vacation
homes up to the left, tucked into a large hill that runs parallel to the beach.
After walking around the bomb scars at Pointe du Hoc and watching a short
film in the small museum there, which shared some of the grave truths of
the famous military event, it was hard for us to imagine it had become a
vacation destination. We all felt the weight of the history of the landscape.

Day 6: Thursday, April 26th
Paris

In the morning, Ben, Marj, and Josh went to Musée
d'Orsay while the rest of us took it slow to recover from
the late night travel into Paris.  Here is a famous historical
painting of Ben when he's a little older.

We strolled along the Seine on the way to the Louvre.

The courtyard of the Louvre!  Inside the grand glass pyramid it is hot,
as you might expect something built like a greenhouse to be.
(Click on the photo to enlarge it.)

On our way home from the Louvre, we stumbled upon Pont des Arts,
one of two famous bridges where lovers prove their amour by attaching
a padlock to the bridge and tossing the key in the river.  *Sigh*, we are
actually posing.  Though we love each other, we did not choose to
purchase a lock from the advantageous vendor in the middle of the bridge.

We also stumbled upon Thomas
Jefferson strutting the streets of Paris!

Our day ended at the Eiffel Tower.  Here is my family of origin at the top...

...and my family of posterity at the bottom.

Day 7: Friday, April 27th
Versailles

We spent all of Friday at Versailles, palace to King Louis XIV, a power-hungry control freak who pacified nobles with grandeur and arrogantly proclaimed, "L'etat, c'est moi!" (The state, that's me!). Halfway through his reign, around the year 1700, Louis XIV had put so much of his time and energy and the public's funds into Versailles and himself, that he had elevated France to the culture and power hub of Europe. Our guidebook told us that at that time, "throughout Europe, when you said 'the king,' you were referring to the French king - Louis XIV."²

Breakfast in the café of Hôtel Beaugency in Paris.

The somewhat sickening splendor of Versailles still draws people from all
over the world... the line in this photo flows all the way to the golden gate,
then curves to the columned building on the left. Etched across the top of
both roman-style buildings are the proud words, "A TOUTES LES
GLOIRES DE LA FRANCE", that is to say, "to all the glory of France".

That is a cat in a backpack.
King Louis XIV couldn't have imagined this himself.

Spending freely from public funds, Louis XIV transformed his father's
hunting lodge - a place that held his own favorite childhood memories - into
the elaborate palace of Versailles, as a get-away from the hustle and bustle of
Paris.  Every inch of the gigantic palace is intricately decorated, such as the
fireplace pictured above in the Hercules Drawing Room.

Papa and Moisés listening to the free, and very well done, audio tour.

This is a baby in a backpack. :) The timing of Yanni's nap allowed me to peacefully read every plaque and hear every second of the audio tour.

The self-proclaimed "Sun King", Louis the XIV ate his dinners at the white
table while members of the high court would sit on the red cushions and watch
him, commenting on his every movement.  He had a strict schedule to the day,
requiring people to be present for his waking up and going to bed ceremonies,
in addition to this dinnertime ritual.

This room is dedicated to the French Revolution and beyond, which made us
question why the palace of Versailles was not destroyed in the revolution.  The
National Convention - the first goverment after the revolution - decided to
claim the palace as property of the Republic to use as a public space, turning
Versailles into a museum in 1794.  Over the last 200+ years, though the
government has changed hands and the role of Versailles within each new
reign has shifted to and fro, the expansive palace has basically kept it's
status as a public space and museum.

Our first view of the extensive gardens surrounding the palace.

Louis XIV had the Seine River re-routed to water his lavish gardens and fuel
the 50+ fountains scattered throughout the grounds. Here, Yanni and Marj
watch a fountain show. The spurts of water are timed to correspond with
classical music blasting from hidden speakers all around - something only
possible in modern times, yet still certainly within the spirit of Louis XIV.

Marie Antoinette was intrigued with peasant life, though
perhaps not interested in either starving or doing the actual
work herself, and had an ideallic, fully-functioning village
built in the woods near Versailles. She and Louis XVI
retreated into their extensive fantasy worlds 60 years after
Louis XIV, and far away from the ever-more-discontented,
near-revolution public. As the kingdom of France crumb-
led at the end of the 18th century, the ruling class continued
to invest in more toys and luxuries with public funds.

When political life followed Louis XIV to Versailles, he built another lavish
retreat to get away from his first one, only a short walk from Versailles.
Referred to as the Grand Trianon, it is much smaller than Versailles: comprised
of "only" two ornate wings, connected with the colonnade pictured above.

A great way to end a big day on our feet... and our week-long trip together!
The next morning, we would all part ways.

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¹ Steves, Rick. (2017). France 2017. (p. 285). California: Avalon Travel.
² Steves, Rick. (2017). France 2017. (p. 178). California: Avalon Travel.