It is odd to find yourself in an unknown country, by your own choosing and by your own actions. What were we thinking, heading abroad to Brittany and now to Catalonia, places we’ve never been? We are now into a new gorgeous wild countryside of ravines and mountains and rivers and people and customs we don’t understand.

And do we seem to find civil unrest wherever we go? Yes. Maybe Americans just don’t know how to protest stuff. All through France for the past two weeks, we’ve been forced to deal with a large social upheaval – and we encounter it because the protestors occupy every busy intersection coming off the the tollway, with cozy fires of burning pallets and friendly roadblocks. They let everyone through – but but they want to have their say first.

And not only do they let us through, but they’ve taken over the toll booths, so about half the time, we’ve not had to pay any toll on our long roll south to Spain.

And now we are in Catalonia, where they have been agitating for independence, protesting in Barcelona and staging events even in the little town we are nearest to.

However, outside the main areas of protest, everything proceeds normally as if nothing is going on. Foreigners wouldn’t know, however, there the main areas of protest are. Well, WE DO because of Twitter. Twitter is the main communication method of protestors, so if you learn the hashtags, you can be pretty informed. Twitter has been our new best friend these past two weeks, helping us avoid certain intersections and take back roads when things seem a little too energetic for foreigners to negotiate. If you haven’t read up, here is a current article. They make it sound like it is only in Paris, but that is not the case (now I’m the reporter!).

After much angst, we left our castle sitting post. As for what happened, I’ll limit it to: we were not compatible with the situation. We were being taken advantage of, in a mild version of serfdom.

We loved Brittany, however. The people are fiesty, the agricultural lands are rich, the trees, tall and mossy old. We especially loved the old canal, which is hundreds of kilometers long with hiking paths on both sides for the entire length. We walked it nearly every day.

It is an innovative and active recreation resource, with lots of overnight bikers, plenty of dog walkers, folks fishing and, for two months, two happy Americans.

I loved that the grass is cut and the leaves gathered by power machines pulled by giant work horses. It is an amazing and admirable program.  I hope it continues forever! Now what about us you ask?

Where to next?

We found another European house sitting gig starting in about 10 days, to take us through Christmas and into January. This one seems like it might be more mellow. (The owner says, “I just want someone staying there. No duties at all.”) Meanwhile we are roaming around staying in cheap digs.

Next post, I’ll tell you about how we’ve been directly affected by the civil unrest here in France.

We met someone our first day here and loved her immediately. She is around 80 years old, and when she was 50 or 60 she came from Paris, saw an old medieval house in the wild countryside and had to have it. Or, maybe it had to have her?

The countryside of western France is one of the largest rural areas we’ve ever known. Old, picturesque houses, all with slate tile roofs, dot the land around every village. There seems to be a village every few miles, and this goes on for hundreds of miles. Every green field is surrounded by old trees and great habitat.

Our friend’s roof is crooked; not because, she told us, it is old and sagging, but because it follow the outline of ancient tree that makes the beam. Centuries-old houses like this look like they were built by large hobbits.  Inside is a fireplace big enough for a family of three of those large hobbits to recline in. Outside are massive 600 year old oaks and apples trees and laurel shrubs. It is just down the hill from us and we see her on our walks.

She’s come to her country house every time she could get time off from her job as a museum curator, at the big museums in Paris.  After we met this lady, a few days later she came over with her older sister and asked us for help with the elder’s Iphone. That lead to cookies and tea, and after a week or two, we ended up giving them a ride to a nearby town. All this resulted in us getting to know each other bit.

The two sisters grew up in Normandy.  They told us they remember D-day as little girls, and were grateful for the young American men who died to liberate them. What a treasure, for us, to talk to someone who remembers such things.

I think we’ll think of our friend and her sister often, even though we’ve left the castle now. (More on that tomorrow.)

The two reasons we don’t eat out more are money and, well, just…money. I was going to say “hassle” as a second reason. Because it is a little uncomfortable, ordering in another language, never being 100% certain what you’ll get. But, the food is so yummy when we do eat out, that I think if we felt like spending more money, we’d eat out OFTEN. 

Not every dish is perfect. We have been eating at a bakery we like; they make those sandwiches I was telling you about. But yesterday, we tried to order one plate of fries for two sandwiches and felt pretty sure that was what we communicated…but we got two giant plates of fries, and though they had looked great on other people’s plates, they were too soft and greasy.  I would call that our only disappointment so far.

But then again –  yesterday I had something that looked like blue cheese and tasted like horse manure. (To me!)

Our best food experiences so far have been at the seafood restaurants in the coastal town of Concarneau. The first one – we didn’t actually order or eat the great food, but we saw French people eating it! I know, I know…but we don’t know how to eat oysters, mussels and langoustines (little lobster-type things). So we ordered meal-sized salads (really good, just not adventurous) and watched everyone else. And now we feel we are almost ready to order French seafood for ourselves.

The next day, we drove up the coast and found a couple of restaurants that looked pretty standard, but Google told us that hundreds of people at eaten at them and enjoyed it. So we went to the one that had the most people. A guy next to us had the steamed mussels so we had our second lesson on those, while we ordered the Fish Plate of the Day. It was delicious!!! See you next time! (P.S. We had that time change I was waiting for today!)