The Louvre

Veggie Hubby and I just returned from Paris, and even though the weather wasn't great we enjoyed ourselves. We went up the Eiffel Tower, and the views were incredible, we went at around dusk so we could see Paris by day, and then lit up at night. However, it was a very windy and rainy evening, and the tower was swaying at the top. You could really feel it moving- scary! It felt like being on a boat.

The next day, we spent a long time yesterday at The Louvre. It is so big, I think we needed to spend much more time there to see everything. My personal highlight was seeing the Mona Lisa. I grew up with a copy of it at home, so I feel a certain attachment to it, and it was really special to see the original. I also enjoyed looking at the Greek and Italian sculptures...

...but we spent most time looking at the Egyptian artifacts. Seeing these really gives you a glimpse into their culture.
I was surprised by how popular the museum was, and how many people spend their day looking at art while others are working at their desks. It costs 9 euros to go into The Louvre, but in the UK museums are free. My visit to The Louvre made me rediscover museums, and I think I will spend more weekends going visit museums in London after my visit there.

Sun, sea and snow...

In France it was quite sunny at times, the pretty pink flowers are from my parents' lovely garden. There are also some sea photos from the ferry at St. Malo. We didn't see much of St. Malo but it really looked beautiful from what we could see; I don't think these photos really do it justice.


Earlier this morning, we had a scattering of April snow, I don't think it will stay around for long though as it is already melting. Snow is always quite a novelty in England, but it is never anything like the crazy snow in Canada. It seems rather modest and British in comparison.

Animals of Brittany

A little lizard we spotted whilst walking through some woods, it came out of a hole in a tree to see us. There is also a cat that we saw near some disgusting public toilets (holes in the ground) and my baby dog Sky with her new best friend, 'Duck'.

The Enchanted Wood

When I was much younger, I used to love Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree series, about an enchanted wood. Yesterday, we went to visit a real life enchanted forest, Brocéliande, which Veggie Hubby was very keen to see as part of his thesis focused on this forest. We saw many different things: a golden tree, a fountain of eternal youth, Merlin's tomb, a King Arthur centre and a gigantic hollow oak tree.

We also ate some delicious traditional Breton crepes and galettes. I was really pleased as they let our dog into the restaurant, and she was very well-behaved (I don't think food hygiene standards are quite the same in France). They must have thought us Brits were very strange as some of the group of eight, myself included, had a sweet crepe followed by a savory galette, as the galettes looked (and tasted) so good.

The crêperie was near to a beautiful old Abbey. This is one of things I find fascinating about Brittany; the strange juxtaposition of seeing for instance, a weather-vane witch next to a statue of Jesus on a cross. I took a hundred photos, it is soooo difficult to chose just a few to put up here...

More pictures from Brittany

Earlier I posted these pictures, but I didn't get the chance to put a little note about them because there is far too much competition for this laptop at my parents' house, and I just didn't get it for long enough!

We went on an outing today, to another little Breton village, and again there were a lot of cute artisan shops and cats. In fact, as I was taking the photo of the above cat, her owner arrived and starting chatting to us; I think she was very pleased that I was photographing her cat, but I felt too embarrassed to take any more pictures of her. Isn't she gorgeous? In the photo with the tree, you can see nests of mistletoe, there seems to be a lot of it growing here. Brittany also has a lot of folklore and legends, and many shops selling little figurines for the tourists. Veggie Hubby bought a little gnome/goblin/elf-type souvenier (apparently called a Korrigan) and I found a natural habitat for it in the garden, check here to see him in another location. I am not particulary interested by witches and mythical creatures, but I did like the pink witch outisde the 'Phil and Luna' shop (something to do with her colour...). I even think we saw a group of real witches (a group of women, wearing black with lots of cats around) in the square...scary!

Shrines

You don't need to walk very far here before you see a shrine. I really liked the unusual shrine by the lake, and the other one is a cross that was preserved from an old cemetery. Even my parents have their own shrine (!) - a little celebration of my wedding. So despite abandoning me, I am pleased to learn that I am not completely absent from their house.