Brittany Holiday Part 1

This trip we wanted to make it all the way to southern Brittany. We took the ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe and then travelled down through Normandy. We didn't want to overstretch ourselves with too much driving each day so we made a couple of stops along the way.

We had an overnight stop at a very pleasant aire in Herouvillette.....

Then the next day we travelled to Saint Brieuc and found an aire at nearby St Laurent de la Mer where Spencer had fun on the beach....

One more long journey and we arrived at this lovely aire at Scaer in Finistere, Brttany. We were the only ones there. We loved it so much here that we returned to stay here two more times during our holiday.

There was a wonderful track to walk along....

including this old Art Nouveau railway bridge....

and a river for Spencer to splash about in....

We moved on to Glomel near the Lake where there is a large dam which dates back to the early 19th century...the Barrage du Korong.....the lake was originally constructed to feed the Nantes-Brest canal.

We found a beautiful path behind it....

where Spencer could have a paddle.

It led to beautiful woodland.....

and more paddling!

Moving on to Huelgoat and another lovely walk around the lake there......

On the West Coast, we found this fabulous beach, La Plage de Sainte-Anne.....

We discovered this fascinating cave there.....

...and had to have a peek inside.....I don't know how deep it went but it looked pretty deep into the cliffside...

inside looking out.....

 There were seams of rock on the beach and we found this one which was very worn by the tides... I named it the Seven Sisters as it looked like the heads sticking out of the sand!

The tide came in pretty fast and it kind of creeps in so that you don't notice it. Within five minutes of meeting the Seven Sisters they were submerged in water.....

Another stop in the pretty town of Josselin. We had a lovely meal out at a creperie by the beautiful old church...those extending gargoyles are amazing.....

There was a big street market the next morning but it was too hot for too much shopping.....we did buy some lovely crusty bread and some apple slices...

We spent a weekend at St Nolfe....peace and tranquility by the mill....

Our aire was next to an animal centre with donkeys and goats....

Part 2 coming soon!

Thanks for visiting.

Maggie xx

Scrappy Crafting in Brittany

We had a wonderful time in France ...3 weeks in all...mainly travelling around central Brittany although we did make it to the coast a couple of times for some lovely beach walks. I have some great photos of our holiday but this is a crafty post as I know I haven't written one in a while.

I always like to take some crafts along with me on holiday and this time I took all my fabric scraps! Bags and bags of them! I'm completely mad, I know! I also took my Accuquilt cutter. Madder still. Quite a heavy item to take but we fitted it in. I was pleased we did as I spent quite a few evenings (mainly when it was raining outside) sat at the little table in Harvey J cutting useful squares from my scraps. I returned home with these....I will probably make a scrappy quilt from them......

I also wanted to try to make some fabric string as I thought this would be a good thing to do whilst travelling. As a passenger, I enjoy looking at the French countryside but I like to have something to focus on and break the monotony of a long drive. Chris does all the driving in France so I am free to do stuff!

I had found this great tutorial on how to make fabric string from My Poppet.....

Click on the photo to go to the tutorial.

You use scrap 'strings' of about an inch wide and I have loads of these...

So I had a go at making some string and hey presto....

...before I know it I had created a ball of string!

Note that the glove compartment doubles as a sewing/craft box!

I also made a Windmill block for my Holiday Quilt...see the tab Holiday Quilt Blocks above to see my other blocks.

Towards the end of the holiday, I started a scrappy hexagon patchwork quilt. Actually I didn't know what it was going to be at first but once I'd got into the swing of the English paper piecing, (and the fact I could use up more scraps!) I decided I definitely wanted to make a quilt for the recently decorated spare bedroom. 

Mainly in blues.....

by the time I arrived home I had this!

I decided to break up the blues with random hexie flowers of contrasting colours.

So as you can see it was definitely a 'fun with scraps' holiday!

Maggie xx

A Purposeful Trip to Devon with Happy Memories for Spencer

Last month we took a trip down to Devon as we needed to go to Exmouth to have Harvey J (our motorhome) converted to LPG. We were booked in for the conversion on the Thursday but we went down a few days earlier to make the most of the trip away.

Here's a few photos from our trip.

Spencer had fun with some doggy pals at the campsite near Honiton. The horses weren't phased at all by all the racing around.......

We've been to this site before and we were the only campers there..... It's lovely and quiet with nice walks for Spencer....

We drove as far as Plymouth to meet up with my son, Will, and went for a lovely walk on Dartmoor.....

  

We saw several Dartmoor ponies roaming free.....

We took a different route from previous visits.....

and found ourselves walking along a river in beautiful surroundings.....

Later that day we went for a walk and cup of tea on Plymouth Hoe.....

On our trip we also visited Dawlish where the terrible storms caused so much damage. 

Our campsite near Exmouth had beautiful views.....it was lovely to see the cows wandering by early in the morning.... 

And a there was a trip down memory lane for Spencer...Exmouth Beach.....the first beach he visited as a pup.....

It was all a bit bewildering back then.......here's my post from March 2012..... Sun, Sea and Sand for Spencer

That's all for now but I'll be back soon with photos of our trip to France.

Maggie xx