Today was a very pleasant relaxing day in St-Quay-Portrieux, beginning with shopping at the market, because today was the market day for this town, with stall holders bringing lots of excellent produce from the surrounding area. Brittany is not just a seafood area, but 60% of the land is also agricultural, so I bought fabulous strawberries, raspberries, peas, carrots etc from local growers and great cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines from other parts of France. There were also refrigerated vans of meat, cheese and charcuterie, plus stalls of seafood, rotisserie chickens and pork, and the usual range of clothing, tablecloths etc. I always buy more than we need because the produce is so good. We also went to the local patisserie and boulangerie for our bread and baguette and I love the fact that this is a daily part if life in France. I also love the politeness of the French at the markets and in shops and being part of the daily life here. When you enter a shop or begin to purchase at a market stall the conversation begins with a greeting - 'bonjour Madame' and the conclusion is 'au revoir' and 'Bon jolie', with the real intention of politeness. I will miss that when we leave France.
This village is a popular place for wealthy Parisians to have a holiday home because it is not far from Paris by train and bus and the area is very beautiful with good beaches. Apparently it is the area for those with 'old money' whereas the nouveaux riches go to the Riviera.
We are certainly not having warm weather yet and that will not happen for quite some time. We think we are lucky that it is not raining and that the winds will abate enough tomorrow for us to move on. Michael and Glennis left us yesterday so it is just Greg and me out there in the cold winds from now on. I made another big pot of vege soup today to help us through the next few days of travel. The seas have always been rolly-polly so it is not easy to do much down below once we get underway. We are travelling with a delightful Swedish couple so that is particularly good for Greg to have someone to plan with. They both have the same attitude about sailing, safety, planning, etc so that's great.