More developments

Some people have been busy round and about La Tranche.

Stephen & co are back, this time transforming JP&C's kitchen, which involves knocking through to the utility kitchen.

Wow, there's now a much larger area...

...to install all those units! 

(More in a later post)

Meanwhile at the Starfish Colin gives the facade a lick of paint (only 48 shades of grey to go!)

and how about the tiled crossroads below the Starfish? It's going to look great.

Rochefort-en-Terre

We just got back from a great few days in Morbihan with 'Er from Brittany and I am very pleased to report that we enjoyed near non-stop blue skies! As usual no photos of our hostess (by request/order) but here are some shots of the very picturesque town of Rochefort-en-Terre. The more observant of you might remember a previous post on the town under pouring rain. This time we were luckier!

The wisteria hugging the town hall must be magnificent when in flower!

There are wonderful buildings along the main street

This well had a very gnarled vine protecting it

As you should know by now I like a good stained glass window!

Sunset at high tide

Sadly I missed the very high tide as the weather was atrocious that evening but next day I ventured out just as the sun peeked out for the first time that day to give us a beautiful sunset.

The first two photos show the difference between low & high tide.  It's a shame the waves had calmed down somewhat!

Ye Olde Classic Sunset Shots, firstly by le Pavillon...

...then over to the jetty...

...and finally the boating lake, ready to be painted, perhaps?

Look at these beautiful tulips that Cynthia gave to Martine the other day...

...and look who's back for a brief afternoon the day before his first birthday, Elliot fully engrossed in  Tine's Matryoshka doll!

A very low tide and rescuing the dune

Out and about early this morning on translation duties (well, early for me!) I came back via the beach as I had noticed there were very big and low tides this week. For once there were a FEW other people about, making the most of a dry spell.

The first three photos were taken from le Pavillon...

...showing how empty the bay was,

barriers on the wooden walkway because of the impending high tide...

...and debris from last night's waves.

Onto 'our' beach and somebody must have been reading the blog because I spotted these workers attempting to protect the very fragile dune by transferring sand from the bay.

It looks good but a few big waves would soon wash this away.

Lower down the beach a silhouetted jetty...

...and look how far the tide has gone out!

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ps. It's raining again now!

We're still here!

We took the opportunity of a dry spell (yes, we've still got the lake) to venture down the coast a little, wrapped up well against the chilly wind. We were aiming for La Belle Henriette but were thwarted by too much water on the pathways through the dunes.

There was plenty of water in the lagoon which is often empty in summer months

A couple of arty reed shots!

We did see some blue sky but look at the threatening clouds inland!

Perhaps we should have tried our luck at the casino in La Faute...

...where we could finally access the beach

Idle beach buggies - there weren't any takers today

The waves looked great but we weren't really tempted to have a dip!