Lonely in Brittany

Well, that's it.

I'm alone in Brittany. This winter, I had decided to skip my staying-after-everybody-has-gone-back-to-work. But at the last minute, it was too hard for me not to stay by myself for a few more days. Even though it started snowing again this morning.

The snow did not last. It's raining right now. There was no sunset tonight. There has been no sunset ever since we got to Les Tertres a couple of days before Christmas.

We did watch one sunset. A beautiful one, but 30 miles from home. Don't smile. We were getting very tired of seeing our islet lost in wintry fogs, the kind of fog where there is no dividing line between the dark grey skies and a very unfriendly sea. We left Les Tertres and went on discovery trips... not very far but far enough to find some sunny skies at last.

Those trips deserve stories of their own. They took us to very interesting places we hadn't even thought existed so close to our home. And the sky was blue, the sun was shining even though it was very, very cold.

We had never seen the beach below our house so empty in our whole life in Penthièvre (our area in Brittany). So surprising. A little bit distressing. We did feel like we were living at the end of the earth, in a godforsaken place, a void.

We mostly stayed home, reading and listening to music, watching movies. Wishing that the sun would come out and warm up the air and our hearts.

A few friends dropped round but we never felt like taking a walk on the beach. The house was so warm and cosy.

Yesterday, we did go down to the beach and we took a long walk there. It was very amazing to be totally on our own on a 6 miles long beach.

We did not feel alone in the world though because tens of sandpipers were there while the tide was coming up. They were really friendly and funny. Friendly because they were not afraid of the two huge human beings who were invading their kingdom and space. Funny because they kept running around searching for sea slugs. They were really running around on very tiny and twiggy feet. They were so engrossed in their search for food that they kept running around and around, so close to us.

Tonight, I drove Popeye to the train station. He's going back to work.

Will I feel lonely? I don't think so. I'm so used of being on my own.

I'll keep busy telling stories and sorting pictures if it still is too cold to take walks on the beach.





*Good Luck, and Good Night* and a Happy New Year to all of you.