Catching Up...Settling into Dinan

Chris studying our rental car - a new renault with a german speaking gps...we finally got "Mandy" our American speaking gps. Good trip driving from Paris to Dinan.  France has good roads and should since the toll for part of the way was 28 euros.  Just before arriving in Dinan, we stopped at a village (looking for a bathroom mostly), but found a rustic restaurant on a lake..so we decided that maybe we should go ahead and have an early dinner.  It was delicious and we topped it off with a creme brulee. Take note.."there is no bad french food!" so far!!

We arrived in Dinan when it was just getting dark.  Our gps friend, Mandy, guided us to an impossible direction, and we found ourselves going down a steep hill of cobblestones and at the end was a barricade.  Ouch!  we had to turn the car around on a very narrow street with a steep hill...did I mention that the car is a straight drive?  Finally, we managed to find people and started asking directions in our broken French.  I will say our first views of Dinan were daunting - no street lights to speak of, huge rock walls and buildings everywhere. Everything is rock, houses, buildings, walls, bridges, streets.  If I were an invading force 500 years ago to this place, I would have headed home!  Anyway, we finally found our way to the Best Western Hotel at the Port of Dinan.  Luckily, Chris had studied the google earth map and really knew her way around...except we just got too lost in the beginning.

On Thursday, September 2nd, we met two of the "Friends of the Vine Cottage Foundation" at 103 rue du Quai the address of our little house for the month.

Friday, September 3rd - Settling In.

The cottage is made up of a little courtyard, an eat-in kitchen, a combo studio, sitting room with a clean-up sink and good track lighting.  There are two bedrooms upstairs smallish.  There is one bathroom that happens to be on two floors.  On the first floor is the toilette and a combo tub/shower - a very unusual tub that is half a sitting area and half a stand-up shower area.  Neither area is big enough for showering or bathing.  It has a hand-held shower so you have to sit to wash your hair.  The rest of the bathroom is upstairs off one of the bedrooms.  It has a wall mounted sink (can you tell I am in the bathroom business??!!) and a bidet.  I guess that is the best they could do with a 300 year old house.  It does have updated electrical so we can run all our gadgets, but no internet connection..so we have to find "hot spots" to catch up our blogs and information.  Our phones do get email and the internet, but it's sure hard to blog on a blackberry!! 

This is part of rue du Jerzual - a long street up a very steep hill. Most of the buildings are 13th, 14th & 15th century.

 

These houses are still homes and shoppes...amazing.

Okay, you are saying "I thought you went there to paint".  The answer is "yes" of course.  Since I am not a plein aire painter, I have to do research on what I want to paint here.  I have been taking lots of photos of objects and things that are notably "French".  I have to be ready for an exhibit the last week of my stay.  The foundation will choose one of my paintings for their museum collection.  No pressure there!!

Chris is more prolific than I am...she draws continually and has already done a watercolor.  It takes me time to find the concept I will feel is right.  This is the same process I use to do when I painted murals...I had to work up everything in my mind and then the work begins. 

Oh, the weather is in the middle to low 70's - no humidity and perfect for being outside and walking. 

Au Revoir