Tuesday, September 7th (Day 11)



Spent the morning organizing my paintings and deciding what to start. So far I have five started with only a couple I am satisfied with the concept. I will definitely continue to look for differ subject matter to paint.

Chris and I had lunch at the café across the street. It is close to the cottage and very reasonable. The more popular food here (meaning all over Brittany) are mussels with frites (French fries) and you get a big pot of mussels for 10 Euros (about $14). Chris loves mussels, but I’m not a lover. However, I have not had any trouble finding lots of wonderful foods and have yet to have an unsuitable meal. The drink of choice is the local apple cider with our without alcohol. Very light and refreshing.


Our first trip was to find a laundry. Luckily information was left by others about laundries, groceries, etc. So we were able to fine it without too much difficulty on rue de Brest. Costs about $20 to wash and dry about three loads.  After doing the household duties, spent some time at Best Western using their wi-fi to send out our blogs and other internet needs.

 We had a late dinner at Myrian – an Italian Pizza place on the river. This restaurant just happens to have a very large menu. This is the view from the terrace where we ate.  This is the Rance River that runs in front of our house (down the street).  Chris had lamb chops and I had a mushroom, cheese, chives omelets that was the best I think I have ever had. Extremely light and fluffy.

As I said before the food is incredible…and most places are reasonable. Most of the restaurants have a “fixed price” for an appetizer, entrée and dessert. It works out better, but you are definitely “stuffed”…especially if the dessert is something wonderful like an “apple/prune flan” (custard). Got to get the recipe for that!!

It's all about the food...and painting!

Day 12 - Wednesday, September 8th


Beautiful morning so I walked to the Port of Dinan Village which is about a half mile from our cottage. Went to the local “passterie” shop owned by a young couple. He is the baker and she handles the shop. Purchased a warm French loaf, two ham and cheese quiches, an apple tart “tarte du pomme”. I did notice when I returned home that a whole end of the French bread was missing…must have been attacked by a dog on the way home who just had to have a piece of the warm bread!!


Spent most of the day working on paintings and ideas. Starting to have concepts that I am excited about painting. We’ll see how I feel when I get started.


Made a shopping trip to the InterMarche – the big grocery store just outside of Dinan. It’s more like a Walmart. So I bought enough for a couple at home meals as well as paper goods and things we are going to need. It’s hard to plan for such a lengthy stay. But, no complaints…this is sooo much fun!!










Day 13 – Thursday, September 9th


ROAD TRIP! There are no mountains too high or roads to hard to travel (however that song goes..) if you have a GPS…and our GPS is named “Mandy”. She has improved  since that first night when she steered us into a barricade on the bottom of a very steep hill! Well, it may not have been all Mandy’s fault…we may have given her a faulty address!


Went to St. Malo first to find a real art supply store.

Comptoir des Arts – 57 rue Georges Clemenceau, 35400 Saint-Malo. www.le-comptoir-des-arts.fr . Chris and I just stopped at the door and breathed in the smell of paint, paper and canvas! We were about to get everything we needed to supplement what we were missing. I decided I really needed to do my work in oils as the acrylics were just causing me stress. Chris found a small oil set at a stationery store in Dinan, so that just wet my appetite and knew I would be more productive if I painted in oils (my most comfortable medium)!

A little about St. Malo. Let’s see – a port city on the English Channel. It is a walled city and fiercely independent – a Briton first and a Frenchman second. As early as 1308 St. Malo established the first free town in Brittany and rebelled against the Duke of Brittany. It has been known for trade since with 1600’s. Unfortunately during WWII, 80 percent of the town was destroyed, but was rebuilt. There is so much more if you are interested in history, this is one of the places to see.


Note to self: I will include more history about Dinan…just so amazing being part of this fascinating place.


MORE on this trip….we continued to drive west along the coast – Went through Matignon (one of several small villages on this road (D34). All the villages are charming and beautiful with mostly rock buildings and houses, flowers everywhere. You sure don’t see graffiti here. Every place is kept neat and clean. (Of course, we could have been on the scenic route that is open to only tourists, but I don’t think so.)

Chris wanted to touch the English Channel, so we took a small road to the right and kept going until the road got smaller and smaller and finally turned into a gravel road and voila – there was the English Channel. (next to a golf course!) We followed a dirt path until we got to the shore. The tide was out so the beach was extremely wide. There was a hill made up of heavy rocks obviously put there to keep the coast from eroding…so we made our way down so walk on the beach. Absolutely breathtaking! It was windy and parasaillers were hovering above us. Dogs and people were enjoying the shore. It did seem that once the tide comes in, there is no beach visible.


After this we headed toward St. Brieuc, but decided it was getting late and we should return home. Made our first gas purchase. Let’s see ¾ tank of diesel cost 55 Euros (about $75 US). So now we understand why we see so many small cars. Also, it would be impossible to drive a big car in most of these ancient towns.

Friday, September 10th, DAY 14


New art supplies, time to get to work! Spent the whole day painting. Have about six painting in various stages. Worried about the oils drying in time since it is so damp next to the river. Here is a photo of the view out our only front window.

That’s the Rance River across the intersection. Also the cottage is solid rock with lots of trees so it is damp also. I keep switching between the acrylics and oils…so we’ll just have to see how it goes if the oils will dry before we have to leave. This was a very productive day! Starting to feel more secure that I will have some paintings completed at the end of the month for Les Amis de la Grand Vigne (Friends of the Vine House) to choose one for their museum. (Our cottage is called the Vignette.) That’s the pressure.



Saturday, September 11th – DAY 15


Chris woke up with a start of a cold, so she rested and only did about three drawings and a painting. I continued on the paintings I have been working on. Decided to try to find an internet place that someone had left for us at the cottage. Drove to center of the Dinan and found the address, but they no longer offer internet service. So I spent a few hours walking around.
 Dinan is such a wonderful place with so much atmosphere. A medieval city thriving in the 21st century. People living and working in buildings that are 600 years old or more.

Had a late lunch of a crepe with ham, mushroom and a huge slice of butter! Wonderful salted butter…they use it a lot here…and it does make the food wonderful. It was a beautiful day so it was great to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere. The people here do enjoy their outdoor cafes and meeting friends. Wish I knew more French so I could evesdrop on conversations as everyone seems to be happy and having fun with their friends. Great lifestyle…we should take note!!


Had to buy a bagette to bring home to make Chris feel better. You can’t beat the way people here make bread! And I actually made it home without eating off the end this time! Nothing better a fresh bagette with this wonderful butter. I better keep walking - a lot!


Finished another painting and sketched in another one…moving along….