Atherton Family Notes

As it turns out, St. Gregoire is located to the west of a canal called the Ille et Rance. The canal is part of an irrigation system that provides water to regional agriculture.

It also is a good place for a Sunday walk, and since today was a nice one, I took the opportunity to walk around my new town.

The canal system in Brittany is broken up by small, manually-operated locks. I passed by three of these devices on my trip today. Each one is accompanied by a small residence where the operator presumably lives.

At St. Gregoire, the canal widens significantly and divides. There is a lock located at this place, but because of the width, there is also a spillway. It makes for a pretty entrance to the village.

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Last weekend, I had the opportunity to go to Normandy and visit the beaches of the northern coast, famed as the location of the landings on June 6th, 1944. The trip worked out mostly as an orientation visit to the area, partly because I only had a crappy little camera to work with, and only a small memory card. There is clearly a lot to see in this area, and I am sure I will post more after future visits.

I did however, get one picture that I wanted to share now.

Arromanches is a small village located right on the shore and marks one of the locations where the British invasion force came ashore. The allies built an artificial harbor there to protect their supply line. There was another one at Omaha beach that was destroyed by a storm soon after it construction. The one at Arromanches is still visible though, forming a half moon out in the water, as well as some bigger pieces right on the shore.

I took this shot from atop a small hill on the east side of the town. Imagine being here on a June morning almost 60 years ago…

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We have been here one week now and have started to settle in. I came to a completely empty house that echoes like the Grand Canyon. Ken counted the plastic lawn chair and table as “furniture” and said we were on our way, but I begged to differ. I spent most of the beginning of the week cleaning the house top to bottom. I wondered if spider webs could be spun into some resemblance of silk because I had enough to craft a nice blanket. Midweek I began the task of unpacking. With no furniture to put things in and on, this was a bit difficult. I unpacked as much as possible and have left the rest for another day when I find a home for them. By the weekend, we were ready to do some furniture shopping. I had poured over the Ikea catalogue a billion times and dog-eared the pages that contained items I wanted. Ken says it would have been easier to mark the pages that I did NOT want. I made detailed drawings of the rooms and measured everything from windows to ceilings. I was armed and ready to shop! Even better, I had my husband’s permission. We spent 2 hours looking and debating and finally realized they were going to close up on us. We rushed around the Ikea warehouse finding the things we wanted and prayed they fit into the van. They did but not with an inch to spare. Ikea has a great concept of all “build it yourself” furniture so everything comes in compact boxes. It was like working a jigsaw puzzle getting all those boxes into any available car space. We had all missed dinner so we headed out at 9:30 to get some grub from old reliable (McDonald’s). By the time we got on the road for the hour and half trip home it was well after 10:30pm. We punished ourselves some more by heading out Saturday morning for round two of furniture shopping. We checked a few local places and then ended up back at Ikea. With the second load in the van with no room to spare, we at least had a few things to fill the house. We have some shelves for books, TV stand, kitchen table and chairs, a side chair, and a coffee table for a sofa that we do not own yet. This is the one thing we can not seem to find. The hard balance between a hard sofa and the money it will cost for a good one. The question is… how long can a family of 5 go without a couch? This is the first night that we have not been to a store. I have assembled all the furniture and unpacked more items so the place is starting to look better. I will say it has cut down the echo a bit. I have removed the boxes (well, to the basement that is and that is a whole other story) and there is a little less disarray. By George, I think we have a home here.

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