Bastille Day - petit dejeuner

Fireworks lit the dark night sky at midnight as our neighbours began to celebrate July 14th, Bastille Day.

Since we Brits are a little more sedate we celebrated the special day with a late breakfast of coffee and croissants and a little bit of Gallic red, white & blue.

blue & white hand painted Quimper plates add Breton charm

as does the 18th c Petit Breton on this HB picher,
always a useful and decorative piece.

The delicious croissants were bought fresh from the boulanger's van as he made his early morning round through our village.

the blue and white hand painted Quimper plates each have a nautical motif

the pretty white blossom on these branches has a wonderful perfume,
sadly I do not know what tree this is as it was already thriving in the garden 17 years ago when we arrived in Normandy

bon appetit

Joining the following hostesses this week

the Tablescaper and Seasonal Sunday #161

the Magical Mystical Teacher, Gemma & Rose for Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Mary @ the little red house for Mosaic Monday

Promenade de l'Erdre.

Last Thursday we shook the Normandy country dust out of our hair and headed to Nantes, capital city of the Loire Atlantique region of Brittany.

Château de la Gascherie

There were two salons being held in the centre of Nantes, "Pour l'amour du Fil" for all things textile related and "Pour l'Amour du Scrap" for those of us who like to play with paper and glue.

Le Manoir de la Régate restaurant

As we were travelling with our German Shepherd, M'selle Fleur, we chose to stay overnight outside of the city centre at the Best Western, 3 star, Hotel de la Regatta.

Located on the bank of the River Erdre and surrounded by beautiful countryside it was the perfect location, ideal for those late night and early morning "tiddle times" that a GS girl needs.

Linking this post to the Tablescaper's new party

"Oh! the places I've been"

Seasonal Sunday with the Tablescaper

I'm joining in with a new (to me) meme The Tablescaper's: Seasonal Sunday as we leave summer behind and welcome cooler autumn days and nights.
I imagine that there will be plenty of posts this week about the Labor day weekend but here in Normandy, Saturday was just a normal day of la vie quotidienne (daily life).
Yesterday was warm and sunny with bright blue skies, so we decided to head towards the coast for an impromptu picnic.


We loaded up the car with folding chairs, a small table and a basket packed with pate de forestiere, cheese and tomato sandwiches, a flask of tea & the remains of the Pear Crumble cake that I made last weekend. (Yes, we did make it last all week!) A truly eclectic mix of French and English gourmet treats!
Not forgetting a big bottle of water for Mr Ben and a bag of biscuit bones.
A magazine or two and a couple of books to read and off we went.
La Rentrée (when French children return to school) was 1st September and so the roads were very peaceful as we motored down the country lanes.
Sand yachting (Le char à voile) is a very popular pastime in the region and I managed to snap these two as they sped along. We spent a very pleasant afternoon sitting, reading and watching the world go by before heading back inland for a spot of gardening.
How did you spend your weekend?