Day 13 Report

Ironically, it didn't rain today. Not that the weather was great, but it was the best we've had all week.

And yet we didn't get to go on our excursion. :P

I was so tired last night that I ignored my homework beside me and rolled over and fell asleep.

In the morning Denise and I decided to go to the botanic gardens for a picnic. I didn't get much picnic food because Mrs Stephan assumed I was going to eat at the creperie in the gardens (which apparently serves the best crepes here) - but I did get an apple, a banana, some chocolate bar, a big bag of chips and a bottle of water. Then I set off from the house at 10.30 a.m., hoping to catch the 10.53 a.m. bus at Moulin Blanc.

The bus was, as usual, late, but Denise was on it and so was Valerie, who told us about the antique market in Brest that is held every second Saturday of the month. So we all went to Brest instead. Valerie went to meet ER first; we went ahead and found the market with little difficulty.

There was a small selection of stalls spanning the perimeter of Brest's food market. Items for sale included antique cutlery, diningware, furniture, toys, jewellery and books. At one of these stalls we found folders of old Parisian magazines/newspapers. And by "old", I mean OLD. Most were from the first decade of the 20th century, with a few from 1898! And they only cost €5 per copy. If I owned a collection of century-old magazines, I would never sell them. :P Denise bought one with pretty illustrations, whilst I settled for a WWI edition published in 1915 (full of articles and jokes and cartoons concerning the ongoing war). I was so excited that nothing else interested me after that.

We caught the 12.45 p.m. bus from Brest to the botanic gardens after that. Thanks to a terrible lack of signage, we had trouble actually locating the entrance. It turned out to be quite big, although it was amusing to see houses in the gardens itself.

There was lots and lots of greenery (of course) and streams full of Mallard ducks, but strangely enough we didn't see many flowers. I'd rather visit the Stephans' garden. At least I don't need to walk so much. :P

Our first stop was the Crêperie Blé Noir (Blé Noir = buckwheat), which was 400m away from where we entered the gardens (we knew because there was a sign stating the distance to the restaurant after every 100m).

We sat outside and I ordered a La Forestière, which is a crepe containing bacon and mushrooms in cream sauce. It was very VERY good, although for €6.20 it was neither cheap nor filling.

Then we found a picnic bench under a tree and spent maybe two hours eating the stuff we had brought along, as well as (sort of) planning out Paris trip. We vaguely decided to follow most of my plan, particularly museums on Monday and Versailles on Tuesday (since most museums are closed on Tuesdays and Versailles on Mondays, it's not like we had much choice). And probably Jardin du Luxembourg and Napoleon's tomb on Wednesday. Probably.

We left the gardens at around 4.20 p.m. and just missed the bus. So we went to the big supermarket across the road for the next 20 min, then caught the next bus. A few stops later I got off at Moulin Blanc as usual and walked home. By this time the sun was just beginning to appear and there were people going for a swim at the beach.

I had a little nap before dinner, which was a smoked salmon salad followed by ravioli and roasted pork. Dessert was a caramel pudding/yoghurt/something. I stayed to read the newspaper (mainly just the weather, which on average in the whole of France was 5°C higher than yesterday) before having my bath (I don't know why but there was no hot water today!).

And now I better do my homework!