Sunrise in Brittany at the time of the solstice is not until after 8.00am. I have been in Vannes a week now and this is the first day of sunshine. I go for a long walk with Thomas Cromwell. Sort of. I'm listening to the audiobook of Wolf Hall. I have already read it, and although I usually never reread books, I'm really enjoying this, maybe because it was a little difficult first time around. I have very little knowledge of English history and after finishing Hilary Mantel's followup book, Bring Up the Bodies, I'm better prepared to appreciate the detail, her lightness of touch relative to the import of the historical trajectory.
 |
| The Santa even has a little sack on his back, filled with tiny knitted presents. |
Vannes is at the tip of the largest harbour in France, the Gulf of Morhiban. My walk starts at the port of Vannes and follows a canal along to the harbour. The tides here are quite huge.
Past the town I follow a waterside path down a peninsula.
At the small bay where I stop for bread and cheese I amuse myself by picking up all the bits of plastic I can find. Bottle tops, plastic corks, straws, sea-worn packets, those stringy bags that I buy onions in.
Shadows are long even at midday.
On the other side of the peninsula there's a wide estuary and church bells are ringing out from the settlement on the other side. Parts of the path are under water, so I cut across though farmland and then follow a quiet road back towards town.
A bit up the road there's a cemetery, the tidiest cemetery and the best-tended graves I have ever seen. What does this say about the people of Vannes?
What it says about me is that I'm a heartless lowlife thief, because I steal some leucodenron flowers from the grave of a beloved departed.
Ah well.
Back at the Port of Vannes and the sun is still shining and the good people of Vannes are out at the only two places open this Christmas afteroon.
 |
| I'm trying to read this French thriller about an ageing translator who becomes a drug mule, but there's so much colloquial language I'm struggling with it. |
