Finding your own seashore

Voyage upon life's sea. To yourself be true, And whatever your lot may be, Paddle your own canoe" Sarah Bolton.

Last week we were away for a few days, we had travelled south to the Vendee, no luxury holiday, however we stayed at a delightful campsite, La Garangeoire.

The Vendee is very flat and in parts reminds me of Lincolnshire in the UK. The small houses, often single story have terracotta tiles, and are white washed. Not at all like the grey slate and twinkling granite stones of Brittany. It felt like we were much further south, even the maize, in the fields was burnished a deep rich gold colour.

Choosing to go out of season meant that we did not stay by the sea, however the campsite was really lovely surrounded by old oak trees, and you can wander down to a lake. But everyday we ventured to the coast.

I am now enjoying the memories by loading photographs onto Flickr and enjoying the feel of the coast again. The weather as often is the case in September was mostly kind but not hot so the dog was happy too.

The coastal resorts are a mix of charm, history, modern and just plain ugly. There are small strips of pine forest alongside some parts of the coast too. Apart from a trip down to la Rochelle in Charente Maritime I began to wonder if this coast had something special for us.

Finally on our last day we found Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-vie, we wandered around this lovely town for a couple of hours, I now look forward to another visit to the Vendée.

~ Coastal Memories ~

Beach necklace ~ collier ~
Old anchor ~ ancre ~

Beach huts ~ cabine de plage


Lighthouse ~ Phare ~

So where is your favorite coastal resort?

A French word to fill in gaps is remblaie

A French word to wander is déambuler

Flowers, Saints, and Taxi Drivers

It's called flowers wilt. It's called apples rot. It's called thieves get rich and saints get shot. It's called God don't answer prayers a lot. Alright, now you know.

Stephen Joshua Sondheim ~Merrily We Roll Along.~ a musical.

One of my recent visits to an exposition at a museum or musée was inside a lovely old church. What a great idea to use a beautiful building to house exhibitions instead of letting them fall into a state of disrepair like many churches today.

A mixture of Old & New

Many of the items within were adorned with flowers. We saw paintings, marriage gifts, tokens for sweethearts, and religious items too. We also enjoyed a special exhibition of kimonos many of which featured flowers and plants. The views out of the back of the building were lovely too, an enclosed garden.


Photographs were forbidden inside the museum, however once outside we clicked away taking shots of the building. The museum is called La Verriere however on many of the doors we had seen initails S F what was the significance?

Saint Fiacre ~ Patron Saint of gardeners & taxi drivers!

Saint Fiacre was born in Ireland and lived in a type of monastery (a hermitage), and had a knack of healing people with plants and therefore people flocked to him. It seems he only wanted a quiet life and fled to France to a place called Meaux near Paris! He was given a place of solitude in the forest by Saint Faro.

So why taxi drivers? The Hôtel de St-Fiacre, in the Rue St-Martin, Paris, in the middle of the seventeenth century first hired out small horse drawn carriages. The sign of the hotel was an image of Saint Fiacre, and the coaches eventually took his name and were called fiacres.

Double crossed

Inside from outside

The word Saint is from old French seint from Latin sanctus "holy"

To read more about the Saint (who I had never heard of) click HERE.

The French word for glass roof is verriere.

The French word for rack and ruin or fall into disrepair is délabrer.