Friday 5th July - I will never complain about the weather again!  It is now too hot.  Left on Friday afternoon, and it just got hotter and hotter, heading to Ploermel.
Saturday 6th July - decided I was going to draw today, mainly because it Ploermel is a difficult place to get excited about with a paintbrush, and it was also forecast to be very, very hot! This is a very funny place because where was parked was the grounds of a Carmelite nunnery.   A fair number of the rooms are used for different events. The site has a huge number of arches, and that is what I decided to draw.  In addition on the other side of the road is a Seminary (for the boys this time). Within the seminary is a planetary clock built by one of the brothers in the 19th Century.  He was a mathematician and used it to enhance his maths teaching.  It is one of only about 4 planetary clocks in France.

Here I am staring at the TV screen watching the video with Bertie looking as keen as ever.

Inside the seminary grounds is a huge park, set out very formally.  At the end of this walk were the graves monks who had resided in the monastry part.

This is part of the seminary, the clock was the other side, but inside this building was an art gallery, a natural history museum, a chapel and also a small exhibit of paintings by one of the monks.

Well here's the effort. And guess what - I won!  Received loads of goodies, but in additon a bunch of flowers which we had to put in the bucket (the tea bucket I might add) and then store it in the bathroom in the van! Unfortunately it was still very hot when we left, and Bertie was beginning to get pretty stressed by the heat.  However, we left about 7.00 for a half hour journey to Concoret.  What a shock when we got there.

The whole town is RED.  All the buildings are built of red stone.  It is also a very sweet village, but the colour was really out of this world.  We stayed in the carpark of the Salle de Fetes and then on Sunday morning went to the Chateau de Comper to sign on.  I had already decided I was not going to do the Chateau, so we drove back to the village.  I did a watercolour just round the corner from here.  Loads of people chatting as they passed and one old lady was very keen on the picture....but so was the lady from the Epicerie.  In the end there was a bit of subtle moving by the old lady and she offered to buy my painting and not let the lady from the Epicerie have it!  I was only half way through it at the time!

Here is the picture.  Didn't win, but a sale is always much more satisfying.  Renee told me that for the last 77 years she has opened her bedroom to see this view.  Her son insisted that she bought it, and she was very pleased - and so was I. I never did find out why the village is red, and can't get anything off the internet either.