Saturday 1st June - Chateaugiron.  We left home Friday early evening.  Although sunny it was a bit cool as there was a strong wind blowing.  Managed to get lost when we got off the motorway and ended up about to drive under a badger run - not too good for the van, had to do a rather long "bat turn".  We managed to get here OK with no further mishaps.  A bit fresh, cold and overcast to start the painting on Saturday morning.  Thought I would try yet another technique.  The results speak for themselves - I shouldn't have bothered!  However, the final drinks at the end were good because they had loads and loads of tasty little morsels...yum, yum.  Sun only came out after painting was submitted. The picture at the top is of Bertie and Perry at Becherel, but for some unaccountable reason I can't put it in the correct place!

Picture of a few of the guys at the lake at Chateaugiron - Chrtianne, Sylvain and Claud.

Having a walk round the lake after having submitted the painting. Foot still hurts though. Notice I am still wearing a coat!  This is a lake at the base of the Chateau at Chateaugiron.  Apparently some high up military guys Anquetil, Giron and Gildoin employed by the Marshall of Brittany and based at the Chateau, were killed by the English at Pontorson in 1427.
 

 

Sunday 2nd June - Becherel.  Normally not a favourite.  A really dull town - normally rains here - except for today.  So after signing on moved the van to the lavoir at the bottom of a very steep hill. Scene was very pretty.  Perry tied Bertie to the van, but it does look as though he's trying to drag it off down the road!  Becherel used to be a place that wove hemp and dyed it all sorts of colours in some small man-made lakes.  After a few hundred years the trade dried up (only about 50 years ago), so the place has reinvented itself to copy Hay on Wye and is now a "book town".

Here I am again, hard at work.  Although Perry took this picture, what he left out was the fact that every minute, half a dozen mountain bikers would whizz down this lane, screaching brakes and shouting at us. There is a bloke in front of me doing a pastel, and he was so worried that he put a sign a few yards in front of him (which you can just see), warning the mad cyclists that there were painters in the road.  In the small area I was painting, there were in fact seven painters!

Still working away.  cold, but sunny.

Again tried something different - and again I shouldn't have bothered.  However, I have decided I no longer dislike Becherel as we managed to find quite a few spots that were very painterly and avoided the grey, miserable centre of town.  By the way, if there is anyone who reads this besides Perry, please make a little comment in the comments box  at the end of this page.