Le Tour D'Ellen

Ellen arrived on Tuesday July 1st from New York via Dublin. Ellen's luggage did not. Apparently, just as there is a "no-fly" list, there is a "lose-luggage" list and Ellen's name is at the top. Last year on hew way to Spain, British Airways lost her luggage in both directions. And then there was a recent trip to Los Angeles where her luggage was also lost. Ellen was not in the best of moods upon arrival. Can you say "pissed-off"? After three calls to Air France / Delta it was becoming obvious that her suitcase was still in Dublin.

To top it off, we had train tickets for early the next morning to go to Brittany, which is in the western most part of France. The french name is Bretagne. Now for today's history lesson taken directly fom Planet Out. " Celts arrived in the 6th Century BC...conquered by Julius Ceasar in 56 BC, the Romans withdrew in the 5th century AD, and Celts driven from what is now Britain and Ireland by the Anglo-Saxon invasions settled in Brittany." The region, contested by both France and England, and despite an attempt at independence, became part of France in 1532 after a series of strategic weddings. [It makes me wonder - if Great Britain is "Grande-Bretagne" then why isn't "Bretagne" called "Petite=Bretagne"?] My understaning is that the poeple here are Bretons first and then French.

We stayed with Ellen's childhood friend Judy and her companion/boyfriend Marcel. They hosted us for the night and Judy prepared a couple of wonderful meals. We also had a chance to visit a couple little towns, most notably Quimper. Why is it pronounced kam-pair? Typically in French, it would be pronounced Kam-pay. Apparently the pronunciation is from the Breton word KEMPer (okay, so I capitalized KEMP to emphasize my name) meaning the 'confluence of two rivers.'

Notice the sign includes both the French "Quimper" and Breton "Kemper."

A long time ago... an angel touched the lips of Father Maunoir to provide the gift of the Breton language to the people of this region. Until only recently, Breton was only a spoken language.

The confluence of two rivers that is "Kemper."

Judy and Ellen


Macarons (not macaroons) are all the rage in France these days. These little cookies are very colorful and melt in your mouth.

The meringue, wrapped in plastic, were also quite colorful.

Before catching the train back to Paris, Judy dropped us off in Brest. I promised Ellen I would avoid making any jokes about this city as it was decimated during WWII by Allied air stikes. The architecture is not particularly intersting, but that's okay because we got to see a cheesy parade and the introduction of:

Le Tour de France
Check out the postman on the bicycle suspended in mid-air.

It was pretty cool to see the introduction of the first two cycling teams before we had to head for the train station. I wish we could have stayed longer. Sigh.

Introduction of equipe (team) "Saunier Duval-Scott."

Bye bye Brest.

During the train ride back to Paris we saw many "arc en ciel" rainbows. Fortunately, luck was on our side and we were able to go to the hotel that Ariel works at and retrieve Ellen's suitcase at 12:30 in the morning. After three days, Ellen would finally be able to put on some clean clothes. It really was MY lucky day!