Exchanging Places--Brittany, part 2

When I awakened that first morning in Kervignes, it was with a real sense of unreality. To wake up in a stone cottage built in the 14th century, with its mammoth central fireplace and the faint smell of centuries of charred wood--well, it sort of takes away your sense of time and place. It was the most wonderful sense of disorientation I've ever experienced.

Outside the front door, the farm lady across the road had left a basket containing fresh milk, butter, cheese, vegetables, and fruit preserves. This was a standing arrangement between her and our exchange partners; we hadn't realized it would extend to us, but we were delighted. The entire road was lined with blooming hydrangeas, somehow a perfect complement to the ancient stone buildings.

By descending a path, we relocated the quay and oysterage we had found by mistake during the previous night. The Belon River produces oysters (huitres, if I remember correctly) and mussels (moules) that are prized throughout the world. On my more recent visit to Paris, restaurants priced these oysters three times as much as any other variety. Here on the riverbank, they could be obtained for a pittance, and we ate fresh shellfish everyday--raw, steamed, baked, on pasta, in salads, grilled with vegetables.

My favorite aspect of a home exchange is that you get to settle in and live like the people of the region. We found the village and the town landing on that first day, and settled into a routine of walking to the village in the late afternoon to pick up fresh bread at the market (our neighbor continued to supply us with dairy and vegetables). Then we would walk down to the quay as the fishing boats came in. We'd buy finfish and langoustines as they were unloaded from the boats.

Brittany has an identity crisis. The maps say it is part of France, but it is really much more Celtic in culture. No wine of note in produced in Brittany; instead, the locals drink a potent cider produced in nearby breweries. The regional dish is a pot of whole finfish (several varieties) stewed with vegetables and spices. The landscape is dotted with ancient Celtic monuments: vertically placed boulders (called menhirs) and table-like arrangements of boulders (called dolmens).

A typical day often included a visit to an ocean beach. Our favorite was called Trenez. And of course, a major event of our visit was the return to Moulin-Sur-Mer, where we were reunited with our creperie family of rescuers. We were greeted as long-lost relatives, and after many sumptuous crepes and a surfeit of cider, we sang American pop tunes well into the night.