Anna M
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Benedictine Abbey of Landevinnec
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The forecast was poor, so I decided to leave Anna M in Brest while I returned home for Easter. Meanwhile we went up the Rivière de l'Aulne, past little fishing-boats with tangons set, till it narrows and bends sharply behind steep wooded banks at the top of which stands the Benedictine Abbey of Landevinnec. |
| Tying up to
some mooring buoys, in the company of a couple of clapped-out minesweepers,
that could only be any use for an old war movie, and various other
bits of floating junk belonging to the French navy, we enjoyed a peaceful
night as the tide rippled on the other side of Anna M's planks, and
the wind sighed in the high trees above. We had but 50 yards to row
ashore in the morning, climbed a steep bank through the trees, primroses,
wild garlic and
rosemary, and so came to the Abbey for Sunday Mass
on St Patrick's day, and the rare pleasure of a most reverent, leisurely
and prayerful sung liturgy.
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| It was a tough enough motor-sail down the estuary into
the teeth of a head wind, WSW, on Monday morning - good job we had
a jint of land between us and the Atlantic. Then we crossed the Rade
de Brest and found a good berth in the Marina du Moulin Blanc. We
spent a day attacking winter mankiness and then took the TGV to Paris.
A spin in those Trains Grande Vitesse always gives me pleasure; they have to be the least stressful form of high speed travel invented. One thing the French did right was to borrow like crazy to invest in their railways. Meanwhile Maggie Thatcher was putting the proceeds of the North Sea oil bonanza in back pockets all round. Even so the traffic in Paris was crazy too. But it was a pleasure to be there spending our own currency, so that one has a keener idea of value- and it seemed to me that on the whole Paris is pretty good value. Not that I had to spend any - we were well looked after by Fyona's sister Claire. |
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Revised:02 June 2002Copyright © Joe Aston 2000 - 2006 All rights reserved.
All photographs are © Joe Aston unless otherwise stated, please do not reproduce without permission.