travel log from france. while I still remember.

the gang in King Arthurs forest area

A little less then a week ago the old shanty crew, with some new members for the occasion, went to Brittany for a folk festival. It was lovely and magical and I miss it already.

On Thursday I was still wondering if this was a good idea. I still hadn’t packed and I was looking at my workload with increasing dread of the 5 lost workdays. But I did actually make it to the rented van in time and we were off. First stop was to pick up Dave, then we had a food break on the grass outside a Shell, and at 11pm the ferry left Plymouth. That night was pretty dreadful sleep wise. The floor was very hard. But I made myself a little tent and read crown of thorns for a while without disturbing the other passengers too much.

When we got to France it was quite sunny and nice. On our drive to Brandivy we stopped off at a lovely forest to go se King Arthurs cave. We climbed rocks, looked at rivers, studied bugs and listened to the bird song. And the view was pretty amazing. The most of the time in the van was spent rehearsing shanties we hadn't sung in over half a year. After another hour or so of that we saw a sign with a fish on it and 100 meters down the road we drove up to the beautiful Castle Guen. There were loads of people and everything was quite confusing. But we took our shoes off and sat down in the grass, and talked to one of the family we were going to stay with and a lovely Dutch couple. We then had some food and were off to do some mini gigs, one at a school and one at an old folks home. Then we went "home" to Castle Guen and ate some amazing crepes and home made cider, before we went to a bar in Brandivy for music and drinks. I met a lot of people, and even someone who had the same ring as I do around their neck. I feel less special now. There was a lot of jamming and dancing going on, which turned out to be an almost constant occurrence at the festival. I regretted not bringing my flute.

Dave and Nely, amongst others, playing 

Saturday we woke up to a late breakfast, soon followed by an amazing lunch. Then we went to the village again to learn folk dancing, traditional songs and music and sit around in the sun. That night was the first of two fest Nozs, and we drank a lot of cider, sang some shanties, danced a bit and sat outside a lot. I met a very nice Swedish girl named Mai, who was in France as an exchange student, and Scandinavianness happened. 

Sunday started with an eater egg hunt in the garden where we were staying. Bex was very good at finding eggs. I was not so good. We then had a picnic and jam session before we went to a very nice 1700s(?) re-enactment village. (I would like to live there please.) There were tiny cows, very cute pigs, a lot of dancing and music and games. All in all a very beautiful place. When we got back to Castle Guen we had an amazing quiche meal, followed by good cheese and chocolate. And in the evening we drove for about 20 minutes to get to the big Fest Noz. That night I spent a lot of time nattering to new friends about games, illustration, animation and general geekiness. (I am hoping I didn’t make some ears bleed with all my talking, I may have been a little drunk :P) We also did some singing and dancing. And Dan was nice to me and I got a chocolate crepe. We bought cider by the bottle and when this finished we went back to the Castle for an after party. That was truly one of the strangest and most amazing parties I have been to in a while. There were so many great dunk musicians and we did a lot of singing and jamming and laughing. When it got to be about 5-6 in the morning the party was moved outside to a shed where we disturbed some bats. I would say the only thing that could have made it better is if it had been warm enough to go to sleep outside under the trees but I went inside to bed at about 6 and was really tired when I woke up at 11ish. 

 

 Monday was a day mainly spent chilling out in the grass, playing games and eating. There were sure a lot of picnics during the festival. We played sack race, throwing a ball in a toilet, throwing eggs at each other and knocking over boxes. I'm not the most athletic one, so most of that was spent sitting around chatting to my teammates about nerdy stuff and Falmouth again and making daisy chains. But at least during the quiz I was able to identify Denmark’s flag. Then I fell asleep in the sun as they jammed around me. That evening we had a last party at the castle. Unfortunately some people had to leave early but those of us who were left had a lot of fun. We had a fake bonfire of candles and danced a mill dance. There was more good homemade cider, mead and wine. We met the fish, who is the mascot for the festival and drank to much wine. Then Bex ate some horrible alcoholic raspberries, Molly played the carrot bombard in the room of a sleeping man, and Silje went to sleep by the trees.

potatosack race

The next morning we had to leave, and so we got up early and packed and said our goodbyes at the Castle. Lisa left without us for the Bar where we were all meeting up before leaving, so we had to catch a ride with someone else to get there. After a long goodbye there as well we set off home, most of us still a little hung over. 

The trip home started with going to a SuperU where we bought a lot of wine and cheese and some food for the trip. When we got to the boat we went straight on deck and had a small picnic there as well. Then a lot of the musicians gathered for a last jam session, entertaining the other passengers. I spent most of the crossing outside slightly seasick outside playing Scribbles with Joe, Matt, Silje and Bex. When it got calmer we went inside and played some shooting games. Arriving in to Plymouth we met a very nice boarder control man who actually said Siljes name right, then we dropped off Molly at the train station and picked up Jeffrey who would take her seat on the way back to Fal. The drive was spent listening to music (French sea shanties) drinking red wine and talking crazy talk, as we were all quite tired. And at around 11-12 we arrived back in Falmouth. Most of us went to bed, some stayed up to drink even more French wine.

It was such a great trip, and I am so glad I went even though I strictly speaking didn't have the time for it. As was said on Facebook by a festival friend after we got home "I think I have been to Middle Earth" and now I just want to go back.  

 

the last group photo, at the Plymouth train station