Festivals in Brittany

A lady in Traditional Dress playing her accordion

One of the Scottish Pipe Bands in the Parade

A budding young musician

One of the many boats in the Marina

A couple of musicians on an old boat playing to the crowds on the Quay

The Douarenez Smoked Fish Stall

Just look at all those mouthwatering pieces of smoked sardines, salmon, haddock etc.. Yummy!! Although the dog doesn't seem too interested!!

One of the Breton Pipe Bands

Some of the young Scottish Dancers




I think this group is from Galicia

A group showing some of the very different head dresses

A cat with a birds eye view of the Parade

One of the Breton dance troupes

The Palestinian Pipers who were given a very warm welcome from the crowd

Another group of Breton Musicians and Dancers

Yet more Breton Dancers and Musicians. I never realised there were so many different costumes

One of the Irish Pipe Bands accompanied by their young mascot

As you can see they start very young

Whew, well that was another great festival at Lorient, this year being the Year of Scotland. There were musicians and dancers from Brittany, Galicia, Asturies, Canada, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Australia, special guests were the young Pipers from Palestine and of course last but not least Scotland. We arrived on Sunday morning for the Grand Parade, we decided to drive into the centre via the back route we have discovered in previous visits and much to our great surprise Mike managed to get us within 50 yards from the Parade. This was our first time to the Grand Parade but it was worth every moment of the 3 hours it took to pass by, and we finished off what was a great day by calling in to the Galway pub for couple of drinks and a sandwich.

All in all we visited the festival 3 times to savour all the music, dance and food. Our favourite place to sit and eat and listen to the music is at the steps by the Marina where the Douarenez Smoked Fish stall is situated, the fish is absolutely delicious.

Next year the festival starts on the 1st August for 10 days and it will be the Year of Wales.

Roll on next year!!!!

The Family

Mum, Dad, Mike and Betty in Auray

Jean-Jaque undergoing some sort of retirement initiation

At the party

Dad and I at Jean-Jaque's party

Mum and Dad in front of the old chapel at Guenin

The Pardon at Guenin

Mum and Dad in front of an old windmill close to Erdeven

Mum, dad and the dogs on Erdeven beach

Well here we are in St. Barthelemy. Mum and Dad have now returned to England after spending 2 weeks on holiday here in Brittany. The weather was a mixture of sunshine and showers and warm, so at least they were able to sit out in the garden between the showers or even do some gardening which they enjoy, along with walking the dogs.

We went to a couple of Pardons one at Melrand and one at Guenin, which we all enjoyed. The meals were great and the Breton musicians were on top form as usual. They also enjoyed going to Auray and Hennebont markets and luckily on those days the weather was warm and sunny. We were also invited to Jean-Jaque's retirement party on the 14th July, which was great night of food, music and dance.

The two weeks went by very quickly and then it was back to Brest Airport for them to return home, fortunately this time there was no travel problems!!!

Family

Me at Brest Airport waiting to fly to England and Betty the new addition to the family - But thats another story!!!

Richard, Dad and Mum

Mum, Ann (mum's sister) and Dad in a bar waiting for Richard to come on stage

Dad, Mum and Richard in front of their house

Its been a busy few weeks one way or another. On the 28th June for the first time after 4 years living here in Brittany I returned to England for a surprise visit for my dad's 80th Birthday on the 30th June. My brother Colin kindly collected me from Luton Airport whilst my other brother Richard persuaded Mum, Dad and mum's sister Ann to accompany him to the local pub. When they entered the pub there I was sitting there with a glass in hand, to say they were surprised was an understatement. What followed was a great night followed by a Saturday birthday bash with the family at a local restuarant and afterwards at the Irish club in Letchworth for a night of good music including Richard (Dicky) playing the tin whistle.

Next day, Sunday afternoon, we all went to see Richard play the pipes at the local music festival, again a good time was had by all!!!

Before I knew it Tuesday had arrived and the time had come to return home to Brittany, but I was not returning alone as we had planned it so that Mum and Dad were returning with me for a 2 week holiday. The flight back was interesting to say the least, we arrived on time at Luton Airport only to be told the flight would be two hours late leaving, phoned Mike to let him know, the only problem was he had already left for Brest Airport. The flight took off 2 hours late but after about 10 minutes in the air there was an almighty flash and a bang, the plane had been hit by lightning and we had to return to Luton Airport for the plane to be checked over!! This procedure took about 40 minutes, fortunately everything was OK and the plane took off an hour later. We finally landed at Brest over 4 hours late, but at least we had arrived safe and sound!!

After arriving in St. Barthelemy we went to our french friends, Jean-Jaques and Michelle who had kindly invited us for dinner that night and althouth we phoned to tell them that we would not arrive in St. Barthelemy until 9.00 pm they told us that would not be a problem and they would wait for us. What good friends they are.

Its good to be back.

Testing this blooming thing

well I have stuck some music on this thing, now if you want to buy a Cd of the pipers music you can, just email me and we will sort it out

St. Barthelemy

The man himself Serge

Dicky Deegan in concert

Naufrages du Ban'Ty from St. Barthelemy

Waraok in action

Wow, what a weekend that was, 27/27 May. I am just getting round to mentioning it now as just having driven my brother Dicky to Brest Airport on Tuesday 29th, we then get a surprise visit from some very good friends on the Thursday who spent a couple of days with us before flying back to the UK.

So back to that weekend!! It was a weekend celebrating with Serge the owner of the Sterren Roz pub in St. Barthelemy, his 20 Years of running the bar. This celebration took the form of a 2 day music festival, with many Breton and French musicians and also one Irish musician, my brother Dickie Deegan. There were people of all ages from in and around St. Barthelemy and also a good friend of Serge, Claude who is presently living in Belgium. Serge put on a fantastic party with the help of many of his friends, there was a marquee in the car park complete with an additional bar to cater for the big crowds. I am not sure what time it exactly finished on the Saturday night but I do know that my brother did not get to bed before 4.30am.

On the Sunday night Serge put on a tremendous free buffet which included as much wine as you could drink. This buffet was prepared by Francois and Catherine from the bar/restaurant in St. Barthelemy. Our good friends David and Sarah joined us for what was a great night of music and dance and although I might sound biased, I thought my brother played the Uilleaan pipes as brilliantly as I have ever heard him play and he got a great reception from the crowd. On the Sunday also there was group called Waraok who played medieval Breton music and from St. Barthelemy a group called Naufrages du Ban'Ty who did a wonderful comic sketch mixed with brilliant music. Lets just say there was much drink taken and quite a bit of breton dancing. What time did it all finish? Nobody is quite sure, just to say that when we called into the bar the following evening at 6.00 pm , Serge and a few others were sitting around with either cups of coffee or glasses of water. Need I say anymore!!

Thanks again Serge for a wonderful weekend.

welcome to my blog

At the house

Well its turned out to be a lovely day after the rain during the night. I am sitting in the garden just having finished giving a 1 hour English lesson to Stephanie who is the daughter of Lauren and Chantal who run the Boulangerie. She has just returned from a visit to London with the school, which she thoroughly enjoyed. So not only do I help her but it also helps me with my french which she very nicely corrects.

The time is now fast approaching 6.00 pm and the dogs are letting us know that its well past their walking time and I know we will not get any peace until they have had their walk, so I will say bye for now.

But before I go just to let you know that this evening we are off the Galway pub in Lorient with some friends as its Wednesday night and music night and to say hello to Paidraig who owns the pub, as we havn't seen him for a couple of months.