Living and working in France creates a feeling of isolation; the division between work and leisure can be quite grey. A weekend's design and admin in our little attic studio can often be rewarded with a bout of nice weather and a drive to the beach on a Monday morning.
Late November is the perfect time to scout out those islands of sunshine as they become less and less frequent. It's outside the tourist season and yet gloriously sunny with a nip in the air. This was one of those days. Monday morning at 7 am, we jumped in the car and headed for one of our favourite spots, Cancale, about an hour's drive away.
But not before hitting Cherrueix Beach. It's a huge expanse of sand that goes on for as far as the eye can see. As expected, it was deserted as we spent a couple of hours beachcombing and working up an appetite for lunch. Cherrueix is a great place for shell collecting and is alive with molluscs of every kind.
Next stop was a place we call the secret beach because we don’t know its name. It's at the bottom of a dead-end and allows for quiet walks along the rocky shoreline before we hit the main town of Cancale.
We built up an appetite and headed back to the car and off to Cancale. If you haven’t been there, it’s this quaint little town right on the sea, famous for oysters. We grabbed what we call a supermarket lunch and literally ate on the seaside wall. Most restaurants were closed for the winter.
More beachcombing, fish spotting, and collecting of old broken pots. Katie has a secret collection of multicoloured pots at home.
Our little attic studio is constantly calling us, but we managed to resist for a day at least, and I think it did us good. Pushing the guilt to one side, we had a great day and were amply refreshed by the time we got home. The only consolation for everyone else is that, in all likelihood, we’ll be up in that studio, having fun and designing for another 9 or 10 days straight, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Until the next adventure, that is.
