At Home in Brittany

Team Breton – Installing Under Floor Heating

Heating the old Breton houses can be quite a challenge and the choice is often dictated by the cost of initial installation as opposed to the benefits long term. I have recently been helping a neighbour to prepare his Breton longhouse for the installation of under floor heating and it has been quite a learning curve for me in terms of the local methodology, the size of farmer’s midday meals, language immersion and the incredible ‘all for one’ culture of the Breton people

 

My neighbour, Jean-Paul’s house already had oil fired central heating but ensuring a consistent heat throughout is always a challenge in these stone built houses. Despite the fact that most of them have had internal insulating walls built to retain the heat, high ceilings and open stairwells mean heat loss is still a problem. Open fires are often used to supplement the background heat provided by central heating; such is the case in my neighbours house.

 

So after much planning it was decide to commence the installation of under floor heating throughout the ground floor. Phase one of the plan was to excavate the existing floor down to a depth of 45 cm which involved removing the existing floor tiles, the concrete base and then whatever we found under that. So large Kango Hammers were duly hired and battle commenced.

 

It was as we started this initial phase that I started to appreciate just how things are done in rural Breton communities, as if from nowhere people started arriving with shovels and wheelbarrows to remove Jean-Paul’s floor. You have heard of Barn-raising well this was ‘floor raising’ Breton style. At midday it was down tools and everyone gathered around the trestle table for the traditional farming three course meal with home made cider of course.

 

This routine continued for the next three days until the smell of fresh earth flowed through the ground floor. I have to admit that at this stage I would have been a bit concerned as we had by now exposed a considerable amount of stone wall below the old floor level. The internal insulating walls were hanging in midair held in place by the minimum of support. But as I have now discovered such “apparently minor problems” do not faze the DIY Breton.

 

Problems in the Gardens of Brittany

Nearly June and already the gardening is in full swing here in Brittany with everything, including the weeds springing into life. The lawn is growing far too rapidly and this week my beloved garden tractor decided it did not want to leave the shed. This had the signs of being a major disaster and already I could feel my back start to twinge at the thought of mowing the estate with my standby ‘Flymo’.

 

After an hour I had convinced myself the problem was something electrical and started tracing the current from the battery through the ignition to the starter motor. No immediate cause of the failure was apparent so depression started to set in and in desperation I decided to consult the internet. OK so how do I search for the answer? ‘Tractor will not start’? No, likely to get into the farming forums, how about ‘ride on mower electrical problem’. Bingo! loads of listings describing similar problems to my own, strange how so many Americans seem to spend so long on the net discussing their garden tractor problems!

 

Saints, Legends and Churches

After a few years of acclimatising to the rhythm of life in Brittany, it is relatively easy to become complacent about the community we have settled in.  Fortunately, every now and then something jumps out at you and reminds you not to take for granted the culture you derive so much pleasure from; or the origins of that culture. 

 

It was catching sight of an unidentifiable saint, (there are a great many of them in Brittany) embedded in the wall above a continuous flow of clear water from a spring; that sparked a renewed interest in churches. Where there is a church (or chapel) there is a saint and where there is a saint there is always an embroidered story.

 

As my little dog took a life saving drink at the unidentified saint’s spring after our exploratory walk in the little village of Loguivy-les-Lannion I felt compelled to look more closely at the church.

 

Snuggled in the small neat village is a higgledy-piggledy construction of a 15^th century church which suggests because of the towers a Romanesque influence with a bit of Byzantine thrown in for good measure.

‘Passing Through’ the Toilets of Bretagne

Anyone who has visited France will know that visiting a public or commercial convenience can be a challenging experience which should not be attempted by the faint hearted. Right from the start you have to accept that there is a cultural difference which I believe stems from the (le droit de l’homme)  the   ‘The Rights of Man’ which in some way explains the desire for French men to relieve themselves wherever and whenever they feel the need. This display of manhood can be seen in the singular but more often than not it is exercised as a group activity, clearly part of a bonding process!

 

This historical disregard for privacy during ‘toilette’ activity goes some way towards the explanation for the lack of separation in the majority of public toilets, between women and men’s facilities. It can be quite a shock for the English tourist to discover that not only are the facilities shared, but women have to pass the men’s urinal to reach the toilet cubicles. On many occasions I have had to check the absence of men before my wife will enter and then whistle a patriotic theme if one arrives whilst she is in residence; I find the ‘La Marseillaise’ is most appropriate.