New Year... the time of good resolutions for everyone .... But they are not all easy to achieve ... Tobacco addiction, you know what I mean ?

There are so many methods for quitting smoking : some tips to succeed smoking cessation...

The more conventional methods rely on substitutes:
There are the traditional nicotine patch that are applied to the skin for a variable time : 16 or 24 hours depending on your addiction to nicotine and according to your needs and dependance.
The best way is to answer a few questions before choosing the "good" patch ... I have tried this method, it works.
Be careful not to play with your addiction, don't forget to use the patch at the right time because if you're late, you may suffer a crisis of lack, the nervousness or the temptation too strong to go back to a cigarette!
The patch needs over an hour to fitfull your body with nicotine !
Gums can help if you were late and therefore nervous to wait for the fulfitment of nicotine !

To quit smoking, you can try other cigarettes ... done with a mix of plants! Just in cases of emergency, the taste is no good but the gesture of smoking without nicotine will help you through !

The homeopathy offers kits to smokers : small white balls, homeopathic granules do miracles and cures you from your bad habit. Yes, the various tubes relieve your symptoms: loss, restlessness, urge to snack (even eat !)
The advantage of the white balls are that they will occupy your mouth and (as the desire does not last for hours), it should help you to avoid once more a smoke.

There are other methods: hypnosis. It does not work on everyone but for those susceptible, it is a good help. Several sessions are necessary to win the game !

More local approach, the magnetizer .... In Britain, there are still some... for shingles, to heal the baby teeth that grow painfully or for smokers ...

You may succeed trying a change of habit, to break your daily routine a few days... a method that lasts 7 days, a sort of diet, a body purification ... For one week, you change your diet: 1 day, dried fruits, fresh fruits the 2nd, 3rd day steamed vegetables and fruits .... and you focus more on what you eat (or what you miss) than on cigarettes .... Avoid weight by the same time.....

There is also the method of Allen Carr, who in his book The Simple Way to stop smoking convince you that smoking is not fun ... You read his method and over the pages, your aversion to cigarette is confirmed ...
The author is a former smoker (4 packs a day) he knows his subject well and all the pitfalls of "cigarette", the failed attempts...
You can visit the centers Allen Carr to meet people who are in the same process. You won't fell alone and lost in your addiction... So many people are like yourself...50% success says Wikipedia.

The best way to say bye bye to smoking is to combine several methods, will will also help remember that it is not easy … I know, I tried several times and managed ... for now. My smoking addiction is gone. HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Read this article in French : Méthodes et méthode pour arrêter de fumer

- I bought a black cat in France, better in Britain ...
- Hmm, risky !!! Yes, yes, you don't know them ? ... ...
- The advertisement was : black cat for sale for good care ...
- Oh, suspicion ... If, in addition, his master or mistress tells you his name is Paolig ... Sure, you look for trouble, disappointments ... this animal is a strange beast ...



Since the Middle Ages, the black cat has a really bad reputation in France... It is a close, very close friend, even the best friend of the devil ...

In Britain, it's worse, it is not only a friend of the devil ... it is a reincarnation. Many stories, all with the same hero, are told... a black cat named Paolic (or Paolig, little Paul) who brings wealth but also misfortunes.

The classic story is this one : A French (no, a Breton) family in wooden shoes, very poor, just had a baby. They see an end to their miserable fate when they're proposed to buy a black cat ... He loves porridge and breast milk .... The contract states (written very small on the bottom of the leaf) that the cat will bring gold every morning ... (don't forget the pact with the devil ... But this is incidental and the poor man quickly forgets that this is part of the contract ) ...

The cat well groomed, (the first breast feeding is for him), the family is soon rewarded. Paolig brings back every day a purse of gold to his masters. Very soon the poor French becomes rich.
But ... the contract only lasts a year... Once the time gone, the "rich" man has to honor the 2nd part of the pact .... (Give his soul).
The man, being human, tries, anxious, to find another solution (get rid of his loyal colleague who had patiently enriched his master in response to the good treatment he received).

Many tricks are tempted:
- Sell it (once a year there was a black cats fair once a year, but it stopped ... Too many people from all over the world were coming , it was too successful and it became impossible to organize).
- Call the priest who was often requested by those honest flock to help (against a good sum of money!)....

Or you can try an abominable trick to your cat ...
This story don't always tell if the family who won the money so honestly had a peaceful life ...
What is known is that one day the black cat took revenge... The poisoned air contaminates the potatoes and give them the mildew ...

Brittany is a land of legends and superstitions, but beware ... If, unfortunately, you meet Paolic at nightfall at the crossroads of several paths ... You have the evil eye and you have been "spotted" ... Go and ignore the call of the cat ... Because traditions are being lost ... Priests do not know "manage" this type of case, the fair is over ... You will only get away! Faced with this witchcraft of another century!

Do not take too many risks: if you want to buy an animal for your family, the best advice to give you is to go to a good pet store (they guarantee the pedigree cats) or cross the Channel and, in Great Britain, buy an English black cat : there beliefs and symbols are different: black cats bring luck... And forget the witches ...

Read this post in French : Chats noirs à vendre

La fête des mégalithes...

Pleslin-Trigavou is a small village that got married several years ago. Yes, these two parishes wanted to be one and each had a beautiful heritage to give as a dowry : Pleslin is the 3rd megalithic site in Brittany (it has 4000 years) and hundreds of bronze axes were found in Trigavou last century, which are 3000 years ....

A union of history and heritage, so ...

Have you heard of la fête des mégalithes end of july ?
And do you know what it celebrates ?
Is it to honor the fairies?
Or to commemorate the druids?
Or to perpetuate a tradition of the nineteenth century?

The megalithic site, listed since 1887, is certainly very different from the Neolithic period : we can see now 65 standing stones, arranged in 5 rows and oriented as in Carnac, East – West but it used to be different. Because today the stones are lying, they were menhirs (standing stones). And therefore the site looks like a field of rocks (Champ de Roches) and is less impressive…

Imagine if all those tons were standing ...

How did they get here, these stones ? It is the eternal question, the Neolithic suspense... but I have a clue: the Mont Saint Michel ...

Oh, it already existed!
That's the story : The fairies were carrying stones to build the Mont-Saint-Michel. Tired-it 's heavy-, they got rid of them here in the Field rocks.



Next to it a collection of oak trees (lots of different species) remind us that standing stones are also the domain of druids. Later around 300 BC, Celts reused the standing stones and this Champ des Roches will be the place for new beliefs … Legends and myths will also survive till now… Probably rituals that might seem strange today took place then.
Through these rituals the Celts tried to communicate with the supernatural and the Other World.

Opposite, there is a large area to maintain the tradition?



Around 1850, a very old tradition was the pretext for a village fête for the inhabitants of Pleslin and other neighbours during the day of Saint John and Saint Peter. Celebrations, banquets were probably too pagan for the priests of the parish who tried unsuccessfully to stop these rites.

So la Fête des mégalithes, what is it done for ?

Read it in French : Les menhirs de Pleslin-Trigavou, Cotes-d'armor, Bretagne

Want to eat unusual pancakes… with a spring flavour…

The elderberry flower will give a very light sweetness to the crêpes. And hurry… the season of flowers elderberry flies (a good month of May and June).

You need two to three large clusters of flowers to put in the dough.

Ingredients
250 g flour
250 ml of beer (the same amount of flour)
500 ml of milk (the double )
4 eggs
Salt
Some alcohol of your choice
Mix everything and let it rest a bit.
Add the flowers in batter. Heat the pan. With some oil on a tissue, grease the pan each time you make a crêpe. Pour a ladle of batter. When the edges turm brown, turn it. Let cook a minute.

Place on a plate, sprinkle with sugar (which will melt with heat) and add so on your pancakes. Eat them when they are cold (the flavour of flower is light, when eaten warm, it does not taste as much !).

One day, my girl was leafing through a toy’s catalog and suddently stopped on a page: Mom, I want that!
That was a cooker, pinkish, cute, multifunction (washing machine and integrated oven…) ... A little wonder that any little girl would dream of…

Before saying something like : Ok, we go get it, I have a quick look at the price... Ouah !!! It's quite expensive this little amazing toy !
And all of a sudden, I have a brilliant idea : I’ll do it myself… I made a course to cardboard furniture recently, I'll try to practise what I’ve learned…

The idea was nice but it was not easy at all... but my little loves the result… And she helped a lot to achieve it.



You will need to realize it :

Time, time, time ...30 hours of free time if you’re beginning with cardboard furniture
Cartons better if they’re big
A cutter
Craft
Painting
Magnets (for the oven and washing machine doors)
Straws (for tap)
Rope (for the resealable tablet)

I leafed through several catalogs of toys, wooden toys, to find a model to copy. Mine is unique but it did give me ideas to adapt what I could do with what I wanted to do: a rectangle with holes and doors ...

You have to think twice or more the templates you ‘ll need, where you want to make the holes ... kitchen units have to be solid (it's a toy for children !), the size (we have a small house, you can do it customized!), the practical side of the kitchen, the sealing of the toy (water and cardboard are hereditary enemies !)... I had so many questions and doubts that I wanted to give it up… But as I had insistent requests, I finally began to do it…

It's not perfect (I would do it differently now if I had to do it over again) but as a first try, I was happy… and my little girl too !
She helped me to assemble the pieces, to glu, to paint the object that seemed to go on and on and never stopped or finished. It's long.
It takes time, you need room to spread out, and room in order to store the furniture, waiting for a break to continue. A bit of organization is necessary. But once finished, the cooker runs all the time: dishes, laundry or cakes in the oven ... the tablet to eat ... Your child is just to busy…



The advantage of a toy designed like this is that I did it in order to fit it in my small house. I planned it for a corner of the kitchen so it does not bother me but it is still in the area where she / I, we spend time.

She loved to help me to do it to be abble to play right away with it!

Cheer up ! If you start now, you can be done for Christmas or do it for the birthday of your little!

If you’re bored during this Chrismas time, I’ve got something for you… Specially because the weather is really mild now in Brittany. You should harvest rose hips, but the good ones, the useful ones used for jam or itching powder…



The fruits of dog roses are usually used to make jam, syrup, liqueur or herbal tea. The fruit is an incredibly high source of Vitamin C (20 times more than lemon) and therefore really helpful for whom is suffering from a lack of vitamin C.
The dog rose produces an orange to red fruit, that looks like an olive. The fruits of the rose tree are round. You can harvest them as early as october, but the longer you wait, the sweeter they will be. They grow in hedges, coastlines… and at my neighbour’s…



And if you wait for the first frost, it will be easier to peel them…
Because that ‘s the main problem with rose hips… Inside the fruit, tiny fine hairs that are used as itching powder and if you don’t carefully remove them while making your jam… You’ll have an itching "posterieur"…



I’ll soon give you my jam recipe as soon as I've some time before me... It is long to peel... Till then, you can keep them in the freezer...

Read it in French : Le cynorrhodon en Bretagne : fruit du rosier ou de l'églantier

Looking for an original and unusual getaway in Northern France ... Off season, of course, because you want it to be nice and quiet ... Try the Mont Saint Michel !
Like stones, hiking and local specialities ... Go to the Mont Saint Michel
You are a follower of marathons and want to do one in France... the Mont Saint Michel !
Or looking to retire in an outstanding place... The Mont Saint Michel!



That place is located between Brittany and Normandy ... Easy to reach from the UK... Take a Ryanair flight to Dinard and then rent a car or take the ferry to Saint Malo and drive…

Do you want to begin with the gourmet side of the place ? Or the walks in the bay or want to know everything about that marathon…

I’ll deal first with the French gastronomy… and the culinary specialties… Just to make you drool ... We can say that there are four good reasons to stop and eat in the corner.
The bay is famous for its mussel farm… and its seafood dishes…
If you scan the bay, you'll see lots of oak piles driven into the sand, covered with ropes where mussels cling. The posts are covered by the tides. Wild mussels also grow naturally on rocks. The bay provides nearly one quarter of the French production.

To stay in the molluscs'field, you can also make a stop in Cancale for its fresh oysters. This aquaculture practice is an old tradition as the oysters from Cancale were already known in Versailles, the Royal Palace during the 18th C.
You can taste and enjoy the shellfish at the port of Cancale (stands outdoor offer to try different types of oysters). You eat, seated on the front, facing the sea and smelling the spray… It’s really nice.

The lamb (agneau de pré-salé literally a lamb raised in a salted meadow) is a specialty of the bay. The young lamb tastes very special: it grazes in the field that are covered by the tides and where the vegetation is, therefore, salty... The meat has a very special flavor and is very sought because they are just to be found here in the bay ...

I can finish this gastronomical journey by a legend, that of Madame Poulard and her famous omelet ... A taste of the Mont ...
This lady was famous for her restaurant during the 19th C, with an original omelet cooked over a wood fire. Even then, the pilgrims liked to stop there and now the famous preparation is always a specialty of the rock Mont Saint Michel. Quite expensive too !

And walks

There are great walks to do in Mont Saint Michel... or rather in the bay of Mont Saint Michel ...
A nice way to discover both Normandy and Brittany as the bay homes the two regions... But be very careful and never, ever do it alone and by yourself…...

The bay of Mont Saint Michel is really dangerous and that for various reasons:
The tides have a very large amplitude. The bay is extremely flat, the sea comes in quickly on the sand and surprises the visitor. Especially since the sand is treacherous: it consists on a sediment of limestone, silt and clay (that was used as fertilizer before) ... that is solidified at low tide and which "becomes quicksand" when it is again waterlogged (my explanation is not very scientific but the danger is real). You can cross the bay at low tide but always well guided. It's really worth it. The experience is unforgettable.

Nearby, the grass meadows are also a wintering site for waders and are a classified site of national interest since 1982.

The legend says that the bay was long ago (2000 years), covered with a wood forest called Scissy ... I stopped there because it is a myth ... But I can add a bit of geophysics. The bay is over 500 m2 and there are two large rocks: Mont Saint Michel and Tombelaine. The first, granite, is a 900 meter diameter by 80 meters in height.
It houses the Marvel. Its bell tower, made by Fremiet in 1897 and renovated in 1987, represents St. Michael slaying the dragon and gave the Mount its 157 meters high.
The second, Tombelaine, was occupied and fortified by the British in the 15th C, and is today just a rock with no remains.

For those who like to run…the marathon du Mont Saint Michel is a good excuse and a great way to explore the region ... It is a tough race but that brings together thousands of joggers every year since 1997 during a weekend (May 8th). They say it is hard because you see the arrival for miles ...

Finally for those who want the rest and the contemplation, Mont Saint Michel organizes retreats in the abbey. A magnificent site to discover from the inside.

Read it in French : Gastronomie et randonnée dans la baie du Mont Saint Michel : un vrai marathon

I tasted fried salvia leaves at my neighbor’s place. In amuse gueule for the aperitif, the French “apéro” as we say, or a cocktail party as you say, it is so nice!

Sage or salvia in latin, you know ... Is this small shrub with fragrant leaves that aromatize so well our vegies...

Long ago, sage was commonly used as a medicinal plant ... She was used to almost anything ... if you believe that French saying ...

Who has sage in his garden, does not need a doctor.

In any case, it was very useful but, as there are about 900 different species, I will not say too much and make you tired of reading ...

Sage was used as aromatic plant, in decoction, against plantar warts, against hay fever (leaves were smoked during the 18th century), for its hallucinogenic properties (that's for the other side of the ocean, the New World) ...

I stop and go back to my recipe. My neighbor has a beautiful salvia shrub at home, facing south. It grows so much, she has to prune it very regularly.

Ingredients

20 leaves of sage (large ones with the stem) 80 g flour
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
7.5 cl beer
1 / 2 teaspoon baking powder
Coarse salt.

Let it rest for an hour.
In a bowl mix flour, egg, baking powder, milk, beer.
Let stand one hour (if you are in a hurry, you can do it straight away).
Heat oil. If it is hot enough, the drop of dough you let fall in the boiling liquid will rise to the surface.
Put the leaf in the dough, pass it between the tines of a fork to remove the excess of dough.
Cook it in the oil. When the stem is yellow, remove and drain on kitchen paper.
Sprinkle with coarse salt.
Eat it hot and enjoy it.

Read it in French : Recette végétarienne de beignets à la feuille de sauge

I don’t know if Yann Arthus Bertrand is known abroad. If not, let me introduce him. He is an ecologist or an environmentalist. It is almost the French Al Gore, but as a photographer and not as a politician…

He has made several ecologist events : books about the state of the earth (Earth from above), films also and exhibitions. And he is also interested in mankind and the show 6 billion others is one of them.

This exhibition was first presented in Grand Palais in Paris and, then a smaller city but still the capital of Brittany Rennes and then far away New York… It presents mankind… 5000 interviews in 75 countries and 40 answers to 40 questions.



It is trite to say but sometimes it is very surprising to compare people's responses to issues such as violence, love, belief, happiness ...

Everyone gives his feeling : a man explains that the birth of his son is the Event of his life, another hopes that the trial of Pol Pot will happen sson, for a third one, happiness is easy … Another does not support people repeating again and again. Or when his wife makes bad cooking.… A survivor of a plane crash who loves life ... You can also leave your testimony, in order to reach .... 6 billion others ...

What I did like ?
It is nice to see mankind speaking… The expo in Rennes was presented in a smaller room than Paris – No wonder it is a smaller city ! – So it had to be adapted to this new space. The solution was to change the themes exposed in the 3 yurts every 10 days.
In short, the show is renewed quite often and you can go several times as long you wait 10 days between the visits ...

What I do not like ?
No where you find explanations to understand how they dedided the themes of the 40 questions… Or how they found the people they interviewed… I know everyone can leave its message but I would have liked to know how they began… Is it spontaneous or sorted? And for what? It's a bit embarrassing to see an exhibition and this lack of transparency ... I know it is not a sociologist work but it tries to look like one…

It is also expensive : 10 euros in Paris, 4 in Rennes, I don’t know how much it will be in New York but …I thought the philosophy of Yann Arthus Bertrand was to permit to everyone to see its works…
Specially when you know that lots of sponsors (cities too) give him money to realize his pictures and films, it would be understandable to get a free entrance…

Open every day except Monday and Sunday until the end of August.

Read it in French : L'expo de Yann Arthus Bertrand : 6 milliards d'autres

You’re visiting Britanny and specially the South Coast. You have to go to the Gulf of Morbihan, a small sea surrounded by peninsulas. The place is really unusual with its inland sea, an incredibly high number of islands... it's worth it.
And on the presqu'île de Rhuys, one of the peninsula that closes the Gulf, you’re close to an historical place the tumulus de Tumiac, where the legend says that Caesar did watch the naval battle between the most powerful tribe of Armor the Veneti and the Roman fleet.



Gallic War. Here we are, back in 56 before Christ when Caesar decided to conquer Brittany.
In 57, Roman already tried to dominate the peninsula. One year later, when they came back, they had to do it again. Veneti did resist and were known as good sailors. Ceasar decided to attack them, here on the South Coast. The legend said the Emperor watched the encounter from the top of this hill.



220 large sailing ships faced the Roman fleet, which was easy to move. And Romans had sickles tied to long poles that were quite useful to cut the sail down. The sailing ship could not move anymore and the soldiers just had to board the ship. And that ‘s how Caesar won this unexpected struggle… and the wind did not blow to help the Armor tribe.

That’s the legend… and now the truth about this little mound. It is on the main road that goes from Sarzeau to Port Navalo. Stop on the parking place and go on a small path that leads you to the top of the hill.



You can no more visit the underground… because of degradation…

86 m high, 20 m diameter of clay. Underneath, there is a grave (5000 before Christ).



A stone coffin 4 meters long and 2 meters wide where an important man from that time was burried. In 1853 excavations did reveal human bones which is rare in Brittany –acid soils do “eat” bones-.

Read it in French : La butte de César : légende historique ou site préhistorique du Golfe du Morbihan

If you are visiting Saint Malo, you should stop at the shop producing and selling the breton speciality called “craquelin de Saint Malo”. Arriving from the highway, take Saint Malo centre and at the first round about, take a right, you’re on the factory (Z.A.C. de la moinerie, 35400 Saint-Malo, Tél : 02 99 81 92 89). You can no more visit it but you can still taste their different specialities.



What is a craquelin ?
Is it a brioche with sugar or a light craker eaten at breakfast time ? Well, craquelins are both ; they are european specialities. The first one is made in Belgium and the second is a breton product.



In Brittany, according to their website craquelins de Saint Malo, it is an old traditional product (almost 400 years). As in 1663 the Saint Malo hospital already mentions it.

Why do we find them in Saint Malo region ?
The first explanation is that Saint Malo has a long trade tradition and in particular with Flanders. And so ? The word craquelin is a Dutch word crakelinc, that means crispy biscuit.
The second one is that there use to be lots of forests on the Rance estuary. To bake the craquelins, you need lots of fagots…

Why is it so successful ?
A craker is dry and therefore easy to preserve and so easy to transport and sell. They were sold on the markets, and women used to carry them (2000 pieces) in big baskets on their backs and sell them on farms. At Dinard, the first seaside resort of the end of the XIXth century, British customers used to love them.

Why is it so special ?
It doesn’t come from its recipe, which is quite simple : flour, eggs, milk. It comes from the way it is baked. The dough is first quickly boiled, then cooled in cold water and then put in the oven. That makes it so special !!!

12 pieces bags are sold for 2,20 euros.



And if you buy 10, you get a discount as local customers do. Hotels are big buyers, and they make it known… Lots of tourists come to that shop to buy them before going home.

The traditional product has now other varieties : smaller ones for salty toasts, chocolate ones that taste like pyms but in much lighter… you can find them salt free.



If you never went to Saint Servan, go for a walk in that nice district of Saint Malo, it is worth it…

Read it in French : Les craquelins de Saint Malo, une spécialité bretonne de l'estuaire de la rance (France)