For various reasons most our children ended up in the Catholic school system which is semi-private ( the fee is 150€ a term and the school meals are more expensive ) but our youngest  Xav has done most of his time in the state school. I don't think there is any difference in educational standards its just  in the state sector you lose about 2 weeks each year due to strikes so the teachers set a good example. A couple of weeks ago they had a one day strike protesting against the director's decision to close down a course CERP ( a vocational course )  in "technicien  d'usinage "  and merge it with the  Bac pro "systemes electroniques numerique". After this disruption which didn't go  down to well with the students there was a lot of grumbling  and resulted in the boarders  (most lycees have some students who live in as its too  far to travel each day )  escaping at 6.30 in the morning and organising a " blocus"  ( lockout ) so the next two days were spent picketing the school stoping students going in and the Thursday and Friday were spent demonstrating in Lannion, blocking a few roads. Its almost a French gene  the art of protest,  the revolution , the communes ,1968  and now Lannion it almost makes me wish I was at school again!

We had been watching the weather in the UK and were thinking we had missed the cold snap, we didn't get our first frost till the week after Christmas, but then last Saturday we had a 6inch dump on us overnight.Driving was impossible and as Paulien was suffering from nicotine deprivation we had to trek into Plestin in our ski survival suits. It took about 3/4 of an hour a walk you could normally do in 25 minutes and its much more tiring walking on soft snow. The main road from Morlaix to Lannion was open but the small amount of traffic was very slow and even Super U had some empty shelves as their deliveries had been disrupted. My boys instead of doing something useful like clearing the road built an igloo on our back lawn, a good use of their university training. The thaw started slowly the next sufficient to get a car out on the long road to Plestin for Sunday communion in the PMU.I think there was just two market stalls!

I've had a bit of a nightmare with my Internet connection this month just over 4 weeks without a regular service and trying to get it fixed is difficult. France must be the only country with a TV program mocking "SAV " ( service apres vente )  they are just not interested, first you contact the service provider which has a call centre in North Africa, someone speaking french equally as bad as mine telling me to do things I have already done and then over the course of two weeks they sent me new cables (yippee) and even a new box which didn't make a bit of difference. I had in the mean time started telephoning France Telecoms complaining about the line and the noise on it so they test it from the office and say its fine but after persistent complaining they eventually send an engineer to visually check it. He mutters a lot saying "pas bon" as I have moved the final cable about 5 times and its not up to his standard , but it has worked fine for the last 10 years but on his second visit at least a week later he spotted a bad connection along the road so in the end it was just a crossed wire. It would be worrying if there was a serious problem.

Its very quiet here now since the autumn half term the place is empty of visitors for the first time since the beginning of April so we can shout and scream and no one hears us except perhaps the neighbours.The weather has changed like a switch as soon as the last visitors left at the end of October , the last two months have incredibly dry and warm  and now its the rainy windy  season which is good for the ground and gardens.i had a quick visit to the UK to pick up a few goodies I had bought on ebay which I get delivered to my brother also to pick up of a chipper/mulcher  attachment for my Countax mower from Exeter.i bought one of those electric ones years ago which you use once and then throw to the back of your workshop in disgust as its so slow and inefficient, but the Countax chipper is a good tool as it works direct off the 16 hp motor so plenty of power and can slice up to 6cms  but I prefer to do half that thickness and chainsaw the rest in to fire starter pieces. I also bought a second hand chainsaw as my old one I cynically call it French as it works well for 10 minutes and then it needs a 2 hour rest.My brother has moved to Bude in Cornwall where I went to secondary school  ( it was a grammar in those days ) and the most worrying thing was I knew 10  people in the street of his house, 4 were ex teachers, 2 were in the same class as me , the next door neighbour played in the town band with me its just too much .Tony the ex-class mate insisted on taking me out for a pub crawl which didn't do much for my head the next day.It was interesting that recession wasn't effecting Bude so much as its a tourist town and the "staycation " fashion helps it survive.

We had quite a shock last Saturday in the bar someone mentioned Francois Rolland had died of an aneurysm, he's our neighbour just lives a few fields away. Regular visitors will have seen him working the fields or he would often drop in for a chat  leaving the engine of his  John Deere  tractor running  as he had a quick beer and gossip with me and Paulien. We have known him 17 years and he lived at Coat Aillis before we bought the place  and he had a large hanger in place where he ( or his wife ) milked his 25 cows, in fact we co-habited  on site as he didn't move the hanger till 95 so we always got on well. He was a fiery proud Breton but an unreconstructed chemical farmer who was was an anachronism as he was farming on such a small scale. The funeral was at Ploulec'h a small village near Lannion it was completely packed so we had to stand for the service  where they sang songs in French and Breton and afterwards everyone passes the coffin and sprinkles some drops of water on it. I got out early but Paulien left half an hour after me as there were at least 400 in the church and another 100 outside. He was only 53 and had 3 girls one of whom was going to be married the following week so it was bad timing.