I’ve actually seen a place that I liked today. It had everything that I wanted except for the kitchen of course (one of those really cheap units with the two ancient hobs and the fridge underneath so that the hobs take ages to heat up, they are pretty much uncontrollable, and they melt everything in the fridge).
And so why haven’t I signed for it then?
Two reasons really.
- It’s not free until the beginning of July
- It’s three floors up without a lift
And that’s that.
There was another apartment to let in the same building, on the first floor but without the terrace and the view of the sea. And that smelt as if the people living there had smoked 100 cigarettes a day for 20 years.
In other words, yet another wasted morning.
But on the other hand, it wasn’t exactly wasted because I did learn one or two things about the town.
As regular readers of this rubbish will recall, poor parking is a regular theme that crops up, and here, I regret to say, is yet another example of the dismal failure of other selfish motorists to respect disabled parking spaces.
This tells me more about the town than any other factor, and in this sense I’m glad that I’m not moving here.
But before I had left my little studio in Granville for my drive out, I had given the studio a quick clean-around and took some stuff down to Caliburn with me, and then we roared off to Barneville-Carteret to look at these apartments.
And then we roared back.
I finished off the tidying up and passed the inspection with the landlord, and then set off to find a place for tonight. And with what is befitting a holiday resort in the school holidays, there’s not a room to let anywhere in town.
After an hour or so of fruitless searching, we all took to the road and 80 kilometres and 80 minutes later we ended up in Cancale on the other side of the bay.
I had the last room here too – the Hotel le Chatellier – and at €60:00 it looks as if I have made a good choice. It’s quite comfortable and the shower is delicious. I spent half an hour in there.
No breakfast though. It doesn’t start until 08:00 and I’ll be long gone and down the road by then.
Cancale is beautiful. It’s nearly 30 years since I came here with Nerina and it’s changed dramatically in that it’s impossible to park by the sea.And it’s a hell of a climb up to the car parks at the top. And of course, all of the places to eat are at the bottom.
Luckily, on the edge of town was not darkness but a pizza van and we sorted something out. He came, would you believe, from Moisie in Quebec, so we had a really good chat.
Back at the hotel, I found a quiet little corner out of the wind and sat outside and ate my pizza. It really was a nice evening.
So now I’m ready for anything. Including two more ruins to visit tomorrow morning, and my train to Leuven at 11:50.
