Lehon, Day 2

I got into Dinan on Saturday straight from Charles de Gaulle and spent the day traipsing around the medieval town. Here's a picture of the town, which is in Brittany, just northwest of Rennes. I ate a very good crepe avec confiture de lait. It was incredible. Here's a picture of Dinan from the ramparts.

Oh and here's a picture of a restaurant called Clafoutis, which is one of my favorite desserts/breakfast menu items (thank you, Sarah Marriage!).

I tried to get some sleep that night but I wasn't too successful (though this was no fault of the hotel's). On Sunday, Christopher Shipley, the director of the residency, came and picked us up and took us to Lehon which was a five minutes drive from Dinan and is the base of the residency.  This is Val Rive, which used to be the mayor's house a couple of centuries ago, and is where we're staying.  I know. It's pretty awesome.

Here's a picture of the diggs from the inside. Not too shabby....

We spent the day getting accustomed to the small town and looking at the Abbaye and meeting our gracious hosts, David and Victoria (not Beckman, but close: Jackson).

We spent the evening drinking wine from a gigantic bottle and eating cheese en plein air.

Here's me with the empty bottle of Rioja.  We opened another, smaller bottle later.  (I don't know why I look so happy.)

This morning we all got into the cars and went to the Intermarche to stock up on provisions.  I took this picture of Casal Garcias that they had on sale there- they were the first bottle of wine Toby and I ever ordered together (at a Brazilian restaurant in Midtown Manhattan).

Here's me at tonight's welcome dinner with le maire de Lehon, who spoke not un mot of anglais, but we managed to understand one another.  I think he got a kick out of my Norman-name. He apparently is a Norman himself.

Here's one last picture that I thought would make a great painting, so I'll probably go back there at some point soon and do some drawings.

I haven't gotten too much time to work yet-- just because we are getting ourselves situated. Tomorrow we have a little orientation meeting at the Abbaye, and then I'll continue to do some painting out there, and hopefully I'll have some shots of what I'm doing tomorrow.