Saturday would be our last day exploring Brittany and we had decided we wanted to see the megalithic sites at Carnac and then go to the shrine of Ste. Anne d’Auray. Soon we were on our way, quite worried at the amount of traffic we could see towards the direction we came from. We only hoped this would not be the case on our return – as Nuno had seen on TV that weekend would be one of very heavy …
Category: Impressions
The following day we set out along the coast, headed for Perros-guirec and Ploumanach, where the coast displays beautiful oddly shaped pink granite rocks. I was very curious to see them as I had not seen any photos and I was not disappointed. The rocks are huge, pinkish and round shaped- in fact some of them reminded me of hippopotamus! But the unusual colour of the rocks and the blue-grey-green of the sea were magical and the views breathtaking. It …
From Fougères we drove to the place we would be staying at near St. Malo: a charming castle called “Château Hotel du Colombier“. We came into the park surrounding the castle and saw it, pink and magnificent. When we came in we were warmly welcomed by a very kind and attentive lady who was most helpful during our stay. She gave us the key to our room and it was really lovely with large windows overlooking the lawn and the …
Having already been to Scotland, I want to get to know the rest of the Celtic countries. This time we planned for a tour of Brittany. I always try to read as much as I can about the places I’m going to visit, so I ordered the DK Eyewitness Travel from Amazon and there I learned a few things about the country’s history, such as the fact that one of Brittany’s most famous rulers was a woman, the Duchess Anne …
Last month I read two very interesting books that I later discovered were somehow related to each other. They were “The lost teachings of the Cathars – their beliefs and practices”, by Andrew Philip Smith and “Hello Again – a memoir of souls reconnecting over many lifetimes”, by Kathy Gibbons. At first I read the book on the Cathars – yet again, I was trying to learn more. This book had seemed very informative as I had looked it up on …
I have always loved reading books, but there are also some very relevant magazines in my life. As a child, I remember reading comic magazines. My favourite were Tarzan stories, and I prided myself on my – almost complete – collection that I lent to no one except my brother, and that was because he lived with me and I could control what he did with my precious magazines that I read over and over again. I was also fascinated …
This is one of the books that most influenced my young adulthood, and that I still find incredibly lucid. It’s a French original, by French feminist author Elisabeth Badinter, and its title is “L’amour en plus” translated into Portuguese (literally) as “The uncertain love: history of maternal love from the XVII to the XX century”. It is a courageous book that dares question one of humankind’s main tenets, that of motherly love. It is widely accepted, at least in western culture, that …
Today a friend of mine who is following my blog told me she would like me to write more about my lifestyle (i.e. fashion), in addition to my stories. This is a younger friend, in her thirties, and she is very stylish. I told her I had already written about bags (my weakness!) but then thought: “Why not?” – after all, it’s a subject dear to me. I have always been a little vain – not too much I hope …
This month I have read two books, very different from each other but both very good. The first one by Richard Zimmler, called “The Seventh Gate”, that I read in its Portuguese version (edited by “Porto Editora”); the second one, I read in its original version, Spanish (as far as I know it’s not translated into English yet, but it seems the title will be “Five points”). It is called “Cinco Esquinas” and it’s the latest book by Nobel Prize …
I first read this book during the summer holidays of 93. I was undergoing the treatment for my endometriosis, hoping that I might get pregnant and the hormones I was taking left me very much on edge (one of the side effects, among some nastier ones), so we had decided on a quiet holiday by ourselves, in a somewhat secluded place, and we found that in the dam of Montargil, in the Alentejo region. By then it was not easy to …