Pas de publicité

Pas de pub or Pas de publicité, it's something that you sometimes see written on house letter boxes in France.

It means 'no publicity brochures' which is a popular French way of giving you plenty of material for the recycling bin.
In France the major supermarkets and shops all send out masses of promotional material that the postman duly stuffs through your letter box (unless you have a note on the box saying that you don't want such material of course).

Since we only go to the Gite periodically the publicity material builds up in our letter box.

The letter box was absolutely stuffed to the brim with publicity this time, so much so that you couldn't get any more in.

On digging through the pile it was just the publicity brochures from September through to early January this year. At that point the box was full and looked like postie gave up trying to deliver any more.

A very rural French protest?

On our way back to the Gite on Saturday we passed this convoy of tractors and people marching.

The tractors all had tree branches attached to their cabs and were beeping their horns.

We saw some signs with an aeroplane with a cross through it, so maybe the protest was against an airport, but the nearest airfield is a tiny place so not quite sure what all the commotion was and why the tractors all had trees on them.

Very French!

Got a new trailer

Just arrived at the Gite.

Our big new acquisition was a trailer that we brought over with us.

Every time we come to the Gite there is plenty of gardening to do and it's a bit difficult stuffing all the branches in the car (plus Liz complains at me for messing up her car).
Putting the cuttings in the hedgerows is another option but it's not ideal and always makes me feel guilty.

And so the trailer is going to be really useful to take stuff to the déchetterie.
Top tip for the ferry: it was cheaper to put the trailer on the roof rack and pay for the extra height than to tow it behind us.

Sorted!

Dismantling the ferry after our journey to France

We're over in Brittany on holiday at our Gite for 10 days at Easter.

Took the Brittany Ferry overnight sailing from Portsmouth Caen which was a good crossing although a lengthy drive to the port through the rain and UK motorway queues.

Typical Jack though on the ferry. Woke up in the morning to find that he had managed to drop his mobile phone down the side of the seat on the ferry, necessitating us getting a crew member and then an engineer (complete with his overalls on) to dismantle the seat in order to retrieve it.

Never a dull moment!