Each day, Molly watches all the passing traffic from her doorway on the Rue de la Petit Fort, a steep, cobblestoned road which winds it way downhill from the old walled town to the port below on the river Rance.
Himself and I were lucky enough to meet Molly 6 months ago when she was just a wee puppy. Now here we were back again at the invitation of Molly's owners, Ross and Robyn.
Six months ago the street was a bustling, crowded, thoroughfare, filled with tourists soaking up and partaking in the culinary delights and the wonderful sights of this historical town. Today, it's quieter but no less atmospheric being shrouded in the depths of winter.
For Molly, however, this means she has to contend with a lot less attention than she received at the height of summer, but she takes it all in her petit stride making the most of the compliments and pats she gets from the infrequent passer- bys.
She was given a little extra excitement the other day after an abundant downfall of snow in the town. A new experience for Molly and also a pretty rare occurrence for the children of the town, made so much better as they were given the day off school.
Molly was excited to see them as they turned the winding hillside road into a tobogganing slalem ride. She was a little unsure of the snow herself as she had never experienced snow, digging in it is not quite the same as dirt, crunchier and colder. But after a little exploring and a few laps of the garden she decided it was much more pleasant lying on a soft lap inside the warm house.
We left Molly for a few days to explore the chateaux of the Loire Valley. The region is dotted with them as each little village has its own chateau. The Loire valley is also well known for its caves. Some of the caves contain prehistoric paintings, others have been used for wine storage and growing mushrooms and these days they are mostly used for accommodation. Himself had booked us in for 2 nights into a cave in a picturesque village called, Amboise. He assured me that it was 4 star with all the comforts one would expect of a hotel of that calibre.
We had a very relaxing trip down from Dinan to Amboise. Himself now an experienced driver on French roads managed to negotiate the roundabouts with confidence. I 'd lost count of the numerous roundabouts that we had driven through before we managed to find our way out of Dinan - you guessed it the satnav had decided to take a day off!
Of course I also wasn't too perturbed at running across 6 lanes of motorway traffic to a tollbooth to pay a very irate French Madame, just because the lane we were in didn't accept our card. Though the motorists in the cars behind us did appear to be slightly agitated.
So by the time we arrived at the cave hotel I was so relaxed, I was nearly comatose.
We were shown to our room by a very chic mademoiselle in stilettos, who pointed out that the cave had its own heated swimming pool and as we were the only guests that night, we could have it all to ourselves . The very thing, I thought for me to unwind even further.
Later that night I made my way down to pool. Chris had decided a swim wasn't for him! So it was just me and I closed the big heavy timber doors behind me ensuring my privacy. Necessary because I had no swimmers.
The cave was dimly lit with hidden lights reflecting up on the wall above me. The rock was white and the ceiling shimmered in the low light like marble. I spied a foam noodle lying in the corner and lowered myself into the pool using it as a flotation device. The water was warm and as I laid back and floated in the water, the heat swirled up over me. I thought that I hadn't felt this warm since last August.
Looking up to the luminous ceiling I noticed some black shadows where the light didn't penetrate. I wondered fleetingly whether anything else was in the cave, bats, spiders or perhaps even spirits from bygone days. Convincing myself I was here alone I settled back on the noodle, letting the cares of the day float away. On one whole wall of the cave was a screen and projected on to it was a movie of underwater life, whales, turtles and fish floated by me in this underwater cavern. Lulled by the heat and captivated by the panorama before me, I didn't notice the hotel owner coming in with a complimentary glass of french champagne. I don't know who had the bigger shock him or me!
We returned a few days later to the very comfortable gite in Dinon. Australia Day was spent enjoying a seafood lunch at Cancours on the coast and playing 500 into the wee small hours of the morning while consuming numerous amounts of burgundy reds.
I highly recommend this fabulous gite , Robyn and Ross are such gracious and generous hosts and the gite was such a beautiful place to stay. Robyn's email is hogan.robyn@orange.fr for anyone who wants to experience a unique slice of Brittany and I've included both some winter and autumn photos of the area.
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