Back at the Ranch

Canal d'Ille et Rance.

We returned to Cesson for about forty hours so that we could do laundry, get some things done around the house, and take a few deep breaths before our upcoming ten-day tour of the rest of France. The Sunday we were back, our friend and colleague Margaret (featured in our entry on Lunch in Saint-Sulpice) took us around the local area.  We originally planned to go to Merlin’s forest with her, but with all the rain the day before, we decided it would be very muddy and went to Becherel instead.

Castle of Montmouron.

Instead, we stopped at a bunch of places, including the Montmouron castle and the canal (the Canal d'Ille et Rance) you saw in one of our very first entries! We feel like our time here is coming full circle.  The weather was beautiful, so we continued on to a couple of small towns, looking at old chateaus from the outside as well as visiting bookstores because first of all, we really love books, and second of all, I am still searching for Le roman d’Eneas for my dissertation. OSU doesn’t own a copy, so I’d have to wait for it to come in for a while.

Closed...because the cat is a lunatic?

After wading through books and making friends with the local cats (which of course was enough in itself to make my day), we visited a man who teaches calligraphy classes and who works at the Avranches scriptorium (where they house the manuscripts taken from Mont St. Michel’s library).  We’ve wanted to go all year but have somehow never gotten around to it.  He was very nice and gave Margaret all kinds of information about the summer course offerings.  We’re sorry we won’t be around to learn from him!

Lunatic cat.

Les Iffs church.

Afterwards, we went to a beautiful little church in the town of Les Iffs ("The Yews") and saw the yew trees around it.  We visited the inside, where there was a lot of interesting sculpture.  Then, we finished our visit and went back home to pack up for Toulouse!  We were very happy to spend time with Margaret and look forward to a lasting friendship.

Les Iffs Church interior.

Funny statue on the ceiling of Les Iffs Church.