Greetings from Britanny

 Dear Friends:

This morning I woke up to a blissful quiet that was only punctuated by the sound of sparrows singing, crows cawing, doves cooing, and the very distant growl of fishing boats puttering across the Bay of Mont Saint Michel. It is very early (jet lag is a nuisance,) but I am actually glad that I am getting this opportunity to start my first day here in this way, watching the sun come up over the water. 

   This is not my first visit to France, but it the first time that my husband and I have come here on our own. This winter we decided to celebrate our thirtieth wedding anniversary in France, and since then we have spent many delicious hours planning where we would stay and what we would do. 

   Yesterday we arrived here in Cancale, which is a small town that overlooks the Bay of Mont St. Michel. The famous island with its stone buildings and fortified walls can just be seen on the horizon from our balcony.   

  Our lovely little apartment is on the ground floor of a house built of stone in the typical Breton style, and when we walked in yesterday, dazed and exhausted, it quite took my breath away. 

 

This house was built in 1901 by the current owner’s great-grandfather, who was a councilor in the nearby town of Mayenne.  The owner and her younger brother inherited the house in 2017 and completely renovated it, gutting every room, updating the wiring and plumbing, and creating this rental apartment on the ground floor. The apartment is a delight with its tall ceilings, French doors, wood floors, and simple interior decoration, and the view is beyond spectacular. In addition to seeing all the way to the other side of the bay, we can see numerous commercial oyster beds in the sea below us. 

   In addition to being beautiful, Cancale is famous for its oysters and other seafood, and it is popular summer vacation spot for the French. Since we both love to eat fish and shellfish we look forward to trying the local seafood in the coming days.

Why chose to come to Brittany?

   My father served in the Indian Air Force during World War II in Burma (now Myanmar) and what was then eastern India (now Bangladesh). He did not tell me much about his experiences in the war, as was the case with so many WWII veterans, but I do know that defending his country against foreign invasion had a profound impact on him. Because of him I have a deep interest in WWII history and I’ve long wanted to visit the D-Day beaches in Normandy, which lie to the north of us. Now, at last, I will get the opportunity to fulfill this much hoped for pilgrimage, and pay my respects to the soldiers who bravely came ashore on that fateful day in June of 1944. 

   Over the last few months I have spent many hours diving down WWII history research rabbit holes, and one of the things that I discovered is that British-Indian Army soldiers were involved in the Normandy landings. Indeed one of them was the first Indian to parachute onto French soil. It will be an honor to remember these fellow countrymen of mine when we visit the beaches, and to think of my bookish, very unsoldierly soldier father, doing his part in the war far away in the tropical forests in Asia.