Our Brittany trip part 1
We returned last Thursday. night from our trip to Brittany so here is the first post. First, Paimpol...the town in Brittany which was our headquarters was theee most uneventful, uninspiring town ever...seriously, I have been to quite a few "touristy" places here in France (note that if you don't know, I already hate people but the tourists are worse) but Paimpol had nothing to offer except (which is an excellent except) the gorgeous abbey ruins on the sea where I was fortunate enough to be able to do one of my self-portrait shoots in and will get to that in the next post.
First, a sum up:
- I (we) walked a combined 60,435 steps in the 4 days we were gone. Our vacations are always these damn marathons and every time we go somewhere, we insist that we will "try" to take it easy at least on one day...well, yeah, we sort of did the last day but we still totaled almost 14,000 steps...when you have to rely on public transport and your legs, there is no choice but since I have been back, I have not left the apartment until yesterday because my body just said "hell, no".
- to get the negative stuff out of the way - the night before we left and the first night there, I had one of my "episodes"...my panic disorder, which is as controlled as it could be, used to take the form of chest pains to kick off the chaotic brain activity. The last couple of months, though, it has taken the form of a head "ache" with a numbness/tingly feeling at the top-ish or back of my head which I am convinced is nerve-related as sometimes I sleep with my head in an odd position. These weird head issues are not all the time, of course, and thankfully, but when they occur, I get worried. I try not to let the worry get out of control and I try to practice my breathing techniques but sometimes I have to take meds...and I had to these 2 nights. If I take too much (lorazepam), I am exhausted when I wake up so I try to cut the pill in half. The first night, though, I couldn't because the panic was just too strong so I was a zombie on the train (especially having to get up at 4am) but the first night there, I only took half so it seemed to make things more bearable for the trip. After that, I didn't have anymore head issues since. Very happy about that.
-the other issue was when we went to the ile de bréhat (island - photos on another post). First, we reserved the boat going as a tour, meaning, they take you all around the waters explaining the rock formations, the history, etc....very much like those little touristic trains in each town (which I love and we always do) but on a boat. The tour was 45 minutes and before we embarked, I noticed the waters were really rough. Brittany weather is always windy, often rainy and this trip was cold (which I prefer to hot anyway). Anyway, mid-way through the tour, the boat became really agitated! Many of us made jokes to lighten the worry but it got so bad at one point that I held so tight to Gilles, buried my head into his chest and hoped I wouldn't vomit! Luckily, no one did and once the seas calmed, the personnel all came to us to make sure we were ok but assured us that it was all normal and to not worry. Ha...anyway, the last part of the tour was indeed calm as the boat had turned toward the other direction. Then, on the island, right before lunch, we were seated on a bench when I began to sneeze uncontrollably. For about 10 minutes, it was non-stop. I do have allergies from pollen so I just figured it was that. When we got to the restaurant, I went to use the bathroom and looked in the mirror. My right eye was swollen! What the hell? I didn't feel anything - no pain, no itch...just swollen...was like that the whole time we were on the island...when we got back to our hotel, I removed my makeup and went to bed. In the morning, it was as if nothing happened....
ANYWAY, here are some photos from Paimpol. I will post the abbey ones separate as well as the other towns.
