When they hear our funny accent, people ask us “Where do you come from?”. We could say “We’re from France”, I suppose. But we prefer to say “We’re French, and we come from Brittany; you know, the west end of France pointing towards America…”. We feel it may help overcome some of the stereotypes that go with being French in America or Canada, and maybe raise some curiosity about where we have chosen to live (when we’re not cruising!).
It is a beautiful region, surrounded by the sea. Most of its land and shores are made of hard rock, which accounts for the numerous islands and coves that offer beautiful cruising grounds to the prudent sailor. Its climate is generally mild – we rarely see any snow – thanks to the Gulf Stream coming all the way from the Gulf of Mexico.
But the depressions coming from the Atlantic Ocean are famous for their high winds and roaring seas that regularly pound the coast line.
When the weather is right, our beaches are beautiful, and they attract locals and tourists alike. They change all the time, because Dinard where we live, or St Malo, the city across the bay, are famous for their tides . Last March 21, 2015, the difference between high and low tides was 46.42′ in St Malo! I guess we’ll come to the Pacific Northwest well prepared…
And one cannot speak of our region without mentionning its world-famous oysters (always raw, never cooked), its crabs and sea scallops, its buckwheat “galettes”, various sorts of ciders and locally brewed beers, and – naturally – its specialty breads.
We wanted our next boat to evoke the place we call home, and somehow promote its unique personality. There is a boating tradition to call boats by a feminine name, and quite a few boat names are formed around the word “Belle”. Rather naturally, though maybe without much imagination, we came up with “Brittany Belle”. The name allowed us to have an associated domain name to serve as our blog and as a repository for the files and links we will use for our project. So, Brittany Belle it will be.
Now you can reach us through our new email address: thecrew @ brittanybelle . com (suppress the spaces that I have inserted to avoid the spammers). You can also use our contact page on this website.
We hope to be in the Pacific Northwest next spring, on Brittany Belle. More on that later…