..she does what with sea shells on the sea shore...?

oh I do like to be beside the seaside, oh I do like to be beside the seaaaaa......and so the song goes on. Gregoire, Scarlet and I took advantage of the offer a free static caravan (in French un mobil-home which is rather strange really) for Sunday night so we could spend all day Monday enjoying the thrills of Granville. We set off merrily at about 7pm and an hour later came a cross a gorgeous little gem of an auberge (L'Augberge de la Blanche Maison in case we forget) about 5 km away from the field where the caravan is sited. A delicious meal and bottle of wine later and it was pitch dark and suddenly those directions we had been given looked distinctly unclear. Cue much heated discussion, huffiness and driver-navigator discord. Fortunately, just as all out war had been declared and it looked like we were either going to spend the night in the car, one of us was heading home on foot, or one of us would commit mariticide, we found the aforementioned static caravan. Phew. "You're not getting divorced then?" Scarlet sighed with relief. A walk along a moonlit beach and a candlelit caravan can do much to restore normal relations, even if you do have an excited 8 year old bouncing along beside you :)
Monday we hit Granville, had a much less posh and quicker lunch in a brasserie then went to the Musée du Roc - famous for it's aquarium and *fairytale seashell collection*. Indeed. 2 hours later we stumbled out of the museum somewhat flabbergasted. Superb aquarium, gorgeous butterfly and beetle collection, stunning crystal and precious stone collections and mosaics, but the seashell room was like something from a parallel universe. Unfortunately (and possibly this should tell us something...) the photographs taken on our Granville trip are all destroyed as the memory chip in the camera mysteriously snapped in half. Cue spooky music. Suffice it to say that if you think you know about seashell sculptures you are mistaken. It was a bewilderingly kitsch display of seashells the like of which I have never seen ..a doll's house made from teeny tiny shells, 6 2 metre high Grecian pillars - all made from - yep - seashells, larger than life reproductions of various famous sea related old masters - all made from - yep - more shells. This was the life work of an old eccentric. Yeah. Right.
We then hit the beach for a while and headed home to St Fraimbault tired and happy and still dumbfounded by the seashells. They will stay in our memory for a long time to come methinks.