Piper at the Gates of.... La Turballe?

""In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."
- JRR Tolkein, The Hobbit

Somehow I doubt that this hole is quite so comfortable! I have no idea where this is - I've never been there, though it can't be too far from here, as our friends Beate & crew stopped by there on their vacation in Brittany. Still, I doubt our old house in the states will look quite so good after a couple thousand years...

But this has nothing to do with the title!


We saw this fellow on our way to the Marie-Gallant restaurant down in La Turballe. He's playing an instrument called a Veuze, or Breton bagpipe. These things are local to Brittany, along with the accompanying flute-type things, called Bombardes. I know nothing about either of them, apart from them being traditional instruments and also ungodly loud when they get going (though I don't believe they are as skull-splittingly insane as Scottish bagpipes at close range). B&M were even kind enough to shoot this little video for us, as I had forgotten our camera and left it at home.

That's about it for the moment, not much interesting to write about. Most of our time has been devoted to improving our money situation lately, so this summer is pretty much a write-off already as far as fun activities go... Besides, we do our best not to leave the house in August, when the beaches are infested with tourists. September, however, should be very nice indeed...