La Gacilly is `The Town of the Artisan`. La Gacilly is a Ville-Fleurie (Blooming Town) .

Riverfront La Gacilly

There is so much to see and do in La Gacilly, that one day just won't be long enough to take it all in!

La Gacilly is a Ville-Fleurie, and it is very proud of this title...during the summer months the whole town is absolutely jam packed with floral displays.

However, what really sets La Gacilly apart is its population of sculptors and artists. Most workshops and galleries are open to the public throughout the summer. The small local shops are all stuffed full of objets d`art and interesting curios, all of which are for sale. As you wander along the cobbled streets you will find workshop after workshop, a true voyage of discovery !!.

La Gacilly 

The town also boasts a botanical gardens which are free to walk round and enjoy.

There is also a free outdoor photographic exhibition which is very impressive. Huge photographs are reproduced and are hung around the town. The photos are truly amazing and MUST be seen !!

Photo exhibition, La Gacilly

When legs are getting a bit weary, take a trip along the river in a small river boat. Boats can be hired by the hour (about 25 euros) or for half a day. We seem to do this every year!.. last year we hired a boat for half a day and picnicked  on the river bank...it was a brilliant day out. I am assured by the boat owners that there is a lot of wildlife to be seen but with our very noisy children all the wildlife makes for small holes in the riverbanks!!

La Gacilly Boat hire

Just next to the bridge is the Yves Rocher factory shop, so on your way home don't forget to grab some cosmetic bargains!..Just outside of La Gacilly is the Yves Rocher perfume factory where you can have a guided tour in English and see the perfume being made. Afterwards, take a walk around their extensive gardens where the exotic plants for the perfume are grown.

Market day is saturday morning and you can buy anything from live chickens to fresh veg.

For more information about La Gacilly and our local towns please see http://www.frenchgites.com/Tourism%20Brittany%20Towns.htm

The importance of an aperitif

Today we were invited to a fortieth birthday lunch. I always worry (quite needlessly) about social events like this!

Firstly aperitifs, kir for everyone, and lots of savory cakes, very thin slices of cakes with bacon and tomato, cakes with tuna, cakes with lardons and emmental and cakes with beef and onion.  They were all delicious. Still the kir flowed, and now quiche was served with radish and cherry tomatoes and after the quiche came thin slices of pizza.

At 2.00pm we were then asked to take our seats for the meal. How anyone could have been hungry after eating all that I have no idea! ….but huge bowls of salads, green, rice, cucumber, tomato and taboulé were passed up and down the long tables.

After the salads came thick barbequed pork chops with new potatoes all washed down with cider, then the cheese course and finally desert.

We finished eating at about 4.00pm and when we left at just after 5.00, I was thinking, not for the first time, how much the French really do enjoy ‘le repas’. The food was so deliciously simple, yet somehow it is not JUST about the food, yes the food is always good, but it is about the socialability of it all. The aperitifs are so important and they are never hurried, and this sets the scene for the rest of the afternoon.

French crusty baguettes

We have some guests that visit us every year, and the first thing they do when they disembark is to find the nearest boulangerie, sit on the roadside and feast themselves with bread and croissants!

The "French stick", the long thin crusty loaf,  is perhaps one of the better known icons of French life. In France, it is known as a "baguette" – which litterally means "a stick" – and it is indeed the most popular type of bread in France. The standard baguette weighs 250 grams (about half a pound); it comes in three slightly different forms; the ordinary baguette - with its crisp golden-brown crust; the "moulded baguette" (baguette moulée), which is often a baguette manufactured by an industrial bread-oven, and can be recognised by the fine lattice pattern on all the underside; and finally a floured baguette, or baguette farinée, which is paler in colour, as the crust is covered with flour before cooking.

But of course la baguette is by no means the only type of bread in France. Au contraire...

In addition to baguettes, France has a wonderful range of delicious breads to offer. Ordinary French white bread comes in several other shapes and sizes, from the couronne (bread in the shape of a ring), via the flute (twice the size of a baguette) to the batard (a half-length normal loaf) and the ficelle, a long and very thin loaf. Ficelles must be eaten fresh, as they are so thin that the inside dries out rather fast once they have been baked.

Another traditional type of French bread is "country bread", pain de campagne, white bread made in a slightly different way to ordinary bread and often incorporating some whole wheat flour or some rye flour, so that it keeps longer; pain de campagne often has a thick crust, which helps the bread to keep.

Apart from these basic types of bread, France's bakeries also sell a whole range of other types of bread, including wholemeal breads (pain complet or pain aux céréales), rye bread (pain de seigle), sourdough bread (pain au levain), and a sweet bread called brioche.

Bread resembling the classic English sliced white loaf is known as "pain de mie", will never be found in boulangeries. For a white sliced loaf you will need to go to the supermarket.

These days, most boulangeries also offer a range of breads spiced up with nuts (pain aux noix) , olives, bacon (pain aux lardons), cheese and a variety of other natural additives.  Many bakers make bread by their own proven recipes, meaning that even a baguette will be different from one shop to another; but a sign of the times has been the development of a number of "brands" such as "Banette", bread made locally using a specific type of flour, and following a strict recipe.

Bread from the bread counter of French supermarkets  is often quite tasty, and generally needs to be eaten as quickly  as baker's bread; but generally speaking supermarkets use industrial dough which has been deep-frozen before being baked on the premises. Bread counters selling this kind of bread are not allowed, by law, to call themselves "boulangeries".

I still find it strange that all boulangeries close for at least two hours at lunch time!, I mean, when do most people want to eat bread, hmmm, for lunch!!... Anyway, close they do, so if you are planning a picnic make sure you get your bread before midday, if not you may well find a locked door if you stop off at a village bakery. Be warned!!