We are Not Alone

Today's photos were taken at Pen-Bé, our favorite nearby spot (exactly 8 miles from our house) to go have picnic lunches on the beach. Or the rocks, as the case may be. I had the interesting experience of putting my finger into a tidal pool and having about forty tiny shrimp come out from under shells, all to "feeler" my finger and then try to climb onto it! Emily is sitting here next to our collapsible cooler bag, which is a wonder for insta-picnics.

We've been Blog-Spammed!
I guess it's a sign of finally making it in the blog world. Got my first blog spam today after nearly a year of running this thing. I'm still going to keep it as a free-comment blog for the time being, as I find those word verification tests annoying. We'll see how it goes. If I wake up one morning and find 400 comments about the effectiveness of Viagra on Paris Hilton, this may change.

I'm now on MySpace
I posted this news over on the Pipe Blog some weeks ago, but eventually realized that the two blogs are two very different audiences and it might be smart to post it here also. Yeah, I resisted it for as long as possible, but I finally gave in and set up my MySpace page when my friend Mark Rainey got one. So, now you can go view this pointless site, and see what comments have been left by passing fourteen-year-olds. For those who may be interested, however, I did at least post a mix of pics - Some personal pics, some pipe pics, and some of my artwork. Somebody go add me so I'll have more than one friend, LOL!

We are Not Alone
We live as immigrants but NOT in an "immigrant community" (Those enclosed conclaves of foreigners who carry on their own culture, language, architecture, etc... Like Asians in Chinatown or Brits in the entire south of France...). Thus, it's sometimes easy to forget that we're not the only people doing crazy shit like this, there are plenty of others. I thought I'd make a little list of some similar blogs and sites I've visited recently:

American Spoken Here
The blog site of an American family who moved here a year ago to run a B&B. I had a laugh when I first saw their site because their house picture looks almost exactly like ours! A nice place to go for the wife's-eye view, and she seems to have a devoted following. Her article on her first year in France was fun, and boy, does the vast distance between the daydreamers and the experienced stand out in the comments to that article (Loads and loads of "You're an inspiration!" and "Live your dreams!" contrasted with my dry, "Good job surviving. If you really want satellite TV, here's how:"). :D

A Pretty How Town
Another site by a US lady - To quote her byline, "Florida Girl meets Norman boy". Beautiful photography in this one.

Sam de Bretagne
A Minnesota lady moves to Brittany. Why are so many travel blogs written by women? It's bizarre. It seems to be a thriving female subculture vibrant with co-reading and commenting on each other's articles. I hope this isn't going to make my testicles drop off.

Blue Vicar
Not a blog, per se, nor centered on Brittany, but instead a themed collection of the stories and adventures of foreigners in France. As with all such things, some are funny, some are tragic, and most are interesting in one way or another. God forbid life should ever be "dull" again...

Brittany Life Online
And finally, here is a thriving online forum in which I participate (to some extent), populated by hordes of (mostly British) visitors to Brittany. Like all unmoderated online forums, it ranges all over the place, from interesting bits to utter rubbish, but it's a nice exchange center for useful information, plus it's a way for English speakers in Brittany to connect and get together on occasions.

That's all for now, from Trever on the rocky coast of Pen-Bé!