I have had the great pleasure of a 24 hour visit by my good friends Joel and Marie Therese.
The photo essay here is mostly of them discovering the beautiful “Petite Cité de Caractère”, Roche-Bernard.
A bonus was it was market day.
I first met Joel and M T when for asked by Yachting Monthly to take photographs at the huge Brest 92 Traditional Boat Festival [over 2000 ships and boats, 250,000 visitors per day].
The deal was 10 days food and accommodation, a chance for them to improve their English and me my French, in exchange for a painting.
I could not have wished for better, kinder, more helpful, more interesting hosts.
Subsequently they bought several more of my paintings including the beautiful “La Recouverance“, a superb replica privateer [licenced pirate some say!] built and based at Brest.
When I attended the Brest 96 Traditional Boat Festival I stayed with them again.
During that stay, over dinner it was they who suggested “why don’t you paint the famous wine villages of France”?
