We moved to the "good life" in central Brittany in August 2014. We bought a small farm with just over 4 acres of land and set about renovating buildings and making paddocks for animals.
Located on the edge of a small hamlet called Trevenec, in the Commune of Carnoet, the farm is beautifully situated in the centre of Brittany.
In our lovely stone longere Farm House we have a large studio room that is suitable for people in wheel chairs.
Our Gite has been renovated into a beautiful holiday cottage which has comfortable, spacious and modern accommodation but still retains its original character.
We have the usual pets, 3 Dogs and 4 Cats, which are all friendly and love to be fussed.
Goats:
Currently we have 4 Pygmy goats, our grand children love to feed them with stale bread.
Chickens:
We have a small flock of Free Range chickens which provide us, our guests and neighbours with tasty eggs. An added bonus is that we swap our eggs with the farm next door for fresh creamy milk.
Sheep:
Our flock of about 20 sheep is made up mostly of 2 main breeds, Shetlands and Lande de Bretagne's. We chose them because they are small to medium sized breeds that are friendly and easy to handle. The ewes are all quite young but the more mature ones produced 5 lovely lambs this year. It was amazing to see them standing and feeding from their mum's within minutes of being born.
Now the ewes are more mature (and we are a little more experienced and prepared) our lambing should be a little more structured this year (2018). We hope to have between 12 and 20 lambs born between April and June.
One of the benefits of our Shetlands is that they produce high quality fleeces in a variety of natural colours. Shearing will be at the end of May or early June depending on the weather. We have a spinning wheel and spin our own yarn which is great for Beanie hats. The yarn is washed but retains much of its lanolin so it is warm and water resistant. We can arrange spinning lessons and provide some fleece it you would like to give it a try during your stay.
Pigs:
We have an area away from the house which we have designated for pigs and have registered with the EDE (French Ministry of Agriculture). Contrary to opinion pigs are clean animals but of course enjoy a mud bath which protects their skin from the from the sun. In the UK we successfully reared 3 pigs and hope to buy a breeding sow in spring 2020 to start again.
Bees:
In June last year we successfully established 2 hives of Bees. Sadly we lost one hive to the awful winter weather. As well as providing delicious honey they provide great benefit for our flowers, herbs, fruit and vegetables. The bees are a variety called Frere Adam, which we chose because they are non aggressive.
We live close to the edge of the Foret de Frei and near to the Parc de Natural so there are lots of opportunities for lovely walks in the unspoilt countryside. If you like coastal paths we are within a quiet hours drive of some beautiful rugged coastline.
There is both coarse and trout fishing in the local area. There are small trout streams and lakes which have a good head fish. Some of the lakes allow float tubing and some offer boat hire. Regional Licenses can be purchased locally and some lakes and boats can be booked and paid for on the internet.
There is a Par 3 course in Carhaix and several nice 18 Hole courses within a reasonable drive.
