Nous sommes heureux que vous soyez ici! Je vous remercie.
Si notre français doit être corrigé, envoyez-nous vos commentaires. En 2014, nous avons traduit l’entrée quotidienne du blog en français. Mais pour 2016, ce sera tout de suite dans un certain temps. Habituellement, le blog ne sera que en anglais.
Pour 2017 et à l’avenir, il s’agira d’un blog hebdomadaire publié dimanche.Ce ne sera probablement qu’en anglais.La traduction en français n’est pas difficile, c’est tout le reformatage du texte et des images qui le rend difficile.
We are glad you are here! Thank you.
If our French needs to be corrected, send us your comments. In 2014 we translated the daily blog entry into French. But for 2016 that will be just once in a while. Usually the blog will only be in English.
For 2017 and forward it will be a weekly blog hopefully published on Sunday. It will probably only be in English. The translation to French is not difficult, it is all the reformatting of the text and pictures which makes it difficult.
In 2020 we did not go to Saint-Malo (SM) France. Since 2010, the only other year we did go to SM was in 2015. The COVID situation kept us from going in 2020. In 2021 we came to SM for 3 months. However the blog continued to be dormant. A mix of extreme laptop problems and a general malaise kept the blog inactive.
But we are back this year, 2022!
So, we are here in Saint-Malo. This is how we got here this year.
in April we went to Chicago to get our long stay visas because we are going to stay 4 months this year
in April, Sandy did all the travel planning for the flights including the arrangements for the cat, Sophie
May 12 we rented a car and drove from Holland Michigan to Detroit Metro Aiirport, DTW – that was a 3 hour drive
we checked our bag and got Sophie through TSA without problems, then the ground crew took Sophie so she could be loaded onto the plane – she was traveling in the climate controlled hold for the flight
our flight left on time and arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) in Paris
we stayed that night, Friday the 13th, at the Ibis Styles hotel at the airport
early on the 14th we got our rental car and headed out for Saint-Malo (SM)
we took it easy on the drive and arrived mid-afternoon in SM and checked into our Hôtel Quic-en-Groigne
Sandy and I went to the apartment to start to get things organized, while Sophie stayed at the hotel
the apartment was in good shape and the hot-water boiler worked the first time we tried it! – every other year it had given us a problem
By the end of the day on Sunday May 15 we were settled in the apartment and most everything was going smoothly.
We still had the rental car, so on Monday May 16 we went to the Carrefour Hypermarché to do some shopping. With the car it would be easier to get the purchases home, rather than taking the bus.
Tuesday the 17th we took the rental car to the gas station to fill it up before returning the vehicle. This was only the second time I had pumped gas in SM and it took me a few minutes to understand the process. A little different than in the US, just enough to throw me off.
After returning the rental car, we walked to the new Intermarché Super, which just opened last week. It replaces a smaller Intermarché which was 300 meters closer to our apartment. The new store is a bit farther away, but it is much bigger and very up to date. We did a bit of shopping and then headed home. It is about a 40 minute walk back to the apartment.
Ad for the new Intermarché Super
We got to see our friend Jean-Louis J the other day. We have known Jean-Louis for about 10 years now. We always stop by his shop to say hello and to take a picture of Sandy and him. We’ll stop by and have a coffee with him in the next weeks.
Here is a small gallery of photos for our week in Saint-Malo. Clicking on a photo will open up a larger view of the photo.
wind surfersthe panoramic wheel (Ferris wheel)the panoramic wheelSandy on the wheellearning to saila Polish 3 mast vesselSandy and Jean-Louis Ja gull and its prize catchlow tide and a cruise shipvessel congestion in the harbor
So this is the end of our first whole week in Saint-Malo for 2022. Hopefully this post will be fairly viewable and of some interst to you.
Have a good week and we’ll post again next Sunday. Au revoir.
This is embarrassing. I wrote this post in February of 2020. And then the pandemic happened. I forgot to publish the post. Here it is, 16 months later.
C’est embarrassant. J’ai écrit ce post en février 2020. Et puis la pandémie est arrivée. J’ai oublié de publier le post. Le voici, 16 mois plus tard.
the spectacular waves – les vagues spectaculaires
We are not in Saint-Malo, but we are lucky to have friends who live there all year. Geneviève and Guy live just across the road from the beach of Sillon. This last week was a week of very high tides and very high winds. This combination created the “high tides” called << les grandes marées >> in French.
Nous ne sommes pas à Saint-Malo, mais nous avons la chance d’avoir des amis qui y vivent toute l’année. Geneviève et Guy vivent juste en face de la plage de Sillon. La semaine dernière a été une semaine de très fortes marées et de vents très forts. Cette combinaison a créé les “high tides” appelées « les grandes marées » en Français.
A big thank you to Geneviève for these excellent photos.
Un grand merci à Geneviève pour ces excellentes photos.
les grandes marées – the high tides
les grandes marées – the high tides
les grandes marées – the high tides
removing sand from the road – enlever le sable de la route
removing sand from the road -enlever le sable de la route