Monthly Archives: March 2016

31 March in Saint-Malo – 31 mars à Saint-Malo

31 Thursday Mar 2016

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It is the last day of March, the 31st!  How time flies!!

We tried another new food item last night for dinner.  Our local butcher had advertised on his placard that he was selling Quiche Lorraine.  Sandy loves Quiche for lunch and we stopped in to buy some.  While in line, only 4th in line that day, Phil asked what else Sandy wanted in case they were out of the quiche.  We love the carrot rappe (carrot slaw with a lemon vinaigrette) on top of our salad so we decided that would be our second choice.  The lady in front of us asked for a pineapple slaw.  It looked and sounded good so we tried it.  Our taste buds and eyes saw pineapple in a creamy white dressing.  Sandy imagined a whipped cream or cream cheese and pineapple taste.  Fortunately Phil suggested she try it before serving it.  It was quite a surprise to taste a CRAB salad with a little pineapple flavor.  It was very tasty, but should be eaten as an appetizer/aperitif not a side dish with ham.

Today there is supposed to be a disruption in the bus schedule due to supporting a strike in Paris.  We decided to go to the Intermarche grocery store in the Rocabey district because we are

Intermarche in Rocabey

Intermarche in Rocabey

out of Cheerios, milk, and juice. The kind of things you cannot get at the local outdoor/indoor markets. We like to walk through the Rocabey market after shopping at the Intermarche. We like to see what is new and listen to French speakers.  We stopped at the butcher in the indoor market to buy dinner for tonight, tomato farcie.  Tomatoes stuffed with a pork filling.

We ended up taking the bus to the Intermarche, then walking the 1/4 mile to the Rocabey market and then we walked home. It is quite cool with a 27 kph wind, but the sun is shining brightly.

We did have the crab salad with crackers today at lunch.  Very tasty.

In the afternoon we took a short walk to the harbor to see what was happening.  Bordering the harbor is a small park with about 20 park benches which face the harbor.  About 7 are very close to the harbor and the rest are set back about 20 yards.  Today most of the benches were occupied by people sitting around enjoying the strong sun.  We spent about an hour watching the harbor activity and getting some sun.

tomate-farcie

Tonight’s tomato farcie dinner.

All our pictures for March in Saint-Malo France can be viewed at 2016-03 March in Saint-Malo on Flickr.  They will open in a separate window.

March 30 in Saint-Malo – 30 mars à Saint-Malo

30 Wednesday Mar 2016

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Wednesday March 30, 2016 and it was supposed to be sunny this morning. I think we saw the sun for almost 5 minutes and it has been cloudy ever since. It’s cool outside too, only around 10 C.

We didn’t have anything special to do today so we walked across the bridge at the lock/ecluse and saw two boats leave the basin through the lock and two new boats enter. We also spotted a cormorant in the basin having his breakfast.

As we walked by the Sablons beach Sandy spotted a large bird in the water and two smaller bird also in the water a few yards from the large bird.  It turned out that all three were cormorants with the larger bird being the parent.  All three were diving into the water to feed.

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Solider Tower

We continued our walk along the Solider beach close to the Solider Tower into Saint-Servan.  Seeing the tower for the first time this visit brings a good feeling to both of us.

 

We continued our walk around the Saint-Servan harbor area toward the center of Saint-Servan. We wanted to see if any of the flowers in the Roseraie Sainte-Anne were blooming. This is one of Sandy’s favorite areas. It is a huge rose garden surrounded by a retirement home, nursing home and apartment buildings. It is about as large as a city block. There were

P1010949 yellow and white daffodils, hyacinths, a blue flower with six petals, magnolia bushes, and a climbing rose busP1010951h in bloom. All of the roses had been trimmed back last fall and were showing new leaf growth. We’ll have to return in a couple of weeks to see new blooms.

As we left the Roseraie, Sandy spotted a couple of magpies in a tree.  A little later we spotted another pair of magpies around the lock / recluse.  Maybe it is matting season.

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1710 lintel

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magpies in a tree

On our way we also passed a building with a lintel with the date of 1710 carved in the stone.

 

We walked home on the principal road in Saint-Servan. We were stopped again by the lock/ecluse being opened to let a boat from the Channel Island of Jersey and a fishing boat leave the basin.  Seeing the lock / ecluse operate and seeing boats entering and leaving the lock / ecluse is always interesting.

Our total walk was about 5.2 km and Sandy’s legs are tired and sore!

All our pictures for March in Saint-Malo France can be viewed at 2016-03 March in Saint-Malo on Flickr.  They will open in a separate window.

29 March in Saint-Malo – 29 mars à Saint-Malo

29 Tuesday Mar 2016

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Today is Tuesday March 29 2016.  Sandy purchased a croissant and baguette for breakfast.

After breakfast Sandy shopped at the Intra-Muros marche.  “Our” vegetable / fruit seller was there and Sandy purchased strawberries, navel oranges, pears, carrots, cherry tomatoes, a sweet potato, and some tiny new golden potatoes.

We walked to the bus stop at St. Vincent’s gate and took bus #1 to the Maupertuis stop.  From here we walked 10 minutes (almost all up hill) to shop at the Secours Catholique (Catholic Relief) thrift shop.  Sandy bought a night-gown, two pairs of socks and a washing mitt which is like a wash cloth for your hand to fit into.  She watches the price signs on items as she shops to help her with French numbers. She thought she was spending around 3 – 4 euros.  As she was checking out, the sales lady told her the price was “quatre-vingt-dix “.  All Sandy heard was the “quatre” or four because the night-gown was at least one euro.  She was mistaken as the price for all four items was 90 (quatre-vingt-dix or 4 twenties and ten) centimes / cents.  Apparently the lady reduced the price on all  items to 20 centimes / cents each. So Sandy got some very good buys.

We walked to Saint-Servan to take the bus back and decided it was such a nice sunny day, around 50 F or 10 C, that we’d walk back.

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Au Panier d’Italie

On the way, we stopped in at the Au Panier d’Italie (In the basket of Italy) an Italian take way shop. We purchased lasagna, bolognese sauce, and vegetable gratin to enjoy for dinner.

On our walk back to the apartment we had to cross the

in the lock / recluse

in the lock / recluse

bridge over the lock / ecluse. When we reached the bridge, we could hear the alarm and see that the bridge was

open.  We watched 5 ships come into the basin and two more went into the lock / ecluse to enter the harbor.

As we got closer to the Port Dinan to enter the Intra-Muros, we saw that the Brittany Ferry was pulling away from it’s dock.  As the Brittany Ferry was leaving the dock,  the Condor Ferry was arriving at the dock.

Condor Ferry

Condor Ferry

Brittany Ferry

Brittany Ferry

 

Mornings are usually more interesting in the harbor!

The Italian food from the Au Panier d’Italie made a wonderful dinner.

All our pictures for March in Saint-Malo France can be viewed at 2016-03 March in Saint-Malo on Flickr.  They will open in a separate window.

28 March in Saint-Malo – 28 mars à Saint-Malo

28 Monday Mar 2016

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Today is Monday March 28,  Easter Monday.  The wind was very strong last night and woke Sandy up.  It must have been very strong for us to hear it through a granite stone building.  We usually don’t hear anything.  On the news we heard thousands of customers lost electricity in the UK, and in Brittany (Bretagne) and Normandy in France. Yesterday the Irish ferry company cancelled their trips to

P1010854Ireland due to the wind.

We headed to the Maison du Quebec to watched the “French version” of an Easter Egg Hunt at 11 am.  On the way we passed a lovely flower bed in the park near the maison.

Parents were to have pre-registered their children last Saturday for the Easter Egg hunt.  There was a queue to check off names.  The hunt

egg hunters

egg hunters

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condor ferry

took place at the Maison de Quebec.  It is an area that is almost circular, lower than the sidewalks, and surrounded by bushes so there was a little protection from the wind. Sandy had to hold onto the branches of a bush to keep from being blown over.  All of the eggs that we could see were foil wrapped chocolate eggs.  The hunt was sponsored by the Intra-Muros association.

From there we walked out the Port de Dinan to the harbor.  A large Turkish tanker ship had just gone into the ecluse/lock.  A couple of minutes later a Condor Ferry was just coming in to dock.  The water was a gray/green color.

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boat christening

After lunch we went to watch a new ship being christened.  The sky was brilliant blue with white puffy clouds as we headed out to the Quai/dock. The boat had been restored by a local group.  It took them over 3 years for the restoration. There were several speeches, the Mayor arrived and spoke. By the time the Monsignor began to speak it was raining and hailing! Another day and we were quite wet. At least we wore our rain coats today. Finally after blessing, baptizing, and prayers, a lady took the bottle of champagne and with one crack on the bow, the ship was officially launched. The champagne smelled really great.

We headed home to dry off again.

All our pictures for March in Saint-Malo France can be viewed at 2016-03 March in Saint-Malo on Flickr.  They will open in a separate window.

27 March in Saint-Malo – 27 mars à Saint-Malo

28 Monday Mar 2016

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Today is Sunday Marcy 27, Easter.

pirate duck

pirate duck

Sandy bought a croissant and a baguette for our breakfast.

The Easter Bunny brought Phil a “Pirate Canard” (pirate duck) which is typical of living in a Corsair or “pirate” city.

The change to daylight savings time occurred this morning, so we are adjusting to the different time.

painting / tableau

painting / tableau

There was an art show in the Halle Bleu, the Blue Hall where the twice weekly market is held.  We recognized one of the artists who is local.  We have three other pictures painted by her.  We purchased an

additional one to hang in the salle au manger or dining room.

We took a walk out of the walled city along the beach called the Sillon.  There were

sillon beach / plage du sillon

Sillon beach / plage du Sillon

many people hurrying in the opposite direction.  It was as if they all had a bus to catch and we didn’t.

Since the wind and waves were so strong, there were about a dozen people surfing.  We stopped to watch them for a couple of minutes.

Very soon, it started to rain. The rain was coming from behind us .  When we turned around to walk home we got really soaked as it started to rain harder.  The wind was blowing stronger.   We were soaked on the front of our shoes, pants and coats.  It stopped raining quickly but we were already very wet. Good thing we have a large drying rack and hung up all of our wet coats etc.

We will be having ham and sweet potatoes for Sunday/Easter dinner today.

All our pictures for March in Saint-Malo France can be viewed at 2016-03 March in Saint-Malo on Flickr.  They will open in a separate window.