Wednesday April 27, 2016 and today we are between French lessons, so we get to do what we want!

It was hard to get up this morning.  We have been so busy.  It was nice not to have anyplace to be at 9 am.  Sandy bought a pain au chocolat, a croissant, and a baguette for our breakfast today.  We share the croissant and pain au chocolat so we don’t eat too much.

Before we cleared off the table, our neighbor from upstairs Jean was here to talk with Phil.  They took off for another cup of coffee at Le Charly’s while Sandy did some household chores and worked on homework.

After lunch we took a walk.  We dropped off the garbage and recycling, then walked out of the Intra-Muros at Porte Saint-Louis gate.

Sandy did some reading on the Saint-Malo tourism website and came up with an interesting fact. She learned that the area above the Saint-Louis porte is called a bastion. It is a place on top of the ramparts  where you walk and look at the sea.  You can walk almost all the way around the ramparts. The Saint-Malo tourism website says the area was constructed around 1721 and  “During the French Revolution, the ground floor housed the “timbers of justice”, i.e. the storage room for the terrible guillotine.”

Bastion Saint-Louis on the ramparts

As soon as we walked towards the harbor we spotted something new.  The Minerva “cruise ship” was moored in the harbor.  They were using the lifesaving boats to transport passengers from the ship to the dock.

Minerva at anchor in the harbor

Minerva shuttles (orange boats in the background) passing to and fro

location of the Minerva in the harbor

The dredging ship and barge had also changed location.  It is now in the “channel” of the harbor working in a different location.

dredging ship and barge

We walked to the end of the mole / breakwater. On our way back we met our neighbor Jean.  We stayed and talked to him a few more minutes before heading home.

Jean and Sandy

The air is so clean and has no odor at all.  Sandy loves to take deep breaths and not have an allergy attack because of grass being cut or tree pollen in the air.