If you want to see the album of our pictures from June 2018, you can click on this link, June 2018.

If you want to see the album of our pictures from July 2018, you can click on this link, July 2018.

le lundi 30 juillet 2018 – Monday July 30, 2018

Sandy was 6th in line at the boulangerie (bakery) this morning. Every table on the terrace was full and 3 of the 7 interior tables were full. The boulangère (female baker) and her assistant were making coffees, pouring juice, waiting on customers at the counter and trying to serve everyone that was seated. Very busy for a Monday morning!!

The Paris Gare Montparnasse is a large train station which is the base for trains traveling to the west and southwest of France. The train station was in chaos over the weekend. The electricity substation which supplies electricity to the Gare of Montparnasse was severely damaged on Friday, July 27 by a still unexplained fire. All trains were cancelled on Friday, half of them were running on Saturday and Sunday. The news last night said there were still 40,000 travelers trying to leave Paris from this station. We have traveled to and from this station and so did our son Michael. What a disaster!!

We took the #3 bus to the Auberge de Jeunesse stop and went into the Carrefour Market. This store is larger than the Carrefour City we have in the Intra-Muros, but smaller than the Carrefour Hypermarche at the La Madeleine center.  They sell lightly breaded fish, similar to the kind used for British fish and chips which we like. We bought 2 pieces to have for dinner. They also carried “accras de morue,” cod fritters. We tried them for the first time. They were very good, just slightly fishy tasting and they had a nice crunch!

le mardi 31 juillet 2018 – Tuesday July 31, 2018

It was the last day of July. We have been here for more than two months!

The boulangerie was totally different from yesterday. Sandy was the only customer there today. She remarked to the madam that they were very busy yesterday. The madam replied “beaucoup, beaucoup, de monde,” “many, many people from all over.” Good for business.

We shopped at the Intermarche grocery store after breakfast. One of the items we purchased was a new flavor of ice cream for us. It was Lemon Meringue Pie flavor.

After lunch we talked to Alain on the boules court confirming his invitation for an aperitif at his apartment tomorrow. We sat at the harbor and watched a few boats come and go at low tide. It was a beautiful afternoon and cool in the shade.

For dessert we tried our new ice cream flavor. Wow! It was amazing! There were actually tiny pieces of meringue, almost baking chip sized pieces, crust, and very creamy lemon flavored ice cream. It was a great experiment!

le mercredi 1 août 2018 – Wednesday August 1, 2018

Sandy met with Christine for two hours of tutoring this morning. She is very tired by the end of their time together. Phil shopped for a few items at the E.Leclerc Hypermarché while Sandy was at Christine’s house.

We took the 17h30 bus to our friend Alain’s apartment because he invited us for an aperitif. We had a lovely evening with he and his wife. Alain speaks clearly, slowly, and doesn’t use lengthy sentences which helps Sandy with French. While we were at his house, Alain phoned Denise in Paris and all of us were able to talk to her on the speaker phone.  She reported that Paris was hot and the temperature was  33C.

It had been a cool day and evening in Saint-Malo, so it wasn’t too hot waiting for or walking to the bus.

le jeudi 2 août 2018 – Thursday August 2, 2018

Last night the ship El Galeón Andalucia , a replica of a Spanish galleon from the XVI century came through the locks and moored in the basin. It will be in the basin for a week and is open for tours priced at 8 euros per person. It is an impressive looking ship! The link for it’s web site is: El Galeon. It will help if you can read Spanish.

We shopped for meat at the boucherie at the Rocabey marché. Sandy also bought one meter of elastic from one of the stalls outside. It cost an euro. The price was certainly correct! She wanted to add it to a jacket she bought at a braderie to tighten the sleeves.

In the afternoon we walked in the ocean as the tide was going out. There was an enormous amount of beach available for everyone. Lovely afternoon.

le vendredi 3 août 2018 – Friday August 3, 2018

We took care of a few errands, picked up a newspaper, made a reservation for dinner tomorrow, and stopped at the wine shop.

After lunch we walked to Saint-Servan to look at their braderie, whole streets full of flea market stalls.

On the way back we saw the Spanish ship El Galeón Andalucia docked in the basin.

On our way back home we stopped and said hello to Alain at the boules court. Since it was fairly warm we headed for home soon after. Sandy made chef salads for dinner.

le samedi 4 août 2018 – Saturday August 4, 2018

45 years ago today we were married! 💑

After breakfast we walked to Saint-Servan for day two of their street length braderie. We found another pewter duck, similar to the few Sandy has in Holland. It was slightly larger than the one she bought in May at a braderie in Paris.

Sandy also spotted a set of silverware. It was a complete set for 6 and new. The best part was the price, 5€ euros. We bought it because the set we bought in 2012 was not dishwasher safe and had plastic handles. The red plastic handles were colorful, fun to use, but broke easily. We knew they would have to be replaced by next year. Problem solved.

On our walk back, the sliding bridge was just opening to allow boats to enter the lock. We counted 23 boats, the most we remember seeing at one time in the lock. Two of the boats were hardly ocean-going vessels as they appeared to only be 15 or 20 feet long.

At 19h30 we walked to the Brasserie Armoricaine for dinner.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner, with excellent service including white tablecloths. It was a delicious way to celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary.❤️

le dimanche 5 août 2018 – Sunday August 5, 2018

It is going to be a pretty hot day, around 27C.

We walked to the braderie in Rocabey this morning.  There were about two dozen stands and quite a few people.

We walked back from Rocabey.  We passed the two large factory fishing trawlers used for North Atlantic fishing.

By the evening the heat was replaced by a nice cool breeze.