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 20 août 2018 – Monday August 20, 2018

The people in the apartment below us usually arrive around 15th of August. Normally the elderly mother (70-80?), her adult son (close to our age), and another man probably in his 40-50 arrive together. Phil noticed their apartment door open and one of the window shutters open on Saturday the 18th. We haven’t seen anyone yet. Today around 7h30 there was a lot of banging noises and hammering. We don’t know what was going on at that early hour. When Sandy returned from the boulangerie she could see more window shutters open in the apartment below. Possibly the remainder of their family had arrived. We’ll see.

We walked to the Quai Saint-Malo to view the art show called “Salon Malo Métiers d’art”. In the past few years it was held outdoors at the Tour Solidor in Saint-Servan, just a lovely walk for us. This year the number of days open was extended from 2 to 3 and it was held indoors. There was a 2 euro per person entrance fee and in the past it was free. There were 45 French professional artisans and every stand had beautiful things. Some were expensive, but most were reasonably priced. Since we don’t need anything, we just looked.

Next we walked to the harbor. It was slightly foggy and misting. The lighthouses and peninsulas that we were able to see on Sunday were not visible today. We did see a sailing vessel from Sweden in the basin.  Not a common sight.

After lunch we walked to the boules court to say hello to Alain and his wife. Then we walked to the harbor. The pilot-boat was just leaving and we noticed a large cargo ship in the locks on it’s way out of the basin. We stayed to watch the cargo ship leave. The lock must have just started to open (a couple of hours before and after high tide) and we saw several catamarans and sail boats enter. We have the MarintTraffic app on our phones and it details the arrivals and departures of ships in Saint-Malo. Sandy had read where another ship was due to arrive. We watched the Corsair ferries arrive and depart, the Condor ferry from the Channel Islands arrive, and the cargo ship arrive. It looked like a very busy harbor to us from the sidelines. Very interesting to watch though.

le mardi 21 août 2018 – Tuesday August 21, 2018

The people in the apartment below us are definitely here. Their telltale “scent” is the smell of burnt toast in the hallway at breakfast time. Sandy had confirmation, from the odor, of their arrival when she left our building to shop for breakfast.

We read that the store “GO Sport” was closing. We took the bus to La Madeleine Center to see if they had any camping chairs remaining. The store was empty of everything except shoes and clothing. Too bad we didn’t know of the closing earlier in their sale.

We walked to Intersport, about 10 minutes around the road and they had a large selection of camping chairs. We’ll remember this for next year in case we need to replace one of ours.

We also went into the Carrefour Hypermarché. We needed a replacement light bulb for the stove vent and Sandy was looking for rhubarb flavored yogurt. Since rhubarb is considered one of the “seasonal” flavors they were out but we did find a light bulb. Sandy also found Centrum vitamins from the parapharmacie section of the store. Good to know.

After lunch, we saw the ship “Tenacious” enter the basin following the Pilot Boat and then enter the locks. It was a very impressive, 3 masted, ship. It arrived from the Jersey in the Channel Islands.

le mercredi 22 août 2018 – Wednesday August 22, 2018

Sandy counted more than 7 empty parking spots on her way to the boulangerie. It has been cool, occasionally misty, and cloudy for the last 4 days. Maybe the tourists are moving away. Even though our temperature has been around 22C, close to 70F, Paris is still around 30C, hot. Glad we’re not there!

We shopped for groceries in the morning. The transportation was great because there was a bus waiting at the esplanade Saint-Vincent on our way to Intermarche.

On our return trip, as soon as we reached the sidewalk near the bus stop, we saw it turning the corner coming our direction. We noticed more than 600 available parking spots at 10h30.

Around 15h00 we returned to the Esplanade St. Vincent to catch either a #3 or #8 bus so we could walk on the Digue. A #3 pulled up and we were on our way. Even though it was cloudy and cool, there were many people on the beach and in the ocean.

We had a lovely, interesting walk back and decided to catch the #8 bus to return instead of walking. It was 20 minutes late. The ride is normally a 2 minute long ride but took more than 10 because of the traffic and pedestrians. We noticed the 600 available parking spots we saw in the morning had been reduced to 8. Busy day After all!

le jeudi 23 août 2018 – Thursday August 23, 2018

Sandy spent two hours tutoring with Christine this morning while Phil took care of a little shopping at the E.Leclerc Hypermarché.

During the walk to Christine’s house there were a lot of beautiful flowers to photograph.

The sun was out for only a couple of hours mid day today. In the afternoon we walked to watch Alain play boules for a while. Afterwards we intended to sit at the harbor to see what was happening. Sandy looked across the bay towards Dinard and commented that it was getting very foggy or raining. We decided it was rain coming across the bay and headed for home. We reached Porte Saint-Louis before it really began to rain. Glad we didn’t tarry to see if the rain was going to stop. It continued for over an hour.

le vendredi 24 août 2018 – Friday August 24, 2018

The temperature was 13C, 55F when Sandy walked to the boulangerie. She thought the people on the ground floor were gone since all of the shutters had been lowered. She also didn’t hear the dog bark when she opened the door into our building.

We walked to Saint-Servan to buy meat at the butcher in the marché. His assistant told us they would be starting their two-week vacation on September 2nd. I let her know we’d be leaving on the 12th of September, so next week we’ll tell them “au revoir” until next year.

In the afternoon we watched Alain play boules for a few minutes then headed to the harbor.

We have learned that when the harbor pilote boat leaves the harbor, he is usually gone for about 30 minutes. Once he returns, there will be a ship arriving in about 15 minutes later. He proved our theory while we watched.

While we were at the harbor, a cormorant was fishing near by.  Here it is.

le samedi 25 août 2018 – Saturday August 25, 2018

Sandy had been back from the boulangerie only 10 minutes when it began raining very hard. There wasn’t any forecast of rain, but you just never know being so close to the ocean. The rain only lasted for about 30 minutes but stayed cloudy and cool.

After breakfast we took a bus to the Intermarche grocery store located at La Decourverte shopping center. We wanted white dryer sheets which Sandy leaves between linens over the winter to stay fresh smelling. This store is always busy and even though they didn’t carry the dryer sheets, we bought 3 other items and the check out lines were long. We were in the self check line and waited less than 10 minutes.

After lunch, the sun came out and the temperature warmed up to 18C. There was a light breeze so we took the bus to be able to walk the length of the Digue. We got off the bus at 15h30, walked to the Digue and then along the length of the Digue.

When we got back to the esplanade Saint-Vincent, the bubble guy was working his magic.

We were back in our apartment at 16h45. A really lovely walk in the sunshine.

le dimanche 26 août 2018 – Sunday August 26, 2018

The temperature was 10C, 50F when Sandy walked to the boulangerie today. She has had to use the hairdryer to dry her hair the last two days since the temperature is cooler. She doesn’t like to go outside with wet hair when the temperature is in the 50’s.