Today is Sunday March 20, the first day of spring (printemps).

Sandy got croissants and bread from the La Fournée Malouine bakery (boulangerie) for breakfast.  It was great.

At about 10:30 we headed out to the flea market of spring (vide greniers de Printemps) in the Saint-Servan district of Saint-Malo.  It is a 2.2 km walk (1.3 mi) each way.  The flea market  was being held in an all purpose room at a local elementary school. There were parents grilling sausages by the entrance.  Other parents were selling the sausages wrapped in a galette.  A galette is like a crepe but it is made with buckwheat, so it has a darker color.  They are very tasty but it was too early for lunch.

We entered the flea market and started to walk around.  It was mostly children’s clothing and toys.  As we passed one vendor Sandy thought she recognized him.  He was sitting on a short stool.  His items were out of step with the rest.  He was selling cups, dishes and saucers.  I had trouble getting past his stall because it was so crowded.  Seeing my problem he made a comment about it being difficult to move in the aisle.  I told him I was too fat.  He laughed and gestured at his own girth.  I walked a couple of steps past him then I stopped, turned around and spoke with him again.  Thinking Sandy was right, I asked him if he had a shop in Saint-Malo in 2013 and whether he had a shop in Quimper in 2014.  He said he did.   Then I knew it was him.  I explained to him that we had purchased some items from him in 2013 in Saint-Malo and that we had stumbled upon his shop in Quimper in 2014 and purchased some other items from him.  Then he recognized us and we had a nice little discussion about our seeing him in Quimper and how Phil had taken a picture of him and Sandy.  We spent a few minutes with him and purchased some nice mugs for coffee.  It was really nice to see him again.  What a coincidence running into him at a flea market in Saint-Servan.  He said he would be at other Saint-Malo flea markets this year, so we will keep an eye out for him.  By the way, his name is Jean-Louis Jacob.

The blog entry from our last meeting with Jean-Louis Jacob in 2014 can be found here.

Here is the pictures of Sandy with Jean-Louis in 2014 at his shop in Quimper and today in Saint-Servan.

sandy and jean-louis jacob – june 2014

jean-louis jacob and sandy – march 2016

The two mugs from Jean-Louis were the only things we bought in the flea market.  As we left we did buy 2 orange juice (jus d’orange) drinks for a 1€.

On the walk back from Saint-Servan we passed a real sign of spring.   Daffodils/jonquils blooming by a bus stop.

daffodils / jonquils

daffodils / jonquils

Just before we entered the walls of the Intra-Muros, we stopped by the harbor to see what was going on.  Not much, no boats going in or out.  But I did get to see the cormorant.

Sandy decided to make “Sunday dinner” to eat around 13:30 pm today.  She made coq-au-vin (chicken in wine sauce) yesterday and just had to warm it up, cook some risotto and a vegetable to have a nice dinner.  She is really getting to be “multi-lingual” since she was reading the risotto package directions which were written in Dutch and didn’t even realize it! When Sandy asked Phil to verify the directions, he commented about her reading Dutch.  That was news to Sandy!  Funny how things turn out here.

To see a map of our walk clink on this link.