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~ Nos expériences dans la ville des corsaires. – Our experiences in the city of the corsairs.

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le semaine se terminant le dimanche 19 août 2018 – the week ending Sunday August 19, 2018

19 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by philipdenotto in 2018-France

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

boulangère, boulangerie, BRETAGNE, brittany ferries, chez marcel, coiffeuse, condor ferries, corsaire ferry, digue, e leclerc, esplanade saint-vincent, ferret, gulls, interemarche, kroger, Paramé, plage de mole, plage du Sillon, rocabey, rocabey marche, Saint-Malo, sea cloud ii, titi-gil

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 13 août 2018 – Monday August 13, 2018

Two French military jeeps, each with 5 soldiers and machine guns, were driving through the streets when Sandy walked to the boulangerie. We’ve seen them several times walking, but not driving around.

We took care of some household chores in the morning.

After lunch, we wanted to walk to the north end of the Digue and return by bus. When we arrived at the Esplanade St. Vincent, a #8 bus was waiting. So we stepped on the bus, and got off at the Digue stop heading north. We walked on the Digue to the northern end. We did hear a whistle blow several times, couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, or what it was about. As we neared a second story overlook, a lifeguard called out, “no dogs on the beach please”. There are signs indicating dogs are forbidden on the beach, but few people pay attention to the sign. There was a large dog playing with his owner in front of the building and as we watched, he put the leash back on the dog. It looked like they were getting ready to leave, heeding the lifeguard apparently. We also saw two policeman on bikes patrolling the Digue.

We exited the Digue, then walked uphill to Paramé and boarded a #3 bus at the Rousses stop. The bus just happened to be passing by so we signaled to the driver that we wanted the bus. That took us back to our starting point. An excellent hour-long walk. The sun was shining, no jacket needed, and lots of board surfers, and kite surfers to watch.

some odd clouds on the horizon, probably a weather front

strange clouds on the horizon, distinct cloud like is probably a front

 

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kids were sand surfing on the Plage du Rochebonne

le mardi 14 août 2018 – Tuesday August 14, 2018

Today was haircut day for the 3rd time in France. The coiffeuse (woman hairdresser) was very busy but we only waited a few minutes. Sandy told the coiffeuse her last cut was too short on the sides of her head. This time the coiffeuse didn’t use a razor at the end but “thinning” type scissors. Sandy was very pleased with the result. We made an appointment for our last cut on September 11.

After lunch we wanted to buy some sandpaper. A store called Titi-Gil is close to the Intermarché grocery store in Rocabey and carries many items. It is called a “destockage” store meaning it carries items other stores are getting rid of or selling when the store closes. They carry clothing, household goods, cans, bottled food, wine, hardware, beach items, and linens. Sandy found jars of jam with Kroger labels on them. We stopped in the store and bought a package of sandpaper for 1€50.

Next we walked to the Digue heading north, reached the end, and decided to walk back. We saw a lady carrying what Sandy thought was a weasel in her arms. She walked down the stairs to the beach and put down the animal she was carrying. We decided it was a ferret, wearing a harness and leash. The ferret proceeded to start digging a large hole in the sand. Whether it wanted to hide or was searching for it’s dinner we don’t know. A bizarre site on the beaches of Saint-Malo.

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kids learning to sail

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we’re guessing this is a ferret on a leash getting a walk on the beach – weird

le mercredi 15 août 2018 – Wednesday August 15, 2018

We planned to shop at the Intermarché grocery store after breakfast. We walked to the bus stop, then realized when looking at the arrival time posted that today was a holiday. It is the day of Assumption a religious holiday. The bus company considers it a holiday too and was running buses on a Sunday schedule. We didn’t wait too long, either coming or going and were soon back home. We’ll need to remember today being a “bus holiday” for next year .

The high temperature today was 21C, 69F. It was cloudy most of the day. Late in the afternoon we walked to the harbor to see what was going on. The tide was on it’s way out and we watched the water disappear from underneath the moored boats. Earlier in the week at high tide, we had counted only 3 visible cement blocks from the top of the water to the street. Today there must have been 20 visible cement blocks and the water was still receding. Quite interesting to watch!

merged

same spot on the harbor wall, the small insert photo is high tide the bigger picture is a low tide

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a lot of gulls circling above the harbor

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the Sea Cloud II was back in the basin this week – a beautiful ship

We enjoyed a kebab at Chez Marcel for dinner eating outside and watching all of the comings and goings of all the people.

le jeudi 16 août 2018 – Thursday August 16, 2018

Today Sandy spent two hours with her tutor Christine. On the walk to the bus at 9h30 there were more than 500 empty parking spaces around the Esplanade Saint-Vincent. On Sandy’s return walk at 12h40, there were only 8 spaces remaining and people were waiting in line in their cars at the entrances to the lots. Another big day for tourists!

While walking to and from Christine’s house you get to pass a large number of wonderful gardens with all kinds of flowers.  Here is a sample.

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While Sandy was at the tutor, Phil went shopping at the E.Leclerc Hypermarche.  On returning to the Esplanade Saint-Vincent after shopping Phil saw two young boys looking rather lost.  They approached him and spoke in both French and English.  They were looking for the Corsaire Ferries terminal.  So Phil was able to explain to them how to get there.  But rather than letting them walk alone he accompanied them to the terminal.  They had traveled from Paris on the train this morning.  They were going to their Grandmother’s house in Dinard, across the harbor.  The oldest boy was maybe 15 and his brother must have been around 10 or 11.  We had some nice small talk on the walk.

In the afternoon the temperature dropped to 17C, 63F, and rained off and on. All of the flowers need refreshing and reviving.

Sandy was able to FaceTime with Michael at noon his time. So nice to hear his voice and see his face.

le vendredi 17 août 2018 – Friday August 17, 2018

Today is National Thrift Store Day in the United States. We hope everyone finds a good buy at their favorite store.

Sandy shopped at the Intra-Muros marché for fruit today. She likes to arrive by 9h15 to avoid the “rush”. Monsieur Alex and his assistants take plenty of time with her at that time of the morning.

Next we walked to Saint-Servan to shop at the butcher. It was a lovely morning, cool and partly sunny with no chance of rain. We purchased our meat, walked around the exterior stalls and headed for home.

We sat on a bench at the harbor and watched boats come and go about an hour before high tide. Since there hadn’t been any chance of rain and the sun was shining, we were very surprised to feel rain falling. We moved under a tree and it stopped in about 10 minutes. We weren’t the only ones caught by a surprise shower. There were quite a few people standing under neighboring trees before it stopped.

We did see a cat in a back pack today, which is rare.  Always many more dogs than cats.

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cute little cat, probably a teenager, attempting to get out of the back pack

Across the harbor the Brittany Ferries ship BRETAGNE was loading caravans.

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Brittany Ferries ship BRETAGNE loading a caravan

le samedi 18 août 2018 – Saturday August 18, 2018

The temperature was 13C, 55F, a little cool when Sandy walked to the boulangerie. She was woken up around midnight last night and could see the results this morning. At the top of the steps behind our apartment the restaurant had their outdoor planter damaged. It was a very large planter with a palm tree inside. It looked heavy enough that it needed two or three people to move it. It had been lifted off it’s bottom container and all of the gravel on top of the dirt dumped on the ground. Then it had been left in the center of the top step. Not nice!

On our way to the Esplanade Saint-Vincent we saw American, Canadian, and British flags flying next to the French flag on top of the wall by the Castle.

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BRITISH, CANADIAN, FRENCH and AMERICAN FLAGS on the castle wall

We walked on the Digue from the north end to the south end, after taking the #3 bus to the Rousses bus stop in Paramé. It was a very pleasant mid day with a lot of wind. High tide was only 20 minutes away but with a co-efficient of 62 the Digue did not have any water washing over it. There were many surfers in the water.

A curious thing on the digue today, the cat we saw at the harbor was taking its owners for a walk on the digue.

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cat taking its owners for a walk on the digue

Later in the afternoon we spent some time on the harbor watching boats come and go.

le dimanche 19 août 2018 – Sunday August 19, 2018

On Sandy’s walk to the boulangerie, she was almost hit by a low flying seagull. It was one of the new birds, born this year, almost completely covered in brown feathers. Possibly it wasn’t skilled to fly high and was just testing it’s wings. Anyway, it’s a good thing Sandy can move quickly and to the side or they would have collided.

Another interesting note, Sandy saw a large car, double parked with it’s motor running on the street outside of the boulangerie . This is not normal. She noticed the bumper sticker which said, “I love nothing! I am Parisian!”, which would seem to fit in with their superiority complex. Inside the boulangerie a man was trying to put the lid on two “to-go” cups of coffee he had purchased. He didn’t get them on correctly and he dripped coffee on the floor all of the way out of the door . The madam said she would clean it up and to be careful. The boulangerie was busy with 3 of the 4 tables on the terrace occupied, a few tables in back occupied and Sandy was 5th in line.

Between 11:30 and 13:30 we watched the sailboats gather together to “parade” to Cancale for the remaining day of the “Branlebas de Régates : La mer en Fête” which is a 4 day race.

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we set up our chairs on the wall to watch the boats on parade

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some of the boats which participated in the parade

Over the eight years we have traveled to Saint-Malo we have seen many people fishing from the môle (breakwater), especially at high tide.  Today for the first time we saw someone catch a fish and it was a pretty good size fish.

guy caught a fish at high tide in the harbor

this guy caught a good size fish at high tide in the harbor

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le semaine se terminant le dimanche 15 juillet 2018 – the week ending Sunday July 15, 2018

15 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by philipdenotto in 2018-France

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

alain, arm, boulangère, boulangerie, corsairs malouins, grande maree, Iceland, La Fournee Malouine, la maison du pain, le mole des noires, Place du Marché aux Légumes, plage de l'eventail, plage de mole, Saint-Malo, Saint-Servan, sncf, world cup 2018

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

le lundi 9 juillet 2018 – Monday July 9, 2018

We took the bus to the Carrefour Hypermarché located at La Madeleine Shopping mall. We wanted to buy things that aren’t available at the markets or the mid-sized Intrmarche grocery store where we usually shop. We bought dental floss, garbage bags (20 liter size, elastic at the top with drawstrings to close), lightly breaded fish (similar to the fish from “fish + chips”), and fresh ravioli filled with spinach. We only waited less than 5 minutes for the bus to return to the Intra-Muros. It was a successful trip. It was hot today on the bus. We sat on the sun side of the bus and the temperature was 25 C with very little wind.

We had a text from Michael with a gorgeous photo of white water falls from Iceland.

High tide took place around 16h30 this afternoon with a low co-efficient of 58. We walked in the water with the tide still coming in. There was still some beach visible at the Plage de l’Eventail. Some of the beach,  towards the Digue, was totally under water. It was nice to be in cool water on a very sunny day.

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the beach is very near the wall at this high tide, not much beach but we did not have to walk far to the water

le mardi 10 juillet 2018 – Tuesday July 10, 2018

This morning at La Fournee Malouine two new assistants waited on Sandy when she ordered our breakfast. They are not used to hearing her style of French and she is unfamiliar with them. Sandy had to repeat herself 3 times before her order was understood.

After breakfast and shopping at our local marché, we took the bus to the Rocabey stop. We needed to go to a para-pharmacy to purchase vitamins and other toiletries that aren’t available at the grocery stores. We went to the first para-pharmacy, Rocabey Para-Pharmacy, but they only had one of the three items we needed. We walked around the corner to the Para-pharmacy de La Gare for the additional 2 items. They were very busy.

We walked back towards Intra-Muros on the shady side of the street. The temperature was 24 C but felt much hotter. We were glad to reach our apartment.

During our walk back to the apartment we spotted a car with a license plate from Portugal in parking lot.

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car from Portugal in the parking lot

After lunch we reserved our train and hotel room for our return trip to the USA in September. Time goes fast.

An hour before the time of high tide we walked to the Place de l’Evantail to walk in the water. The wind had picked up and the temperature had actually dropped since our walk in the morning. However, the water was warmer!

le mercredi 11 juillet 2018 – Wednesday July 11, 2018

Today was the last day of Michael’s vacation. The photos he sent from Iceland this week have been almost magical. So much white water, rocks, cliffs, falls but very few trees. He returns to the U. S. late this afternoon.

It was only 15 C when Sandy shopped for our breakfast. She even wore a jacket today. We took the bus to the Intermarche grocery store, did our shopping, checked out quickly, and were back at the bus stop to return home in 45 minutes!

After lunch it was still cool in the shade, so we took our camping chairs to the harbor. The tide was coming in with at least 3 more hours until high tide. There were many things happening. We watched at least 4 fishing boats unload huge amounts of mussels packed in orange mesh bags, weigh them, throw the orange bags onto pallets, and load into refrigerated trucks. Four Corsair Ferries were coming and going, and when the locks opened we watched a Russian cargo ship and 10 sail boats exit the basin into the channel. The Condor Ferry was loading, and the Armorique a light house and beacon repair ship returned to the harbor. We had a very entertaining two hours!

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weighing crustaceans from a fishing boat

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unloading moules (mussels) from a boat

le jeudi 12 juillet 2018 – Thursday July 12, 2018

We received a text around 5h30 am this morning letting us know Michael was back in Grand Rapids. His cat was glad to have him at home.

Sandy asked the assistant at La Fournee Malouine if the boulangère was here this week. Sandy hadn’t see her since Sunday. The assistant thanked her, said that was nice, the madam was here all week just very busy making many sandwiches in the back. They do a large take-away sandwich business this time of year. With the new terrace, this boulangerie is even more enticing to have an inexpensive lunch and be able to sit down in the shade.

We watched Alain play boules for a few minutes and visited with him. He and his wife had just returned yesterday from attending Jean’s funeral in Paris.  They had spent 6 nights helping Denise in Paris.

We walked in the water at the Plage de Môle at low tide. There was a lot of sand to walk through!

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while on our walk in the water we saw these kids learning to sail

After dinner we listened to the “Les Corsairs Malouins” sing sea shanties. They were very entertaining.  We have fun watching and listening to the group.

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“Les Corsairs Malouins” sing sea shanties

le vendredi 13 juillet 2018 – Friday July 13, 2018

The town was very quiet when Sandy shopped for our breakfast.

We walked to the Saint-Servan marché to purchase meat. We arrived at the bridge while it was open and waited a few minutes for boats to enter the lock and the bridge to slide closed. The marché was busy. A lot of tourists in town for vacation and extra people in town due to tomorrow being the Fete National 14th Juillet. After 15 minutes in line, it was our turn.

We had an uneventful walk back home and since the wind was out of the north there was a cool breeze blowing.

Today was one of the days of the Grande Marée where the tide is exceptionally high. The expected co-efficient was 101. It was also one of the days of exceptionally low tide. There were warnings in the newspaper and on the radio for people to be observant.  It was a good day for “Pêche à Pied,” fishing by foot. People walk out a very long way in the sand to the sand bars to dig or rake for their dinner. The warnings were due to the fact that once the tide starts to come back in it does it very rapidly. We walked in the sand a very long way before we got to the ocean.  We were on the far side of the Fort National. It was farther than we’d ever gone to reach the water. We walked in the water for a while in both warm and cold temperatures.

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the beach at low tide, it is quite a walk to the water

le samedi 14 juillet 2018 – Saturday July 14, 2018

Today was the Fete National Quatorze Juillet (National Holiday 14th of July). A lot of visitors were expected in town. Signs had been posted at parking lots, entrances to the ramparts etc about the possible closure. The Intra-Muros was closed to all vehicular traffic starting at 17h00 unless you had proof of residency or owned a business. Restaurants and bars were busy!

We walked to the beach before noon today. A Grande Marée is scheduled for 8h45 and after 21h00 this evening. We wanted to walk in the water between a high and low tide to avoid walking through blocks of sand and yet have enough beach to walk on. The sky was brilliantly blue and the air fresh.

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great looking sail boat we saw on our walk on the beach

Later we walked out of the walls at 22h45 to be in place to see the fireworks. There were very large city trucks, garbage truck size blocking the entrance to all of the ports. Streets were blocked off and police were around.

At 23h00 the fireworks started. It was just barely dark but they were on time. They were set off at the Môle des Noires or the breakwater. We and several thousand additional people stood in the middle of one of the round points to watch. They were incredible and timed to music played over large speakers. It was amusing to hear songs from the USA, Ireland, France, and other countries. Several of the songs dealt with the sea, and one of the famous Saint-Malo songs Santiano was part of the entertainment. The fireworks lasted for 22 minutes, 6 minutes longer than last year. We were back in our apartment by 23:30. Time for bed!

le dimanche 15 juillet 2018 – Sunday July 15, 2018

It was relatively quiet when Sandy shopped for our breakfast. She passed several street cleaning crews trying to clean up after such a crowd yesterday.

After breakfast we took the number 1 bus to the Le Mouchoir Vert bus stop and then walked about 1/2 kilometer to the Vide Grenier (empty attic flea market) at Square de Biscayenne on the Rue de la Marne.  Every year it is a big market with lots of vendors.  Our friend Alain and his wife Mary-Yvonne were there.  Alain was helping at the concessions stand.

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the large crowd at the Vide Grenier

On the way back we missed our bus and ended up walking all the way back to the apartment.

This afternoon is the final of the World Cup from Russia.  France and Croatia are playing.  There are people all over the place in the Place du Marché aux Légumes.  There was a lot of horn blowing and shouting during the game.  France won 4-2 so everyone is pretty happy.   The game ended about 4 hours ago, but the celebrating is still going.

 

 

 

 

 

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