the week ending July 14, 2019 – la semaine se terminant le 14 juillet 2019

15 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by philipdenotto in 2019-France

Tags

14th juillet, 3 dogs, ACTIVE freighter, alstroemeria, awning, boules, brown eggs, carrefour hypermarche, Christine, cordon bleu, couregettes, e leclerc, fiddler, harbor, harry's sliced bread, Intra-Muros, le français, motorcycle, ouest france, Place du Marché aux Légumes, plage de bon secours, plage du Sillon, rocabey, round zucchinis, schweppes, tender, the world, zucchinis

A lot of pictures this week! And a couple of videos.

lundi 8 juillet 2019 – Monday July 8, 2019

Today at breakfast Sandy was reading an online story in the local French paper, Ouest-France (West-France), about a dolphin sighting. Yesterday, just off the salt water swimming pool and beach, a pod of 20 dolphins was spotted. That must have been some sight!

We shopped at the large Carrefour hypermarché to replace our bathroom scale and pick up a few items. July is one of the two months when sales are held all over France. There were many discounted shelves and bins to look at.

We took a late afternoon walk on the beach Plage du Sillon. I got really lucky getting the 3 photos in the gallery below. The gull played it perfectly. It looked right. It looked left. Then it took off! Perfect.

Get Ready!
Get Set!
GO!

On our way back we wanted to look at another beach, Plage de Bon Secours, where the swimming pool is located. Apparently we had forgotten the direct path to take and wandered around through small pathways before we reached our destination. Since it was low tide, (the pool is filled when high tide comes in) the sides of the pool were easily visible. Beautiful day with the air temperature of 23C (74F). But with a water temperature of 17C (62F). The water is too cool for us!

queuing up at the diving platform
the splash after a dive
diving @ swimming pool – white circle
diving @ swimming pool – white circle
diving @ swimming pool – white circle
Plage de Bon Secours
Plage de Bon Secours and the salt water swimming pool

mardi 9 juillet 2019 – Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Sandy’s feet were a little tender after walking 11 kilometers yesterday.

After picking up strawberries, flat peaches, cherries, lettuce, green beans, and brown mushrooms from our local marché we stopped at the florist stand. Three years ago was the last year the florist had a permanent store at the corner of our street. Since then, she and her husband are “pre-retired” and are selling flowers just at the marché. She is at our local Intra-Muros marché and her husband is at the Saint-Servan marché. Today she had Alstroemeria flowers, a favorite of ours, and we bought a bouquet of 6 pieces.

Intra-Muros marché
Intra-Muros marché

Next we stopped at the Hôtel de Ville, city hall, to talk to the lady at the reception office. She listened to our plea about parking posts last week. We wrote a thank you note to her and asked her to pass the note on to the officials. She seemed genuinely pleased to be thanked for her part. The work in front of our building is complete and only one post is still missing behind our building. A week is really a quick response here.

Today we noticed a large cruise ship anchored in the harbor. We get four or five of these ships each summer. They are too large to go through the lock (écluse) into the basin, so they anchor in the middle of the bay. Tenders are used to shuttle passengers from and to the ship. There was even roof top seating on the tender boats. This ship is “The World.”

tender returning to THE WORLD
THE WORLD
THE WORLD cruise ship

The World is a private residential community-at-sea. There are only 165 individual homes on the ship. Yes, you read that correctly, 165 individual homes on the ship. You can read more about The World by clicking this link.

Sandy found the following information about The World on the internet.

largest private residential yacht in the world
on-board apartments
only 165 residences
priced from $2 to $20 million
studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments
a six-bedroom penthouse suite

annual maintenance fees which can range from $60,000 to $270,000
owners get to help choose the destinations
approximately 20 countries are represented
a movie theater
grocery store
five restaurants

When I first saw this ship and the number of decks on it I thought there might be one or two thousand passengers. As it turns out there are usually only 150 to 200 passengers (owners and guests). There are 280 crew members.

We’re guessing this is for the 1%’ers of the 1%’ers. Very, very fancy and only for the very wealthy!

mercredi 10 juillet 2019 – Wednesday 10 July 2019

On our walk back from the Rocabey Intermarché, we saw the LE FRANÇAIS moored in the basin. It is a 3 mast sailing boat for hire. You can find more information at this link.

LE FRANÇAIS
LE FRANÇAIS

Last weekend Phil had used “Harry’s” sliced bread to make bread crumbs for the meatballs . Harry’s is a French company which makes American sandwich breads. We bought eggs last week too, so we had both eggs and bread left. Sandy used them to make French toast for lunch. The eggs sold in France are almost always brown, from brown hens, and are never refrigerated in the store. They’re on a shelf in the store similar to cereal or canned goods. They are a beautiful color.

egg packaging
the eggs
the result

jeudi 11 juillet 2019 – Thursday 11 July 2019

Sandy met with her tutor Christine while Phil shopped at the E.Leclerc hypermarché. Christine told Sandy the winter population of Saint-Malo is about 50,000 people. The 14th of July celebration is this Sunday. Another 40,000 people are expected in the area to watch the fireworks at 23h10.

Christine also said she’d been swimming this week. She said the water wasn’t too cold, it had already reached 19C (66F). Can’t imagine water that cold to swim in!

The cruise ship, The World, was still moored in the harbor this afternoon when we watched the boules game. After the boules game we walked to the harbor. Got lucky and spotted a cormorant in the harbor. Got really lucky as I was able to get the camera out just before it decided to take flight.

cormorant swimming around
cormorant getting ready
cormorant takes off

On our way back to the apartment we stopped in the Place du Marché aux Légumes to people watch and listen to a performer. Here is a short clip of his performance.

Fiddler in Place du Marché aux Légumes video

vendredi 12 juillet 2019 – Friday 12 July, 2019

Today it is cloudy, cool and the air is full of moisture. It is barely sprinkling. The drops are so fine you can hardly see them at all. But, you can definitely feel drops on your arms.

The restaurant on our corner is getting a very large awning on our side of their building. It will provide shade in the heat of the day and protection from rain. They have 3 tables under the awning. They must be doing a pretty good business to afford such an addition.

small white van of the guys installing the awning
getting ready to lift the awning
lifting the awning
adjusting the mounting
the awning is up, open and being adjusted

Around 15h30 we tried to take a walk on the beach. High tide was expected at 16h30 with a co-efficient of 57 which means it is a very low high tide. We walked a ways then were running out of beach. The waves were washing towards us but we saw one of the stairways up to the digue and quickly made it before our feet were wet. Back to the harbor for us!

beach at a low high tide looking north
beach at a low high tide looking south

On our way to the harbor we went past one of the basins. We have been watching the freighter ACTIVE unload it’s cargo in the basin. It started unloading on the 8th of July and by the 12th it was completely unloaded. Not sure why it took so long, but then again that might be normal.

sitting low in the water starting to unload on 8 July
sitting high in the water after unloading 12 July

samedi 13 juillet 2019 – Saturday July 13, 2019

Saturday morning we took a walk to the Rocabey marché. On the way we witnessed the following interesting event.

Saturday morning, a man, a motorcycle and 3 dogs

The man on the motorcycle zoomed past us with no dogs. They were running behind him trying to catch up. He eventually stopped and they all jumped on the motorcycle.

We had seen this man and his 3 dogs on the motorcycle before. Another time we saw him on a bike with one dog and the two others in an attached cart. He had always zipped past before I could get my camera ready. This time he sped by us with no dogs. About 100 meters ahead he stopped and let the dogs catch up. The first 2 jumped on to the motorcycle. The 3rd was too tired to jump up and had to be lifted on to the motorcycle. Then they sped off.

Saturday morning after the man and his dogs

Saturday morning at the Rocabey marché was interesting with a big crowd.

We wanted to buy a couple of Cordon Bleus from a new vendor Sandy had noticed the other day. We also were looking for round zucchinis (couregettes). If we found the round zucchinis we then wanted to by some tomato stuffing (farci a tomate) to use in the zucchinis.

The marché was incredibly crowded. Every vendor seemed to have ten to fifteen people in line. But we found everything we needed even if it took a while.

Sandy had found a recipe for stuffed round zucchinis and wanted to try it.

I took the short video below while I was in line for 20 minutes at the butchers in the Rocabey marché. To make the video larger click on the symbol for full screen in the lower right part of the video.

Rocabey marché video

Tonight we are trying a new restaurant, B’Art à Thé, a tearoom which serves mainly vegetarian dishes. It is 5 minutes from the apartment on the Place du Marché aux Légumes.

view of place du marché aux Légumes from terrace table
brandade potate cabillaud
torte & salad
dessert

dimanche 14 juillet 2019 – Sunday July 14, 2019

Today is the French National Day (Fête nationale) also called The Fourteenth of July (Quatorze juillet). Tonight at 23h10 there will be a large fireworks display here in the Intra-Muros section of Saint-Malo. The fireworks will be set off from the breakwater (mole) and are supposed to last about one-half hour. That is a lot of fireworks!

14th July Fireworks – 48 seconds

Left the apartment at 22h55 for the 5 minute walk to the Fireworks area. After 20 minutes of fireworks, which were great, we walked back to the apartment and were in bed by 23h45.

How to view additional photos.

You can view an album of photos by clicking one of the following links. The photo album will open in a new browser window with the photos.

Click here for all the June photos in France

Click here for photos of La Roseraie Saint-Anne

Click here for the photos in Paris

the week ending June 30, 2019 – la semaine se terminant le 30 juin 2019

30 Sunday Jun 2019

Posted by philipdenotto in 2019-France

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

bacs, bank of france, bastion de la hollande, boules, brittany ferries, canicule, carrefour city, chennevières-sur-marne, chez marcel, condor ferry, corsaire ferry, fleur-de-lis, haircuts, heatwave, jardiland, mahe de la bourdonnais, mole, secours catholique, Shara, trehouart

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lundi 24 juin 2019 – Monday June 24, 2019

It was raining when we woke up so we chose not to purchase fresh croissants for breakfast. The forecast for this week is extremely hot. A heatwave (“canicule” in French) is coming up from the Sahara desert. The forecast for Paris is high temperatures of 33C to 39 C (91F-102F) for six days. The forecast for here in Saint-Malo is 21C to 33C (69F-87F) with only two days being hot. There are few buildings air conditioned in France. The newer major hotels are air conditioned, but many older ones are not. Saint-Malo is located on the ocean or English Channel in the northwest of France. We almost always have a breeze, usually from the north or northwest which keeps it cool. When the wind is from the south or southeast, it is much warmer. Our apartment building is made of granite. We have shutters similar to hurricane shutters on all of our windows. When it is hot, we keep the windows and shutters closed and the apartment is fairly comfortable. It almost always cools off at night. We’ll see as the week continues. The high today was 19C (66F).

In the middle of the afternoon, tea time, our friends from upstairs came for tea. Denise and her son Gilles, age 62, brought a bouquet of fleur-de-lis. I didn’t have a vase that was tall enough, so Denise went upstairs to loan one of hers to us. We had a lovely conversation of French mixed with English for about 90 minutes. Denise and Gilles live in Chennevières-sur-Marne
which is a southeastern suburb of Paris.

Fleur-de-Lis in Dennis’s vase
Fleur-de-Lis in Sandy’s vase

You can click on a photo to see a larger image.

We had a bowl of chili for dinner that Sandy had made over the weekend. Different from the USA, but delicious!

We took a walk out on the mole, watched the Condor ferry depart and headed for home as it started to rain.

mardi 25 juin 2019 – Tuesday 25, June 2019

Sandy wanted to shop at our Intra-Muros marché before we did anything else today. She bought a melon, appears to be a small cantaloupe, but the variety is “Bowl of Honey.” She also bought brown mushrooms. They are similar in size to the white mushrooms sold in the USA, but have a stronger taste. Delicious when cooked with chicken. She also bought a lot of fresh fruit; cherries, peaches, and apricots.

Next we took the bus to the gare, waited for a #5, then took it up the hill, past the hospital to the Tréhouart stop. We were on our way to the Secours Catholic boutique and depot. We had a difficult time last year finding the new location that they moved to. We wandered through all kinds of neighborhoods, up steep hills and were hot by the time we located the building. Secours Catholic is the French version of a Catholic Charities shop or the Community Action House General Store in Holland. In three rooms are clothing for men, women, children, purses, shoes, small bags, and household linens. Sandy wanted another table cloth for our dining room table. The one we are currently using is similar to oil cloth purchased at a market in 2012. She also purchased aprons for Phil and herself. We wear aprons at church in Holland and thought it would be nice to have our own. She was also looking for a tall vase, so she could return Denise’s vase to her. We were directed downstairs to the depot. The depot is where breakable items are sold in addition to a few articles of clothing, shoes, beds, etc. They had several vases that were the correct size and we chose one made in Portugal. We also spotted an oven mitt and a decorative glass cutting board. Today is the final day the Secours Catholic boutique is open until September. Since we leave on September 1, this will be our one and only visit until next year. Au revoir jusqu’à l’année prochaine.

On our walk to and from the Secours Catholic we saw several flowers which were worth taking pictures of.

Sandy looking at the Pôle Surcouf which houses the Secours Catholic
flowers on our walk to/from
Secours Catholic
flowers on our walk to/from
Secours Catholic
flowers on our walk to/from
Secours Catholic
flowers on our walk to/from
Secours Catholic
flowers on our walk to/from
Secours Catholic
flowers on our walk to/from
Secours Catholic

The temperatures are still unbearable in most of France. The high temperature here in Saint-Malo was 20C (68F).

In the afternoon we took a walk out Port Saint-Louis to the môle (breakwater). It was a nice day and resulted in some pretty good photos.

planting flowers at the statue of Mahé de la Bourdonnais
Brittany Ferry in the harbor
Plage du Môle
Fort on Petit Bé
curve of the mole (breakwater)
swimming pool and sail boats
Grand Bé and Intra-Muros
Corsaire Ferry and Petit Bé
the harbor
Bastion de la Hollande

We had chicken, ratatouille, risotto and mushrooms for dinner. Chez Sandy restaurant! Delicious!

mercredi 26 juin 2019 – Wednesday 26 June, 2019

We planned to go grocery shopping today but had to make a stop at the doctor’s office on the way. Phil realized last night that he was having problems with his ear. While we were in Paris he had trouble with it for a day but it improved. Today we needed to make an appointment with the doctor. The receptionist remembered us from previous years. He was given an appointment for 11h40 and we were on our way to the local Intermarche store. When we boarded the bus, our neighbor Jean-Michel was there and he and Phil chatted until our stop. We were able to buy everything on our list today except for Cheerios. They had Cheerios two weeks ago, but nothing today.

We took the groceries home, put everything away and walked to the doctor’s office. The office only took cash in the past but today had a machine for credit cards. The diagnosis was an outer ear infection so we needed to fill a prescription for antibiotics. The pharmacy near the Carrefour City was still open at 12h15 (stores normally close between 12h and 14h for lunch) and we had the prescription in less than 5 minutes. The antibiotic is a powder that needs to be mixed with water before taking. Let’s hope they work!

After lunch we watched Alain play boules for a few minutes. The temperature was 23C (74F). It is warm in the sun but still a nice breeze blowing in the shade. All schools were closed in Paris today due to the extreme heat of 38C (100F) since school isn’t out for the summer until next week, and none of them are air conditioned.

After the boules match we walked to the harbor to watch the boats. The Corsaire Ferry was approaching the ramp on its return from Dinard.

jeudi 27 juin 2019 – Thursday 27 June, 2019

The forecast for all of France, except around us in Brittany, was for another day of the heatwave (a “canicule” in French). Our peak temperature was 28C (82F). Sandy had made arrangements to see Christine, her tutor, an hour earlier due to the heat. As with most things here, the buses are not air conditioned and they are hot.

Phil took the same bus and picked up a few items at E.Leclerc hypermarché.

After lunch, they watched Alain play boules for about 30 minutes. There was still a nice cool breeze in the shade. This is the first year that other boules players have acknowledged us and a few are even initiating conversation. After 8 years, they must have decided we’re okay.

We had our first haircuts of the summer later. The owner of the shop, Studio 3, cut both of our hair. Sandy took photos with her from last year to help the stylist. We were both pleased with our haircuts.

vendredi 28 juin 2019 – Friday 28 June, 2019

Today, we felt the heat. The forecast is for a high of 34C (93F). We have kept our windows closed and the shutters and curtains drawn when the sun faces the windows. Our second bedroom, dining room, and living room windows face east. The kitchen, shower room, and our bedroom face west. We always have daylight coming from one side of the apartment even with the shutters down.

After breakfast and a trip to the Intra-Muros marché we took a walk on the beach. Low tide was around 9h30 so the sand was fairly hard and dry an hour later. The temperature was great, low 20’s and the wind was blowing. We came across a fairly large group of people all digging in the sand. A closer look showed about 7 teams, with around 5 people on each team.

Bank of France employees from Paris in the team building exercise.

The man who appeared in charge was speaking English to some groups and French to other groups. Phil asked a lady who was taking photos what was going on. It was a group of employees from the Bank of France in Paris. The man speaking French and English was a champion sandcastle maker from Canada. They were in Saint-Malo for two days doing team building exercises. They were very lucky to escape the Parisian heat and enjoy the beach here. Interesting to watch.

These are pictures from our walk on the beach. The wide beach, sailboats, Brittany Ferries, walkers in the water and team building with staff from the Bank of France in Paris. Quite a few different things happening.

the wide beach to the south
the wide beach to the north
Sandy and the beach
a trimaran
the wide beach to Intra-Muros
walking the ocean with wet suits
Brittany Ferry to England
Us on the beach
Bank of France team building
Bank of France team building
part of the castle

By the time we were ready to return to our apartment it was hot! We stayed inside the rest of the day. Jardiland phoned and said they would deliver our planters, gravel and dirt between 8h30 and 10h30 tomorrow.

samedi 29 juin 2019 – Saturday 29, June 2019

At 7h it was wonderfully cool! The outside temperature was 17C and 23C in our apartment. We opened all of the windows and the temperature inside dropped quickly. On her way to the boulangerie, Sandy wasn’t able to see the ocean through the city gates. Fog was rolling in from the ocean. No wonder it’s much cooler today.

Phil waiting on the balcony for the Jardiland delivery

Our delivery from Jardiland arrived around 10h. Since we had already cut the black liner, the job went very smooth. Our neighbor above us, Madame Bertin, arrived and talked to us about the planters. She thought it was a nice idea and hoped it helped. We had one extra bag of dirt which Phil took to our cave (our basement storage room). The job was complete in less than an hour.

the new planters in front of the apartment building and Sandy

The temperature warmed up and it was hot in the sun. The high was 26C. Late in the afternoon the temperature dropped quickly and by 19h Sandy had a jacket on outside. Almost everyone walking around had changed from shorts to long pants and added a jacket.

We enjoyed a kebab sandwich and frites at the Chez Marcel restaurant. Every restaurant in the Intra-Muros was crowded. People had been enjoying Saint-Malo all day. We saw on the news where the heatwave in the south of France had destroyed many of the grapes on the vines. The photos they showed were dried up grapes, still hanging from the vines, with the appearance of raisins. A potential catastrophe for wine makers.

dimanche 30 juin 2019 – Sunday June 30, 2019

This morning we went for a walk around 10h30. We are invited to Denise and Gilles’ apartment for tea on Monday. We are shopping for a small gift to bring to them. Since they are leaving for Paris on Wednesday we won’t get them flowers and because of the heat we decided against chocolates. So we bought a small box of specialty cookies.

On the way back to the apartment we met Denise coming out of the butcher’s shop on rue l’Orme. We talked for a few minutes about our plans for the day. When we left her we started to head back to the apartment and met our friend Jean-Michel from building #6 next door to us. He was returning from a swim in the ocean. He apparently does this every day of the year! The water temperature is around 15C (60F) which is just a tad to cold for us. Ha!

Around noon we went for a walk on the beach. It was very interesting as usual.