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à Saint-Malo – in Saint-Malo

Tag Archives: charly’s bar

la semaine se terminant le dimanche 3 septembre 2017 – the week ending Sunday September 3, 2017

03 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by philipdenotto in septembre poster 2017 - September 2017 post

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

alain, Banque Alimentaire de Saint Malo, boules, braderie, charly's bar, croix rouge, crystal symphony, gare, Herbidian Sea, hippodrome, Kouign Amann, Place du Marché aux Légumes, rocabey marche, scrabble junior, trivial pursuit

le lundi 28 août 2017 – Monday August 28, 2017

Today is forecast to be hot! The weather channel predicts a high of 27C / 81F. The problem is that the wind is only 2 mph which is almost nothing. Normally there is a great cool breeze coming from the north-west off the English Channel.

We shopped early for groceries and the store felt cold because of the air conditioning. So few places here are air-conditioned, that when you enter a business that does have it, it feels shocking.

We mailed a package and wanted to stop at Charley’s Bar for a coffee. Not today! This is the first day since we arrived in France that they have been closed. They must think the tourist season is over. There were also very few people walking through town. Monday is often a slow day but maybe the predicted heat is keeping them away.

We did see a cat on a window sill across the courtyard.  Hopefully it had good depth

cat-on-a-window-ledge_36059315634_o

cat on a 4th floor window sill

perception.

 

Our apartment stayed cool, under 24C by closing up the windows and shutters by around 11h until the sun moved to the west. After lunch, a cold sandwich and fruit, we walked outside of the walls to watch our friend Alain play boules. After exiting the gates, the air felt like a blast from a furnace. We said hello to him, watched a few minutes and headed for home. Too hot for us!

We had a cold “chef” salad for dinner with ice cream for dessert.

le mardi 29 août 2017 – Tuesday August 29, 2017

It is much cooler today. The forecast is for a high of 24C with a breeze out of the north by afternoon. Sandy shopped at the marché for fruit and salad. We walked through town stopping to buy a bottle of sweet cider, and a <<Kouign Amann>> cake on the way to mail a letter. Then we climbed the stairs to walk around the top of the ramparts/walls. When we looked over the walls at the ocean we could see fog (brume de mer). There was a cruise ship named the <Crystal Symphony> moored in the harbor and the Brittany ferry had just departed. The fog makes everything look spooky.

fog-in-the-morning---crystal-symphony-cruise-ship_36753672611_o

cruise ship in the fog in the harbor

After a lovely stop for coffee and people watching at Charley’s Bar we headed home.

While Sandy was hanging laundry to dry on the balcony, we listened to jazz music from a musician playing in the <<Place du Marché aux Légumes>>. Entertainers often perform there and ask for donations from all of the people sitting on park benches, eating, or drinking in the restaurants and bars. Our apartment is so close that we benefit from all of the music.

Later in the afternoon the temperature started dropping. It was much cooler.

le mercredi 30 août 2017 – Wednesday August 30, 2017

Sandy wore slacks and a jacket to shop at the boulangerie. The forecast is for rain this afternoon and a high of 19C / 66F. We love these temperatures! All morning it drizzled and turned cooler. We watched pedestrians walk by in coats, with hoods, up and many carrying umbrellas. We stayed in our apartment, sorted out brochures and newspapers for recycling and read.

le jeudi 31 août 2017 – Thursday August 31, 2017

The temperature was 12C / 53F when Sandy shopped for our breakfast.

We took the bus to the Rocabey marché to purchase chicken breasts, farcie meat to make stuffed peppers, ground steak to make a little chili. and pork filet mignon de mariné.  Sandy asked the lady assistant about the pork. She said it was new this year, was not spicy hot, and tasted very good. We’ll try it tonight.

After returning to our apartment and leaving the meat in the refrigerator, we took a different bus and got off near the hospital. The Red Cross boutique was having a half priced sale on most items. We like to look at everything. We bought a short-sleeved, button up the front shirt for Phil, a <<Trivial Pursuit>> game, and a <<Scrabble Junior>> game. The two games should help us with our French.

flowers by the red cross
flowers by the red cross
our new old games
our new old games

On our way home we got off the bus at the Gare (train station) to purchase our bus passes for September. However, the line was VERY long with it being the end of the month and school starting on Monday. There are no seats to wait, so Sandy took the bus home and Phil stayed in line. He arrived home about an hour later than Sandy. But, the passes had been purchased!

The new purchase of <<filet mignon mariné>> was delicious! The pork here has such a wonderful flavor and is always tender. The marinade was not spicy but very tasty!

le vendredi 1 septembre 2017 – Friday September 1, 2017

It is drizzly and the temperature was 13C at 7h45.

Today we spent two hours with Christine for French tutoring. We did not see her neighbor today.  While at Christine’s house, it rained the entire time. Lucky for us it started after we arrived and ended as we left her house.

School resumes here Monday, but today must have been an orientation day. There were many students coming and going on the bus wearing new-clean shoes.

Our friend Alain stopped by this afternoon and invited us to have an aperitif at his apartment on Wednesday at 18h30. We are looking forward to that time. The sun came out as Alain was leaving, but it stayed cool today.

le samedi 2 septembre 2017 – Saturday September 2, 2017

The forecast is for sunny and 19C / 66F.

Today was the day for the <<Banque Alimentaire de Saint Malo>> garage sale and also the flea market at the Hippodrome or horse racing track. We have been to both in the past and really enjoyed them. There are so many huge wooden pieces of furniture at the <<Banque sale>> and they are very reasonably priced. You would need a huge home with extremely high ceilings to be able to use them. We are interested in the hinges, the hand carving decorations, the location of cupboard doors, and the keys that fit into the locks. Most are truly antiques.

elaborate furniture
elaborate furniture
big and elaborate
big and elaborate

At this sale last year, Sandy purchased a pewter two piece chicken for an euro. Then later in the year in Winona, she found a matching duck made out of the same material and in the same style.  Earlier this year she found a similar but smaller duck at the Paramé flea market.  This year she found a duck, similar to the one she bought in Winona and Paramé, but much smaller still. It was priced at 1€ just like the other pieces.

36823526652_b1ebb6fa95_o

July duck on the left and new September duck on the right

We have come across a variety of characters in the years we have been coming to Saint-Malo. One gentleman we nicknamed the <<General>> used to be dressed in a French navy officer’s uniform. We have also seen him in French military camouflage colored clothing, and last year security clothing. He has cartoon style and length eyebrows and walks with a distinctive swing in his arms, but very upright.

We just commented this week that he must have moved away. While waiting for a bus to return home after the second flea market, he came out of his apartment building, crossed the street, and waited for the same bus that we were waiting for. This year he is dressed in <<secure incendie>> (fire brigade t-shirt) and trousers. We noticed that he had a monthly bus pass this year. In the past, he boarded the bus without a ticket. When the individual conducting the occasional bus company security checks saw he didn’t have a ticket, they would make him disembark at the next stop. At least he is legally riding the bus this year.

After lunch we watched our friend Alain play boules.  Then we sat at the harbor and watched the  passenger cruise ship <<Herbidian Sea>> as it left the basin to enter and then exit the lock as it headed out to sea. It had come into the basin at 5h this morning during high tide.

hebridean-sky_36587789750_o

 Herbidian Sea leaving the lock and heading out to sea

This was an absolutely beautiful sunny and cool day!

le dimanche 3 septembre 2017 – Sunday September 3, 2017

It was good that we were able to attend both braderies/flea markets yesterday because it was raining today.  It was also very cool and not pleasant to walk outside for very long.

On her way back from the boulangerie today Sandy passed a group of British tourists that  were walking to meet the ferry. They had dressed inappropriately for the day since they wore t-shirts, shorts and no jacket or umbrella. Good thing they were just 15 minutes from the dock.

Sandy did get two lovely desserts for dinner.36828815082_51b92efe17_o

 

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le dimanche 13 août 2017 à Saint-Malo – Sunday, August 13, 2017 in Saint-Malo

13 Sunday Aug 2017

Posted by philipdenotto in août poster 2017 - August 2017 post

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

carrefour hypermarche, Cave de l'Abbaye Saint-Jean, charly's bar, GOSPORTS, hôtel de ville, La Madeleine Center, maison du pain, Marche’ de Créateurs, monsieur alix, Place du Marché aux Légumes, plage sablons, rillettes, SKAT, sterne pierregarin, volvo ocean race

Note: If a picture does not have a caption below it, you can mouse over the picture to see a caption.

le lundi 7 août 2017 – Monday August 7, 2017

The temperature is 12 C or 53 F. Chilly! Today is the day for the Intra-Muros braderie (flea market and store clearance sale). Sandy walked to the boulangerie (bakery) to get our breakfast at 8:15. The Place du Marché aux Légumes  was already full of tables, and blankets where individuals had set up their items for sale. A super interesting morning! First we saw our friend Marie-Dominique with her twin daughters and her oldest daughter. They arrived to secure their prime selling location at 5 am!! Next we saw our neighbor who is from Paris. He set up his table at 5:15 am.

To see the braderie, we walked down the main street, rue de Dinan.  As we were walking, a camouflage dressed soldier carrying an automatic rifle politely said “pardon madame” to Sandy.  Another first!

military patrol on the street
military patrol on the street
odd items on sale
odd items on sale
crowd at the braderie
crowd at the braderie

After a coffee at Charley’s Bar with a pain au raison and some people watching, we headed home.

P1010541

empty seats at Charly’s bar – people are always coming and going – within 5 minutes all the seats were taken

In the afternoon we walked to the harbor. The streets were jam packed with people shopping at the braderie tables. We actually had to stand still a few times to wait for the path to clear. In the harbor we spotted what looked like a military yacht moored in the bassin (basin). It was actually a private yacht called Skat and registered in the Cayman Islands. It was flying a Cayman Islands flag. It’s only 70 meters long and 14 meters wide. You can learn more about this super yacht by clicking here.

Y_Skat_berthed_at_the_North_Mole,_Port_of_Gibraltar

SKAT berthed at the North Mole, Port of Gibraltar, By Moshi Anahory – http://www.flickr.com/photos/mosh70/9248727609/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27198522

le mardi 8 août 2017 – Tuesday August 8, 2017

It was raining hard enough that Sandy had to hold an umbrella open on her way to and from Maison de Pain which is the closest boulangerie to our apartment. Good thing she had remembered to bring a bag for the croissants and baguette or they would have been wet. We had set our alarm and woken up early to do some shopping.

Sandy was at the Intra-Muros marché before the veg and fruit vendor, Monsieur Alix, had even displayed all of his prices. Peach plat (flat peaches) are one of our favorite fruits here that we can’t buy in the USA. His fruit is always good and it is wise to take his recommendations.

After the marché we were on our way to the bus stop. We didn’t need our umbrellas, but our glasses were covered with rain drops. We took the 8:40 bus to La Madeleine Center which is where a huge Carrefour Hypermarché is connected to a mall which has smaller shops. The rain stopped by the time we arrived. We had a lot of unusual things on our list like Brita water filter, specialized light bulb for our kitchen ceiling light, mixing bowl, and shower squeegee. We finished our shopping just as Darty (similar to Best Buy) opened at 10. Phil was looking for a small battery operated radio but couldn’t find one today.

Next we walked across the parking lot to “GoSports” (similar to Sports Authority) to look at athletic socks. Sandy had good luck searching for socks. Three pair of just slightly above the ankle socks were 6€.

Back to the bus stop. On one side of the street the wait was 15 minutes, on the other side of the street, the wait was 7 minutes. It doesn’t matter which direction we travel, since both bus lines end at the gate to Intra-Muros so we opted for a 7 minute wait.

After unloading everything we were off to Charley’s Bar for a coffee.

None of the individuals had put out their items for the second day of the braderie due to the early morning rain.

Sandy made a delicious BLT sandwich for our lunch today on a baguette. We wanted to mail a letter at the “post office” so walked in that direction at 3 pm.

flowers_36401235536_o

Flower beds near the Post Office.

The streets were jammed full of people! Since everything had dried out, people brought out their wares to sale. Next we stopped at the Hôtel de Ville (city hall) for yellow recycling bags. They are provided free of charge as they are in the USA. Afterwards we went to the harbor to see what was going on.  A small weather front was coming in across the bay from the direction of Dinard.  The clouds were low and threatening, but no rain developed.

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le mercredi 9 août 2017 – Wednesday August 9, 2017

Sandy noticed the brick missing as she left our building. There has always been one brick against the inside entry wall so people bringing luggage etc inside could keep the door from closing.

The forecast was for rain in the morning and clear in the afternoon. That’s not what happened! It was sunny until 9:45 then the clouds and rain moved in. Every time that the rain stopped, the street dried, and we decided it was okay to take a walk, the rain started again. The temperature dropped and stayed to just around 60 F for the remainder of the day and night. If Sandy hadn’t gone to buy our breakfast at 8:30, she wouldn’t have left the apartment for the entire day.

We think the neighbors from Paris who own the apartment at the top of our building arrived last night.

le jeudi 10 août 2017 – Thursday August 10, 2017

It was definitely cool when Sandy bought our breakfast. People are wearing what appears to be winter weight jackets. We took the bus to Rocabey to pick up a few items from Intermarche grocery store. When we buy Perrier it is heavy to bring home, so we try to buy it when there isn’t other weighty items. I also had a discount for a shower squeegee on the fidelity card so we picked that up too.

Next we walked to the marché to stop at the butcher. While we waited in line (lengthy today because of tourists in August) Sandy asked Phil if he’d eat any of the rillettes (rillettes are a preparation of meat similar to pâté) as an aperitif. His answer was he’d probably have to be intoxicated for it to happen. Rillettes are a preparation of meat or pork or poultry (goose, chicken) or fish (salmon, tuna, etc.), or even crustacean (crab for example), cooked long over low heat in the fat. Then the flesh filaments are easily detached and form “rillettes.” By cooling, the grease goes up. It looks like a large dish of cold, congealed, light gray in color mixture; formally referred to as “Brown Pig Jam”. Not appealing or appetizing to finicky eaters. We ordered a small pork tenderloin, two slices of ham for sandwiches, and a thick piece of ham to have with a sweet potato. His meat has such a delicious flavor, it’s always a treat to eat.

A visit to the wine shop in the afternoon to pick up a couple of bottles.

36485107655_34ec45406a_o

Sandy’s favorite white wine from the wine merchant – Cave de l’Abbaye Saint-Jean – 2 minutes from our apartment

After putting things away we enjoyed a coffee at Charley’s Bar. However, the temperature had dropped, now 57F, and we stayed less than an hour. At home, even Phil was cool enough to put on a fleece pull over.

le vendredi 11 août 2017 – Friday August 11, 2017

Sandy brought our breakfast croissants home and shopped at the marché for fruit and vegetables. Monsieur Alix advised her to try green plums today. They were delicious to eat with our lunch. We were out the door of our apartment by 9:20 to catch the bus for tutoring at Christine’s house. It is always entertaining at her house and we were tired after two hours of serious concentration. We had a few good laughs today when Sandy misunderstood one of Christine’s questions. She was soon straightened out.

P1010549

beautiful flower garden on our path to our French lesson

After lunch we walked to the quay where the 7 single engine boats participating in the VOR (Volvo Ocean Race). It is a race of 65 ft long single engine boats that are fully crewed. Beautiful boats!!

Volvo Ocean Race boats
Volvo Ocean Race boats
VOR boat instruments
VOR boat instruments
VOR boat profile
VOR boat profile

le samedi 12 août 2017 – Saturday August 12, 2017

The weather forecast is for 0% chance of precipitation and cloudy with a high of 19C or 66F. We walked to the harbor just at high tide (11 am) to see if the boats involved with the Volvo race were sailing. We watched several small birds, we don’t know what kind they are, dive into the sea, go completely underwater, then fly out of the water and away. They are fascinating to watch and since the tide was in, we could see the birds a few inches below the surface and through the water.   When we returned to the apartment we researched the diving birds.  They are “sterne_pierregarin” (a tern) and more information on them can be found at this link.

Sterne_pierregarin
Sterne_pierregarin
Sterne_pierregarin
Sterne_pierregarin

We also saw some new gulls wandering around the harbor.  They always look a little lost.

P1010584

Young gull

All 7 of the boats were waiting to go through the locks and the temperature began to cool off. Sandy walked back home for a heavier jacket for herself and a light jacket for Phil. She was back for maybe 2 minutes and it started to drizzle. Looking towards Dinard we could see the rain approaching. We headed for our apartment instead of a walk along the beach towards the Solider Tower.

In the afternoon we walked to the Plage Salbons (Salbons beach) area which is just south of the harbor.  It is a charming little area with a beach, boats, paths and cafes.

Sablons w/Intra-Muros in background
Sablons w/Intra-Muros in background
boats in Sablons with I-M in the background
boats in Sablons with I-M in the background
walk around the beach
walk around the beach

le dimanche 13 août 2017 – Saturday August 13, 2017

Today the weather is great.  Our challenge is we want to go to an outdoor marché which will be difficult to get to for us.  It is Sunday and the buses do not run frequently.  As it turns out we spent about 3 hours going and returning from the marché.  We only spent an hour at the marché.  The 3 hours of travel were really time spent mostly waiting for the buses.  There were severe delays and some buses just went missing.  Still it was an interesting and pretty place to visit.

P1010597

MARCHE DES CREATEURS DE ROTHENEUF Aire du Nicet – Avenue de la Varde

The marché is set right on the cliffs which descend to the ocean.  A really pretty area.

Aire du Nicet - Avenue de la Varde
Aire du Nicet – Avenue de la Varde
Aire du Nicet - Avenue de la Varde
Aire du Nicet – Avenue de la Varde
Aire du Nicet - Avenue de la Varde
Aire du Nicet – Avenue de la Varde
Aire du Nicet - Avenue de la Varde
Aire du Nicet – Avenue de la Varde
Aire du Nicet - Avenue de la Varde
Aire du Nicet – Avenue de la Varde

On our return to the apartment we met our neighbor from the top floor.  He was on his way out.  We had a nice little discussion and caught up on what was happening in his family.

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