Tags
alain, Astor, Bosnia and Herzegovina, bricorama, carrefour market, Croissants, DENMARK LICENSE PLATE, espresso, europa 2, Hebridean Princess, le charly's bar, le mole des noires, Nantucket Bakery, Place du Marché aux Légumes, plage du Sillon, Saint-Malo
If you want to see the album of our pictures from June 2018, you can click on this link, June 2018.
le lundi 23 juillet 2018 – Monday July 23, 2018
Sandy wore a jacket to shop for our breakfast. The temperature was 15C, 59F!
We walked to the post office to mail some postcards and stopped for an espresso at Le Charly’s Bar. The town was fairly quiet today. A lot of people in France have vacation during the month of August and will arrive next weekend.
our view while drinking coffee at Le Charly’s Bar
Sandy sent the mayor and the person in charge of city parking an email. The two green posts in front of our building needed to be fixed in cement again. Each year, people desperate for parking places wiggle the posts until they can be removed. So, each year they need to be repaired or we can’t get into the door of our apartment.
EUROPA 2 at anchorage in the harbor
le mardi 24 juillet 2018 – Tuesday July 24, 2018
We took the bus to Bricorama. Phil tried to buy piece of hardware to repair our kitchen curtain rods last week and they were out of stock. We were in luck! We stopped in at E.Leclerc to see if they had pineapple yogurt, which is Phil’s favorite flavor. They didn’t have the brand we usually buy, but the did have a “Mamie Nova” brand with pineapple and passion fruit. We spotted rhubarb flavor yogurt and bought it. We were back on the bus in less than an hour. Not bad for two stores, a few blocks to walk between them and the bus stop. While walking through the parking lost we spotted a license plate from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Very rare in Saint-Malo
Bosnia and Herzegovina license plate
Sandy stopped in at the boulangerie on the Grande Rue. She usually buys a baguette tradition from them but they were out. She tried a baguette campagnie (country)which was good. It was twice as long as a regular baguette. It resembled a light wheat colored interior that was very dense. Sandy liked the inside, but not the crust. The crust wasn’t as crisp as she likes. Good experiment. When we were just around the corner from our apartment building. Sandy almost came to a complete stop. She has a phobia of snakes. A small boy was sitting next to another building with what looked like a boa constrictor around his neck. At a slightly closer look, you could tell it was fake because one of his hands and an arm was inside the head, just like a puppet. Ugh!!
The weather was odd, even for Saint-Malo. It was a little cool on our way to the store, quite cool when we returned and completely cloudy. The forecast had been for sunny and 22C, 73F, but the temperature was 19C, 67F.
Around lunch time the sun came out and the wind slowed down. We walked to check out the boules court but there weren’t any games being played. We walked almost to the end of the Mole or breakwater and then sat in the shade. The temperature had really warmed up and now there was little breeze.
a beautiful view of the Intra-Muros from the Môle des Noires (breakwater)
le mercredi 25 juillet 2018 – Wednesday July 25, 2018
We shopped at Intermarche early in the morning. While on our walk back to the apartment we saw a license plate from Denmark, very rare for Saint-Malo.
Denmark license plate
After lunch, we walked in the water as the tide was coming in. We kept having to walk closer towards the shore to stay in ankle-deep water. We could feel a variety of water temperatures as we continued our walk. Both of us had slightly wet shorts as the waves kept splashing higher on our legs as we returned to our starting point. The high temperature was 24C.
Sandy posing in the shallow water during our walk
le jeudi 26 juillet 2018 – Thursday July 26, 2018
Today the forecast is for a high of 28C, 84F. VERY hot for Saint-Malo. Sandy opened all of the windows when she woke up to lower the temperature in our apartment before closing it up for the afternoon. There was very little breeze and it was from the east. Good thing we’re not still in Paris. The high temperature there today is 35C, 96F. Too hot to be in un-air conditioned buildings, buses, etc. After breakfast we took a walk before it warmed up. There was a ship, Hebridean Princess from Glasgow docked in the basin. Phil researched the price of this small ship. A 9 day cruise was priced at $6,500 per person.
Hebridean Princess docked in the basin
Hebridean Princess docked in the basin
Another cruise ship the Astor was anchored in the harbor.
cruise ship Astor at anchorage in the harbor
The Brittany Ferry was leaving on it’s day cruise to Portsmouth, UK and the Corsaire Ferries were traveling to Dinard and back. A group of tourists was aboard the Le Renard for a cruise around the nearby islands. A busy morning in the Saint-Malo harbor.
Le Renard leaving the harbor with a few crew of tourists
We stayed in our apartment in the afternoon because of the heat and the sun. Around 5 pm the sky filled with clouds and it started to rain. It rained off and on until around 7 pm. There were times when it was a downpour, and other times when it was just barely sprinkling. When it stopped, the temperature had dropped at least 8 degrees and everything appeared cleaner.
We walked to Chez Marcel and enjoyed a kebab sandwich on his terrace.
le vendredi 27 juillet 2018 – Friday July 27, 2018
The forecast is again for a hot day with a high of 28C. Sandy could have worn a jacket on her way to the boulangerie because it was only 17C, 65F. City workers were replanting the flowers in the flower beds in Place du Marché aux Légume. They had become trampled during the celebration when France won the World Cup on July 15th. Last chance to spruce up the flowers before all of the tourists arrive this weekend.
Later in the morning we took a walk on the breakwater called Le Môle des Noires.
Our walk on the breakwater resulted in this lovely photo of the Intra-Muros
An afternoon walk in the ocean was messy! There were a lot of sea weed type grass etc on parts of the beach. Since we walked just after low tide, we couldn’t get around the rocks near the Digue. There were lots and lots of tourists to walk through on our way home.
le samedi 28 juillet 2018 – Saturday July 28, 2018
Sandy wanted to buy milk and grenadine at our local Carrefour. Since she dislikes walking through hordes of tourists not knowing where they’re going, she stopped in at 8:30 am on her way to the boulangerie. No tourists in either the streets or the store.
We walked in the ocean at noon today. High tide was at 8:30 am and low tide at 14:30. The water was crystal clear and we didn’t see any sea weeds or grass. We walked around the rocks, through the water and turned around at the Digue.
the tide was out – small waves coming in – clear beach – clear water
The wind was very strong from the southwest. Our laundry hanging on the balcony was dry within two hours.
A side note – anyone wanting to sample authentic, or at least very close to authentic, French croissants can visit the Nantucket bakery in Grand Rapids, MI. They are as close to any we or our son Michael have had in the USA. Michael was at Nantucket bakery 2 days after returning from Paris. He taste tested their French croissants while the memory of real French croissants was fresh in his mind and taste buds. Almost identical!
The beach we walk on, Plage du Sillon has been awarded the Travelers Choice Award in 2018 as the Plus Belle Plage de France on TripAdvisor. Guess we really do have good taste in beaches!
After lunch we walked to the boules court and said hello to Alain. We took our chairs and tried to sit by the harbor but the wind was very strong. After about 15 minutes, we’d had enough wind and headed for home.
the strong winds were great for the gulls – just gliding on the currents
le dimanche 29 juillet 2018 – Sunday July 29, 2018
29 July Sunday – It was raining when Sandy shopped for our breakfast. She shopped at Maison du Pain just a few steps away from our building to avoid getting wet.
With the weather being iffy, we settled in for a day of reading and working on a puzzle.
