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the week ending August 18, 2019 – la semaine se terminant le 18 août 2019

19 Monday Aug 2019

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lundi 12 août 2019 – Monday August 12, 2019

It rained harder yesterday than it had all summer. Today on our way to the boulangerie the streets smelled better. The city of Saint-Malo runs street sweepers daily and use hoses to spray off and wash offensive areas. They do a fairly good job and also empty all public waste receptacles 2-3 times a day. With all of the flowers and garden spots, the city looks very pretty all of the time. The temperature was quite cool today, 13C (55F).

After breakfast we decided to take a walk on the digue. It was a beautiful, sunny day and Sandy just grabbed her jacket as a last minute decision. It was fairly warm and just a little windy as we waited for the bus. We took the bus along the coast to the northern end of the digue and just wanted to walk back. Clouds were moving in from the ocean as we stepped off the bus. By the time we walked the two blocks from the bus stop to the beginning of the digue, it was sprinkling. The wind came up very suddenly, and it started to rain harder. We were wet in a few seconds, as was everyone else who was surprised by the change in weather. The forecast was for 0% chance of precipitation, partly sunny, and a high of 19C (66F). All of the way back we fought the wind to stay upright. It was cold! Sandy used a kleenex in her ears to try to block the wind and held her hood tightly underneath her chin. The rain lasted about 5 minutes, but the wind became stronger. We were walking right into it as it was coming from the southwest. We watched several interesting things on the beach, including a man getting ready to kite surf.

  • Kite surfer heading to the water carrying his kite and his board (hidden behind him).
  • Kite surfer has the kite in the air and is about to pick up his surf board which is to his left.

When we reached the south end of the digue we walked into the residential streets to avoid some wind. We both heard a noise as we walked by a driveway. Looking up, we spotted Geneviève, the lady boules player we had just met last week. She lived in the apartment building we just passed, and had been dumping her trash in the trash container. She talked to us for quite awhile. She is originally from Nancy, on the eastern part of France and had retired here 4 years ago. She lives with her partner and her apartment has a 10 m2 balcony where she can see the ocean. She said it is exceptional to watch the grand marée, the extremely high tides. Her nephew lives in Los Angeles, CA and is a member of the band Metallica! Pretty exciting information! Who knew our “take a walk” sort of morning would turn into such an interesting and revealing outing.

  • Pirate flag
  • interesting wind vane
  • Great looking house on the digue!
Gulls in the basin as we walked back to the apartment.

However, after reaching our apartment, we both discovered that we were so “wind blown” that we felt unbalanced. A nap fixed us up wonderfully.

mardi 13 août 2019 – Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Not as windy today, thank goodness. We walked to Saint-Servan to visit a boutique that sells art supplies. We wanted to buy a tube to mail our new pictures back to the USA, rather than try to bring them home on the plane. We looked up the opening hours online yesterday and they opened at 9h30. However, we did not think about the store closing for vacation. It was, and won’t reopen until Aug 19th. So, we walked back down the hill, across the bridge and the lock and watched a few boats come and go in the harbor. It started to sprinkle and we headed for home.

At the market, Monsieur Alix told Sandy that the strawberries were not any good and so he didn’t have any today. Too bad. They were still very tasty and nice as of last Friday.

mercredi 14 août 2019 – Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Again, chance of rain and it’s cool today. Sandy met with her tutor Christine this morning while Phil did a couple errands. Sandy tells Christine about everything she did for the week, in French of course! Christine had a tube she’d been saving and gave it to us. Mailing problem solved.

  • Flowers we …
  • see on…
  • the way to…
  • Christine’s house.

Both of us experienced an extremely busy and crowded bus ride home.

After lunch we took the bus to the Madeleine Center to buy a replacement light bulb for our ceiling light in the kitchen. It is a sort of special bulb and isn’t always easy to find. Again, the bus ride was crowded and long. The wind had also picked up and at 17h the steady wind was 30 mph and the gusts were blowing at 55 mph (NOT KPH).

jeudi 15 août 2019 – Thursday, August 15, 2019

Today was a holiday in France, the Assumption of Mary. The Assumption of Mary is a public holiday. It is a day off for the general population, and schools and most businesses are closed. Many businesses, offices, post office, and government buildings are closed. There is always a procession from the Cathedral to the statue of Mary above the gate at the Grand Porte. They hang banners and decorate with a lot of flowers. Since the holiday is a Thursday, many people turn it into a 4 day weekend and businesses are also closed on Friday.

On our way towards the bus stop, someone honked and waved at us. It was Jean-Louis J., our friend that owns the pottery boutique. We yelled “Bonjour” and waved.

We walked to Intermarche to pick up a few food items. Phil saw the boules player Guy at the cash register and stopped to say “Bonjour”.

We also walked through the Rocabey market and bought a small steak for dinner, a chicken breast, and some farce à tomato to make stuffed zucchini. Sandy purchased a small piece of Comté cheese, which is delicious on a salad.

Usually we take the bus on the way home because we have bags to carry or our cart to pull. Not today due to the holiday. The city buses are running on a Sunday-holiday schedule (about one bus every 45 minutes) making it difficult for tourists to get around. The wind was extremely strong on our return, making it difficult to walk. Glad it’s only a 15 minute walk.

In the afternoon we stopped to see if there was a boules game. No one was playing due to the holiday, strong winds, or lack of players. We watched the harbor for awhile. Philippe, the owner of the dog Gavroche, walked by and waved.

  • We think…
  • this gull…
  • was taking…
  • a bath…
  • and getting food…
  • in the 15 minutes he was in front of us.

Already today we had seen and spoken to more people we knew here than we do on a normal day in Holland, Michigan. We think it’s because everyone here walks so much more than in the USA. No car for us here.

vendredi 16 août 2019 – Friday, August 16, 2019

Cool and cloudy again. The weather reminds us that fall is approaching.

We walked on the beach from the Esplanade Saint-Vincent to the start of the digue. Lots of beach today as the tide was high two hours ago. We wanted to see if we could find the building that Genevieve lives in.

We walked home along the quay (docks) but the wind was still strong. The forecast is for very strong wind after 15h. After lunch we walked to the boules court. We were almost blown down and since there wasn’t a game, we headed back inside the walls. Too windy to be enjoyable near the water.

  • the Saint-Malo flag was flying above Fort National today, usually it is the French flag
  • This man has been painting this very large fishing vessel for a couple of weeks. That is quite an extension he has on his paint roller.

samedi 17 août 2019 – Saturday, August 17, 2019

Today is the celebration to honor the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Saint-Malo. There is a wreath laying ceremony and moment of silence at the Hôtel de Ville (city hall). There was a ceremony for all slain soldiers from both wars in the Rocabey section of Saint-Malo where the permanent war memorials are located.

We walked to the top of the Cite d’Alet where the largest Liberation Ceremony was held. The ceremony was at the Cite d’Alet section of Saint-Malo which was where the last German troops in Saint-Malo surrendered. Here was and still is the large WWII German bunker. Today and tomorrow, there is a “Camp” portraying the war with tents, equipment, vehicles, and many men dressed in French and American soldiers. The mayor of Saint-Malo and the US consul for the North West portion of France (the regions of Lower Normandy, Brittany, and Pays de la Loire) spoke and laid wreaths at the memorial. The national anthems for the UK, Canada, USA and France were played. Quite impressive.

We created a special blog for the 17 of August. You can find it at this link: 75th-anniversary-of-the-liberation-of-Saint-Malo.

At the Cite d’Alet there is a museum for the war years 39-45. We have been in the Museum before. It has many artifacts related to the German occupation. The Cite d’Alet itself is an ancient site. The Romans had a settlement there, so it has been part of much of our Western civilization, but not always good parts.

  • Bus stop at the Alet
  • medieval church description
  • Medieval church ruins at the Alet.
Us at the Alet.

dimanche 18 août 2019 – Sunday, August 18, 2019

We had a nice early afternoon walk on the digue and the beach today. The wind was a bit brisk, so after walking north on the digue away from Intra-Muros, we returned via a city street which was protected from the wind.

The waves were very pretty to watch this morning.

We got some good news when we got back to the Esplanade Saint-Vincent. The Bubble Guy was back! Bubble Guy (not his real name) was here last year. Today was his first appearance in Saint-Malo for 2019.

Bubble Guy was here last year. Today was his first appearance here in Saint-Malo for 2019.

We had a great mid-afternoon dinner at the B’Art à Thé. The restaurant was busy as usual. Phil had a pastis for his aperitif. It is an interesting French drink from the south eastern part of the country around Marseille.

  • Sandy’s Kir vin blanc with cassis in the background and Phil’s pastis in the foreground
  • Sandy’s torte of potatoes, bacon and onions in the background and Phil’s brandade of cod in the foreground (mashed potatoes and cod mixed together)
  • Sandy’s chocolate cake with caramel ice cream and Phil’s Fraisier, strawberry cake, in the foreground

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 July photos in France

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

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

13 Sunday Aug 2017

Posted by in août poster 2017 - August 2017 post

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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
odd items on sale
crowd at the braderie

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

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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
VOR boat instruments
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

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
boats in Sablons with I-M in the background
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

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.