Tag Archives: jardinland

21 mai à Saint-Malo – May 21 in Saint-Malo

21 Saturday May 2016

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Saturday May 21, 2016 the forecast is for a high temperature of 20 C but little sun.  Today is a number 3 bus day.

Sandy bought a new patisserie for breakfast today.  It was a creme patissiere pepite chocolat.  It was croissant dough, nice and flaky, light creme filled with melted chocolate chips.  Delicious! 27154282035_9a041a46a8_o

After breakfast we took the number 3 bus to Courtoisville, a new (to us) area of Saint-Malo.  One of the public elementary schools were holding their annual rummage sale.  Looking and reading at signs related to clothing items, sizes, prices, and listening to conversation is good for Sandy as well as enjoyable.  It was held outdoors and there were at least 40 venders.  We didn’t buy anything but it was interesting to browse.

We retraced out steps back to the number 3 bus to continue farther out-of-town towards the E.Leclerc Shopping Center area.  We needed to go to Jardinland which is a huge garden center.  They have plants, landscaping materials, outdoor furniture, and gifts.  We were looking for chairs to leave on our balcony.  We didn’t find what we were looking for and walked into Bricorama, next door to look for chairs. They didn’t have anything we cared for so we walked across the street to E.Leclerc.  Again, they didn’t have what we wanted so we caught the number 3 bus back towards home.

We stopped at the Paramé Mairie on the way back.  They were holding a “free trade” show and sale.  We tasted some 80% chocolate but didn’t buy anything.  Finally it was time to return. We walked to the bus stop and sat on a bench waiting for the bus.  While we were waiting, it turned 12 noon.  The clock in the building behind us struck its bell and startled Sandy.  She jumped just a little. After a couple of minutes we caught the number 3 bus back towards Intra-Muros.

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Bell (very top of the picture) that made Sandy jump just a little bit

When we got back to the esplanade Saint-Vincent, we decided to have lunch at La Pie Qui Boit.  You can certainly tell there were few tourists in town because so many restaurants were not busy.  You could actually walk down the main street without any difficulty. Phil had an Orangina to drink and it came in the usual glass bottle, but it came with an official Orangina glass.  The glass had an anthropomorphic female giraffe sipping an Orangina.  Apparently Orangina ran a lengthy advertising campaign with anthropomorphic animals.

Orangina
Orangina giraffe

We enjoyed lunch outdoors on the terrace.  They were actually busy with two large tables of British tourists.  Nino the black lab sat right near Sandy as he remembered she had given him a taste of her lunch in the past.  For dessert we shared a crepe filled with conficture de Citron.  It was tart and sweet at the same time.  Very tasty!

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Took the picture when we were almost done with the crepe au citron.

April 5 in Saint-Malo – 5 avril à Saint-Malo

05 Tuesday Apr 2016

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Tuesday April 5th, 2016 was the first day of  our French language class.  We left our apartment at 9:20 am and returned at 17:20 or 5:20 pm.  We are having our class at Christine’s house. The bus ride to Christine’s house in the Paramé district of Saint-Malo is only 15 minutes, including a bus transfer at the gare.  The French lesson was 2 hours and during that time Christine used only 1 or 2 English words.  That is just what we wanted. Next lesson is Thursday.  We did get homework.  🙁

After our two-hour class, we walked back to Paramé center.  On the walk back, we went past a beautiful little church called Eglise St.Malo de Paramé. There was a war memorial in front of the church.  A very normal thing to see in France.  With the massive number of deaths in World War I, it seems like every French village was affected.  Click on the pictures to enlarge and on the WWI table to see the stats.  Over 1.3 million Frenchmen died in WWI with over  6 million casualties. In contrast 116,000 Americans were killed with over 320,000 casualties.

church
war memorial
WW 1 stats

From the Paramé center we took the bus to the E.Leclerc shopping center. Sandy was meeting her friend Claudine there at 14:30 and there wasn’t enough time to go home and return.  We had lunch in the E.Leclerc cafeteria.  We stood in line almost 20 minutes.  Sandy had a croque monsieur sandwich and Phil had baked chicken and fries.  The price for both of these was 9 euros.  The cafeteria was offering a complete lunch with your choice of 9 salads, a main dish such as pork chops and rice, bread, dessert, and a soft drink for less than 9 euros.  There were many people eating the complete lunch.

After lunch Phil walked across the street to take care of some business with the water company and the government tax office.  The two offices are across the street from E.Leclerc and only about 100 feet from each other.  With the water company, we had to get information so we could logon to their website to review our bills and understand our usage.  Also changed our mailing address to the France address rather than the USA address.  With the tax people, it was just to change the mailing address to the France address rather than the USA address.  It took a total of 15 minutes to get both errands completed.  Not bad for a country that is known for its bureaucracy.

After lunch Sandy looked around the E.Leclerc store.  Claudine arrived and was greeting Sandy just as Christine walked in the store.  Sandy introduced them and they talked for a few minutes.  Christine was there to buy some items for her garden.

Claudine gave Sandy advice on buying cheese, ready-made tart and pie crusts, meat, and other food.  They enjoyed an espresso after shopping. It was a gorgeous sunny day with the high temperature around 15 C or 60 F.

While Sandy was in E.Leclerc, Phil walked over to the Jardinland store.  It is a large garden store.  The task was to look for chairs and a table which would fit on our small balcony.  There were some possibilities, so maybe we’ll come back on Thursday.

After Jardinland Phil walked over to Bricorama which is like an Ace Hardware store, not as big as a Lowes or Home Depot, but still a large store.  Here he ran into Christine again.  She did not find what she was looking for at E.Leclerc, so she had been looking at Bricorama, but again had no luck.  Phil mentioned to her to look at Jardinland and that is where she was headed.  At Bricorama Phil bought a smoke detector and a household fire extinguisher.

On the walk back from the bus stop to our apartment we stopped in at the tabac/presse store to say hello to the proprietor and buy a newspaper.

We had left the apartment at 9:20 and returned at 17:20.  Long day out and about.

All our pictures for April in Saint-Malo France can be viewed at 2016-04 April in Saint-Malo on Flickr.  They will open in a separate window.

All our pictures for March in Saint-Malo France can be viewed at 2016-03 March in Saint-Malo on Flickr.  They will open in a separate window.