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Tag Archives: Paramé

the week ending July 21, 2019 – la semaine se terminant le 21 juillet 2019

22 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by philipdenotto in 2019-France

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

"A.R.C. GLORIA", "giant balloons", "pirate flag", azzura, braderie, cherry picker, COLOMBIA, e leclerc, kevano, MHM, orangina, Paramé, Place du Marché aux Légumes, rocabey, Saint-Servan

lundi 15 juillet 2019 – Monday July 15, 2019

Spectacular fireworks last night, the 14th, with thousands of viewers, music, and entertainment. (cool enough for even Phil to wear a jacket and comment on how cool it was). It was very quiet this morning. Lovely to have been able to FACETIME with Michael yesterday afternoon. He looks good and so does the cat. He’s had quite a busy summer with a lot of traveling so he couldn’t make it here this year. Hopefully, next year he will make a visit.

We needed to buy milk and wanted to take a walk along the seawall (digue in French). We walked to the Courtoisville Carrefour Market through town because the wind was blowing very strong on the digue. This market is bigger than our Intra-Muros Carrefour City and busier.

  • the AZZURA, from Vail Colorado, strange since Vail is in the mountains
  • just a nice flag
  • Children’s play area flying the PIRATE flag.

We returned along the digue where many people were enjoying the beautiful, clear day. A wonderful 5 kilometer walk!

mardi 16 juillet 2019 – Tuesday, July 16, 2019

We were up early and out of our apartment before 7h45 am today. The ship “A.R.C. Gloria” from Columbia was scheduled to arrive in Saint-Malo between 8h and 9h. ARC stands for “Armada Nacional de la República de Colombia.” The ship was built in 1967. It is 76 meters long and 10 meters wide, and is the training ship of the Colombian Navy.

From the Saint-Malo tourism site: “At the arrival ceremony, which will begin at 8h at the breakwater at the entrance of the port, the ship will deploy a giant flag of Colombia and will shoot 19 shots greeting gun. Visitors will be able to tour the boat docked, from 16 to 19 July.”

There were probably at least a hundred people waiting with us on the breakwater to view the ship. The ship had a huge Colombian flag at its stern. As the ship entered the harbor, we counted the 19 cannon shots and Colombian music played from the A.R.C. Gloria. It was very interesting to watch and listen to. We recorded the arrival of the A.R.C. Gloria in the video below. Be sure your audio volume is not muted.

Watch the A.R.C. GLORIA entering the harbor, playing Colombian music.

It was quite impressive as sailors were standing on all five levels of the masts and dressed in each color of the Colombian flag; yellow, blue and red.

  • A.R.C. Gloria with sailors standing on the yardarms.
sailors on the yardarms (spars) - 1 red, 1 blue, 4 yellow - Notice the sailor at the very top of the mast.
sailors on the yardarms (spars) – 1 red, 1 blue, 4 yellow – Notice the sailor at the very top of the mast.

In the afternoon, an organization that features local products was in Saint-Malo. The organization, their staff, and van travel Brittany and stop at a different locale each day. We’d wanted to see their display last year but missed it. We waited in line for about 10 minutes in order to “spin the wheel” to see if we won a prize. Sandy spun the wheel and landed on “KEVANO” which is from the Breton language and translates to “Au revoir” in French which then translates in English to “Sorry, you didn’t win.” Phil’s spin landed on “Suprise!” He had a choice of three different prizes, all from this area. First offer was a can of beef tongue, second was a glass jar of fish soup, and the third, which we chose was a 1 liter carton of milk from the Saint-Malo dairy. Everyone received a “goody bag” with a bag of Breizh chips, a Madeleine (cookie), a sticker, and a key chain. Certainly worth the 10 minute wait in line. We’ll be sure to stop again next year.

  • Sandy did not win a prize.
  • Phil did win a prize.

In the evening, we had invited our friends Jean-Louis and Claudine for an apéritif. This is a normal way in France to have friends to your house around 18h, but not prepare a meal. We served roasted chicken rillette on small slices of bread, Boursin cheese on bread with raisins on top, tapenade noire (black olive paste with anchovies) on bread, peanuts, dried fruit mix, fresh strawberries, fresh cherry tomatoes, cubes of cheese (flavored with tomatoes, ham, blue cheese), sesame crackers, and ham rolled around cheese. If the snacks are plentiful, and they were, this is a substitute for an early dinner. We spent a very enjoyable two hours with them with tentative plans to meet them at a restaurant before we leave in August.

mercredi 17 juillet 2019 – Wednesday 17 July 2019

Sandy likes to program our washer at night so the laundry is ready to hang on the line by the time she’s out of the shower in the morning. She feels lucky to have a machine that is a combination washer and dryer as most people here only have a washer. She prefers to hang clothes on the line on our balcony or extra bedroom, but uses the dryer for towels or when it’s not a good day to dry. Today, everything was on the line by 8h30.

After breakfast we waited in line for 10 minutes to board the ship A.R.C Gloria from Colombia. We were amazed at how high the rigging really is when standing on the deck. The sailors standing at attention yesterday along the sails, as it entered the locks, do NOT have a fear of heights!

  • The masts and yardarms
  • Sandy and Phil on the A.R.C. GLORIA

Next we walked to the temporary Musée d’Histoire Maritime (MHM) of Saint-Malo. The old silos along the docks were torn down and a new museum is being constructed in their place. The projected completion of the project is 2022, two years before the Olympics take place in Paris. We had a private tour of the proposition, photos, and explanation of the plan. It will be beautiful when finished! There was also a 5 minute video to explain the project.

Sandy by a drawing of how the MHM museum will look in 2022 when it opens.

Sandy loved the folding chairs they provided while watching the film. Very comfortable!!. She is sure they are just the right chairs we need at FUMC in Holland, lightweight and fold-able.

the comfortable chairs

jeudi 18 juillet 2019 – Thursday 18 July 2019

It was cloudy, cool with a chance of showers this morning.

In the afternoon Phil shopped at the E.Leclerc hypermarché while Sandy met with her French tutor Christine. He was still able to buy rhubarb yogurt and pineapple yogurt, our very favorite flavors!

Later in the afternoon we took a walk to the beach. The city was having a “sand and wind” afternoon on the beach. There were giant kites of green fish, orange fish, a hammerhead shark with its baby behind it, and a school of fish. There had originally been an octopus, but he was deflated so there must have been issues with it. The headline in the Ouest-France newspaper for this event was “Flying Fish in the Saint-Malo heaven.”

  • hammerhead balloon
  • fish balloon
  • hammerhead baloon
  • many small fish kites
  • fish balloons

vendredi 19 juillet 2019 – Friday 19 July, 2019

Sandy bought deux cents grammes de haricots verts, 200 grams of green beans, at our market. The green beans here are consistently very thin, with almost nothing to stem. You only have to cook the green beans for 5 minutes to have them al dente (slightly crisp). It took Sandy a few years to be able to order food in grams, but now she knows how to ask.

Haricot Vert – Green Bean

We also purchased another bouquet of flowers from the florist. We asked the name, can’t remember it now, but the red appears to be small fruit instead of flowers. Very pretty though.

bouquet from the florist in the Intra-Muros marché

We walked to Saint-Servan marché to buy meat from the butcher and cheese from the fromagerie. We asked for cent cinquante grammes de fromage emmental râpé (150 grams of shredded emmental cheese-similar to Swiss but a little milder). This was the first time to purchase cheese at the market. In the past, we bought it at the grocery store. Getting braver!

The young lady assistant was back at the butcher. She not been there the last week or so. She said she’d been sick and pointed to her stomach. Doing much better now. She is very nice and practices her English with Sandy.

We took the bus from the Saint-Servan neighborhood of Saint-Malo to Rocabey neighborhood to get a couple of items at the Intermarché. We then walked home along the basin. We walked a little over 5 kilometers on this little excursion to two different parts of Saint-Malo.

samedi 20 juillet 2019 – Saturday July 20, 2019

Today was the day of the Grande Braderie de Paramé. We took the bus to Paramé and planned to walk home. After attending for several years, we know that the bus route to Paramé has a detour and it’s easier to walk home along the digue. Over 250 individuals and small, local business owners set up tables and stands for their annual flea market. It was packed as usual. We didn’t buy anything, but spent over an hour looking at a lot of stuff!

  • crowd at the Paramé braderie
  • crowd at the Paramé braderie

On the way back to the apartment, we stopped along the Boulevard Rochebonne at a boulangerie to have a croissant and drink an Orangina. We ate our snack at a table in front of the boulangerie. After our snack we continued down the street toward the digue and the ocean. We walked home along the digue and enjoyed the sounds and sights of the high tide.

The total trip was over 9000 steps and we were tired when we climbed our 34 stairs.

After a rest we walked to the Place du Marché aux Legumes and the restaurant B’Art à Thé for lunch. This is the new restaurant we had dinner at last week. We each tried a different dish and loved everything we had, including a wonderful chocolate, hazelnut dessert. Wow!

  • bruschetta and a torte
  • chocolate cake & ice cream

Late in our afternoon we got a text from our son Michael. The electricity is off in his part of Grand Rapids and was not expected to be back on until Sunday night. So he and his cat Kima are having a little vacation at our apartment in Holland. Glad to accommodate them!

dimanche 21 juillet 2019 – Sunday July 21, 2019

Today we took the bus to a flea market (braderie or vide grenier (attic cleanout)) which was held in the neighborhood of the Saint-Malo Hospital. Our friend Alain is one of the organizers of the vide grenier and he also works at the refreshment stand.

When we got back to the apartment there was a bit of excitement on our street. A person in the building next to us had fallen ill and an ambulance had been called to get him to the hospital. The ambulance staff were unable to get the man down the stairs so the fire department had to be called. They used one of their trucks which has a cherry picker to get a stretcher through a window into the 3rd floor apartment. The man was strapped into the stretcher and the fireman in the cherry picker lowered him to the ground. From there the ambulance took him to the hospital. We hope he is okay.

  • firemen getting the cherry picker ready
  • cat watching the cherry picker
  • the cherry picker maneuvering into position

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

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the week ending July 7, 2019 – la semaine se terminant le 7 juillet 2019

08 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by philipdenotto in 2019-France

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

alain, argentina, bagpipes, bise, celtics, Christine, complet, comte, denise, folklores du monde, fromagerie, ghana, gilles, goeland, gull, Intra-Muros, Italy, jardiland, jersey, kazakhstan, mapmywalk, Paramé, parc des chênes, pineapple, Place du Marché aux Légumes, plage de Rochebonne, rocabey, Saint-Servan, schweppes, serbia, sweet potato, tax shelter, torino

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lundi 1 juillet 2019 – Monday July 1, 2019

Sandy wore a jacket to walk to the boulangerie since the temperature was 15C (59F). The city was quiet and it appeared that many of the visitors from the weekend had departed.

As we left our apartment building we saw a new sea gull (goéland). It still had a lot of downy feathers. When they are ready to leave the nests, which are often on the rooftop of buildings, the parents literally push them over the edge. We have seen them flutter their way to the ground in previous years. They don’t learn to fly for a few weeks after leaving the nest. They are spotted brown in color for two years until they fully mature.

new gull

We continue to have problems with car drivers removing the parking posts around our building. Today we took copies of photos showing damaged or missing posts, including the street addresses to the Hôtel de Ville (city hall). We talked to the lady at the reception desk for several minutes. She was very sympathetic. She tried to phone the people she thought would be responsive to our request for repairs, but no one was available. She told us she’d pass on our request.

Next we purchased bus passes for the month of July and headed to Jardiland to look at plants for our new planters. We took photos of several and will talk to our friends about the possibilities.

We took the bus halfway back and walked back on the beach. Our return walk was over 6 kilometers – a great walk. In the afternoon we were invited to Denise and Gilles’ apartment. They served a variety of cookies, peach flavored Coca-Cola, Schweppes agrumes (citrus flavored) and Badoit sparkling water. We enjoyed their conversation and friendship. They return to Paris on Wednesday and don’t plan to return to Saint-Malo until September when it is quiet.

mapmywalk map of our return from Paramé – 3.72km

mardi 2 juillet 2019 – Tuesday, July 2, 2019

On our walk back from buying our breakfast croissants, we passed Charlie’s Bar and spotted the waitress named Sophie setting up chairs for the day. This bar is just up the sidewalk-staircase behind our apartment building which leads to the Place du Marché aux Légumes. It’s one of the nicest tree lined spots in Intra-Muros (in the walls) for people watching, or enjoying a beverage. The last two years we loved having a coffee break there. Two years ago, a wonderful waitress named Sophie worked daily and knew our order by heart. Last year Sophie wasn’t working. When we spotted her today she recognized us immediately. We asked her where she was last year. She told us she’d had a baby and in France, paid maternity leave is for one year. The baby was now old enough to leave at the crèche (daycare) and she was back at work.

We picked up fruit at our local market and bought a sweet potato (patate douce) for dinner. It is bright purple on the outside and yellow on the inside. We also bought a box of Gariguette strawberries. They have a distinctive shape and are delicious!

Next we wanted to walk to Saint-Servan to go to the butcher. We had to wait a few minutes for the sliding bridge to close before we could walk across it. We watched 3 sail boats enter the lock (écluse) before we continued our walk. The butcher had a new assistant today (too bad) but the line wasn’t too long. While Phil waited in line, Sandy looked at the many other stalls inside the building. At the fromagerie (cheese shop) she saw Comté cheese which we like. It came in 3 different prices and lengths of aging. The least expensive had been aged 12 months, next in increasing price had been aged 24 months, with the most expensive being aged 30 months. All three of the pieces looked similar to her.

mapmywalk map of our walk to Saint-Servan and the return – 5.61km

After lunch we watched a boules game. We talked to Alain about Denise returning to Paris tomorrow and told him to knock on our door when he arrived. We’ll help carry their luggage downstairs. A large group of students, about middle school aged, arrived to watch the boules game. The players actually let almost every student try to throw at least one ball. The boules players all agreed that this game didn’t count towards their score.

mercredi 3 juillet 2019 – Wednesday 3 July 2019

We were up early to do some grocery shopping. We walked to the bus, took the bus for 2 stops, walked to the Intermarché grocery store, completed our shopping and returned to our apartment all in an hour. On our way to the store, we spotted 3 new goéland (seagulls). Usually there is only one or two that survive to get pushed from the nest.

Three new gulls crossing the parking lot by the Post Office in Rocabey.

While buying canned pineapple today to go with a slice of ham, we learned that canned pineapple in France comes from both Thailand and the Philippines. There wasn’t much difference in price, but the label clearly states where the pineapple comes from. Is it the same in the USA? The store wasn’t crowded and our list wasn’t too large. At 11h, Alain arrived to take Denise and Gilles to the train station. They are returning to Paris today. We were so glad to see them and enjoyed our visits. They don’t plan to return to Saint-Malo until September, after we have departed. Sandy washed windows inside and outside in our bedroom, kitchen, and the shower room. At least the first few layers of salt and dust have been removed.

A taxi from Torino (Turin) Italy parked in front of our building today. It was probably just the owner of the taxi and wife coming here for a visit. Otherwise it was an expensive taxi ride, 693 miles, 1,115 kilometers.

the I on the left side of the license plate is for Italy – the silver plate on the bumper is his taxi medallion from Torino (Turin)

After lunch we watched the boules game for awhile. One of the players congratulated us on the USA women’s football (soccer) win over the French. A lady, Yvonne, shook our hands and said bonjour, and another player, Josette, said bonjour. Another player Philippe, who owns the little white dog named Gavroche, talked to Phil for a few minutes. It’s nice to be acknowledged.

We took a walk on the beach at low tide and came across hundreds of crab shells. We try not to disturb sea creatures on the beach. Some of the crabs had been turned upside down and were empty. They must have been caught between tides. The wind was very strong, over 20 kilometers per hour so we didn’t tarry.

low tide exposes many rock outcroppings which the gulls frequent

This is the week of the Folklores du Monde. Six countries are invited here to entertain and share their native music and dance. There is a parade through the Intra-Muros each day at 18h. We watched groups from Ghana, Serbia, and Kazakhstan sing, play instruments, and dance. Highly entertaining! It was almost impossible to hear anything over the music.

jeudi 4 juillet 2019 – Thursday 4 July 2019

Happy Fourth of July USA! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

We walked to Rocabey to buy meat from the butcher and look at the plants in the outdoor area of the market. The flower vendor had quite a few geraniums so we bought 3 to put into our new boxes.

on our walk to Rocabey to buy meat we saw this fine looking sailing ship

Around lunch time the man Phil had hired to clean out our cave (basement storage area) arrived with a helper. They quickly cleaned up the old straw, bags, and other remains from the previous owner.

Sandy left for tutoring and shopping with Christine at 13h20. When she arrived at the bus stop, our neighbor Jean-Michel was there. They greeted each other and Sandy offered her hand to shake as they had in previous times. He said no, “bise” meaning let’s kiss on our cheeks, so he’s officially our friend.

After two hours of French conversation and lessons, Christine took Sandy to Jardiland to purchase our plants. Christine bought a new car in April. It has air conditioning, a sun roof, automatic transmission (almost unheard of here) and it’s a hybrid. It’s a Toyota Yaris and much bigger than her previous car. Very nice. At Jardiland Christine talked to the employees and made sure the plants Sandy had in mind were tolerant of the winter here and would do well in boxes. We loaded up Christine’s car and were on our way home.

Phil met us at the apartment door and he and Sandy carried the plants up using a giant IKEA blue bag.

The city repairmen weren’t quite finished repairing the parking posts. But since we just notified the city of the problems on Monday their presence today was a good sign.

city workers repairing the parking post by our building

For dinner, Sandy heated the rest of the ham steak with the pineapple from Thailand. Very tasty.

vendredi 5 juillet 2019 – Friday 5 July, 2019

Any early visit to the marché right by the apartment building for fruit and vegetables.

  • the fruit and veg tables
  • the fruit and veg tables
  • the fruit and veg tables
  • the fruit and veg tables

After the marché Sandy put the plants into the boxes. Several people stopped on the street and told us how nice they looked. Even the man sweeping litter from the street stopped to help her sweep up the spilled dirt and said in English “green looks good here”. Let’s hope they last. Too bad we didn’t buy a sprinkling can. Taking water up and down in half liter discarded water bottles takes a long time.

  • Sandy – plants – flowers
  • Sandy – plants – flowers
  • Sandy – plants – flowers
  • plants – flowers
  • our front door – plants – flowers

samedi 6 juillet 2019 – Saturday July 6, 2019

The boxes look good this morning and do brighten up our doorway. Phil made meatballs this morning. Delicious!

In the afternoon we watched the boules game for a few minutes then took a nice long walk on the beach. It’s sunny and 23C (73F) and the beach had more people on it than we’d seen this year. All of the parking lots were “complet” (full) so there must be a lot of people around.

the large underground parking area which holds about 500 cars is full – complet

In the basin there are a lot of boats from Jersey. They are usually very large cabin cruisers and sail boats. This is one of them.

You might wonder why the tiny island of Jersey, with a population of 100,000, has so many luxury boats. Well it is because Jersey is one of the top FOUR tax havens in the world. There are a lot of wealthy people stashing their money in Jersey.

💰€💲TAX HAVENS WITH A HISTORY OF BRITISH RULE – QUITE A LEGACY 💰€💲

dimanche 7 juillet 2019 – Sunday July 7, 2019

Today was the final day of the Folklores du Monde. They always hold a grand parade of nations from the Rochebonne beach to the Parc Des Chênes where they each will give a final performance. We’ve attended the final performance a few times but never the parade.

WOW! We watched the almost hour long parade today. You know “you’re not in Kansas” any longer. Very interesting hearing all of the bagpipes, horns, seeing the various costumes and enjoying the humor of others. Interesting to note, as in Holland, MI, where costumes include wooden shoes, some Bretagne groups also wore wooden shoes. However, big difference here was the wooden shoes were trimmed and appeared to be lined in black leather. They also had heals and the toes curled up similar to shoes worn by Jesters. Since this area of France was settled by Celtics, bagpipe playing is popular.

  • Argentina
  • Kazakhstan
  • Ghana
  • Serbia

We loved the parade and walked home along the digue (sea wall) since it was high tide and the beach was under the water. A wonderful three and a half hour trip!

How to find all our photos from our visit France, June 9 through June 30.

You can view the album of photos by clicking on the following link. It will open in a new browser window with the photos.

Click here for all the June pictures in France

How to find all our photos from our visit to La Roseraie Sainte-Anne

You can view the album of photos by clicking on the following link. It will open in a new browser window with the photos.

Click here for pictures of La Roseraie Saint-Anne

How to find our photos from our visit to Paris on June 10, 11, 12, 13, 2019

You can view the album of photos by clicking on the following link.  It will open in a new browser window with the photos.

Click here for the pictures in Paris

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