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Tag Archives: Place du Marché aux Légumes

the week ending September 1, 2019 – la semaine se terminant le 1 septembre 2019

02 Monday Sep 2019

Posted by philipdenotto in 2019-France

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

azamara journey cruise ship, backroads bicycle tours, boulangerie, butcher, cdgval, delta, digue, door handles, genevieve, guy, hotel quic-en-groigne, jean-louis j, La Fournee Malouine, monsieur alix, museum of poop, paramé marché, Place du Marché aux Légumes, plage du mole, Porte Saint-Louis, rennes, restaurant, riviera cruise ship, toulouse

This is our last week in Saint-Malo for this year. Mixed emotions as usual.

lundi 26 août 2019 – Monday August 26, 2019

in addition to the marmot entertainment on France3, we are often highly amused at several French television programs. France5 has shows which are considered documentaries but often their content is very funny and/or peculiar. We always watch the shows in the French language with French subtitles to help with comprehension.

A show titled “Les trains, pas comme les autres” (The trains, not like the others) features an extremely friendly presenter name Philippe. He visits various countries around the world. The trains, train stations, passengers, local sites and cultures are featured throughout the show in a very casual way. We always learn something or see new places from watching the show. Last night England was the featured destination. The presenter took a ferry to the Isle of Wight. The presenter interviewed two local men who were searching the countryside of the island for animal poo. We’re thinking they are scientists studying something interesting. That would have been funny and quite bizarre. However they are founders of the Museum of Poo, which is really funny and bizarre. The museum is housed in a former public restroom still complete with urinals where they display many varieties of poo! The Official Poo Website is a bit different. Peculiar for sure! The presenter, Philippe, was laughing during most of this portion of the show. Not surprising.

Another show, “J’irai dormir chez vous.” (I’ll go to your house and sleep.) features an even more amusing presenter. This presenter, Antoine, walks around with a couple of video cameras. One is mounted on his shoulder at about head height. He does the show on his own when visiting countries. He does a lot of walking and introduces himself to local people. After talking to them he asks if he can sleep at their house. He has been housed in sheds, dilapidated houses, caves, tents, and other odd places. He carries his own sleeping bag and always wears red shirts. One episode was about the washing and wearing of his shirts. Wearing the same color means never having to decide what to wear and is easier when doing laundry. No whitening additive needed. He has visited Peru, Bolivia, Indonesia, Albania, and many island nations. We have learned a lot about other cultures from watching this show.

Sandy began to organize our apartment for the winter. She seals any dry food products (rice, pasta, risotto etc) in glass or plastic containers until next year. She places scented clothes dryer sheets inside linens, clothing or anything soft so they don’t retain any musty odors over the winter. While we leave our heat set very low, it is seldom cold enough for it to turn on.

At the boules game Phil talked to Geneviève and told her we would invite her and her partner Guy for an aperitif next year. They exchanged email addresses and she said they’d look forward to a visit.

Phil spent much of the day replacing the handles on all the doors in the apartment. No door knobs in Europe, only handles.

  • New door handles – much more modern in style

mardi 27 août 2019 – Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Sandy wished Michel, Monsieur Alix’s son, a good year and told him au revoir pour cettee année, goodbye for this year.

We had our last hair cut for this year and told the stylist the same thing. She said she looked forward to seeing us next year.

Our neighbor below, from Toulouse, stopped us on the stairway and talked for a few minutes. This was the longest conversation we’ve had with her in the 8 years we’ve been coming here. She asked where we were from and was surprised when we told her the USA. (Most people think we are English.) She also didn’t know that Jean, our neighbor on the 4th floor, had died last year.

At the boules game this afternoon, Geneviève said we’d exchange “bise”. We are officially friends if we greet each other with a kiss on both cheeks. Sandy sat between Pierre and Josette during the game and they chatted a little with each other. Alain told us he’s planning to visit Denise in Paris sometime in the next two weeks. He has a couple of medical things to correct before he can head off to Paris.

After the boules game we went to the Mole and saw the RIVIERA cruise ship in the harbor.

  • Flower garden by the Porte Saint-Louis on our way to the Mole.
  • The Plage du Mole had quite a lot of people but only a few in the water.
  • MS_Riviera

mercredi 28 août 2019 – Wednesday, August 28, 2019

We took the bus to the Paramé marché to buy two pork chops. We also wanted to tell the butcher and his assistant goodbye for this year. His assistant told us they are starting their two week vacation this Sunday. She told us she’d see us next spring.

We walked back on the digue, almost 5 kilometers and it was so pleasant with a lot less tourists. The tide was out a long way and it was hazy and cloudy. A lovely day to be out anyway.

  • Low tide on the beach by the digue on our way back to the apartment.

In the afternoon we took a walk on the mole and a new cruise ship was in the harbor, the Azamara Journey. As the tourist crowds go down toward the end of August, more cruise ships usually start showing up in the harbor.

  • AZAMARA JOURNEY CRUISE SHIP

jeudi 29 août 2019 – Thursday, August 29, 2019

After breakfast we told Marie-Dominique and Michel, owners of the Hôtel Quic-en-Groigne, good bye for this year. Michel was on his way to meet with his mother to help her choose someone that will help her clean etc in her apartment.

We stopped in the street and had quite a good talk with Madame Yvonne (boules observer). She told us the players Philippe, and Lillian were on vacation this week. Her son will come from Rennes to pick her up and take her back in September. She said she plans to return next April. We told her we’d see her this afternoon on the boules terrain.

Next we stopped at Jean-Louis J’s pottery shop to tell him good bye. He wished us a good trip and a good winter.

It was an interesting morning full of French conversations.

Sandy continued cleaning, sorting, and putting things away for the winter. Our cabinets and refrigerator are pretty bare!

At the boules game, Jean-Yves arrived towards the end of the game with his little dog. Another player had to leave early, and Jean-Yves took his place. Geneviève, and Sandy watched the dog and kept him from getting hit with the balls. He is very cute, very spoiled, and tiny.

We bid Alain good bye for the year and thanked him for everything he does for us. He confirmed with Sandy to leave the mail on the small kitchen table and dispose of the publicity.

There was a small cruise ship in the basin today. We got a picture of it as we were walking to the boules game, but it left the basin before we saw its name. Oh well.

  • unknown small cruise ship in the basin

After the boules game, while were walking home, we passed two vans from BACKROADS tours. Every year we see a lot of bicycle tours in Saint-Malo. Our friends a the Hôtel Quic-en-Groigne have lots of bicycle tours staying at the hotel each year. Bicycling the Brittany region is always a popular sport.

  • BACKROADS bicycle tour vans

vendredi 30 août 2019 – Friday, August 30, 2019

We continued to clean, store items, clean out the refrigerator and run the cleaning cycle in the dishwasher. We watched several families pack up their cars and leave.

Before going for a late lunch, we stopped at the boules game to say goodbye to the players and spectators we knew. It has been a very good experience watching and talking with all the people each day.

We had a late afternoon lunch at the B’Art à Thé restaurant in the Place du Marché aux Légumes which is a 1 minute walk from our apartment. Actually from our kitchen window we can see in the kitchen at the restaurant. We had a delicious meal. The owner of the restaurant has been very nice to us and we said a nice goodbye to her. We told her we will be back next year for more good food.

  • Phil’s veal stew
  • Sandy’s bruschetta

samedi 31 août 2019 – Saturday, August 31, 2019

Saturday morning we went to the La Fournee Malouine boulangerie for breakfast. It was great as usual and we got to say goodbye for this year.

We took a bus to the train station, gare, and waited a bit impatiently for our train to Rennes. It was a local train which made about 5 stops on its 45 minute run to Rennes.

At the Rennes train station we had about 55 minutes before our fast train to the airport arrived. The train station had been undergoing remodeling for the last three years. Now it was complete and it is very nice. We bought a sandwich and drink to have on the 3 hour ride to the airport.

  • The floor in the train station had a marked path for visually impaired people to follow to allow them to navigate the station. We had not seen this before.

Our train was on schedule and since we rode first class it was a very nice experience. The train arrived on time at Charles de Gaulle Airport on time and we had a 2 minute walk to the hotel.

dimanche 1 septembre 2019 – Sunday, September 1, 2019

Departure day started just fine with a continental breakfast at the hotel. We got to the departure terminal quickly, waited about a half hour in line to check our baggage and only about 15 minutes to go through security.

  • This AIRBUS 380 was not our airplane,…
  • but it was parked at the gate next …
  • to us and it sure is huge, typically holding 525 passengers.

The flight was slightly delayed by some difficulties at the main European flight control center in Brussels. The flight was very uneventful. This was the first time we had flown Delta to France and it was a good experience both coming and going. The flight arrived on time and we got through passport control very easily. The rental car was ready for us and the drive to Grand Rapids was very easy. We picked up our car at our son’s house and Sandy drove it to Holland, following behind Phil who was in the rental. We’ll return the car on Tuesday morning.

Overall it was a pretty good couple of days traveling from Saint-Malo France to Holland Michigan.

Another wonderful experience in France. In 2011 we were not sure how our gamble on a second home adventure in Saint-Malo would work out, but it has been a really great experience.

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 August photos in France

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

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the week ending August 11, 2019 – la semaine se terminant le 11 août 2019

12 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by philipdenotto in 2019-France

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

braderie, cross of lorraine, fs belle poule, kite flyers, kite-sufers, Le Quai St-Malo, malo metiers d'art, melon de charentais, no logo, ocean walkers, paddleboard, Place du Marché aux Légumes, plage du mole, plage du Sillon, Quest France, raft, renard, restaurant, rue de dinan, sailing students, scottish terrier

lundi 5 août 2019 – Monday August 5, 2019

The Intra-Muros braderie, sidewalk sales and flea market, is all day today and tomorrow. Our friend Marie Dominque and her twin daughters were at the Place du Marché aux Légumes at 5h30 this morning to set up their items for sale. The girls are now 16 years old and have a lot of toys, stuffed animals, and a little clothing to sell. They use the money for spending all year. Their parents have a few household items and pictures for sale outside of their hotel. We walked around quite a bit, looked at lots of things, but didn’t buy a thing.

pirate-play-raft – the local toy store had this raft ready for Sandy, she declined a ride

We spoke to our neighbor, Madame Dominque, from upstairs and the “Parisian guy” at the end of our street. The “Parisian guy” sells old post cards at many of the braderies.

It drizzled off and on all afternoon. Sandy finished washing our french doors both inside and outside. They are the doors leading to our balcony and have an overhang.

mardi 6 août 2019 – Tuesday, August 6, 2019

On our way out this morning we saw Jean-Michel, our neighbor from #6 on our street. We hadn’t seen him for a couple weeks and wondered if he was out of town. He lives on the 4th floor of his building (the equivalent of 5th in the USA) and complained about the heat during our couple of hot days. He’d just returned from swimming and said he prefers the Plage du Sillon.

We purchased fruit and legumes at the marché. We also stopped at the florist and purchased some lovely small roses.

  • small red and white roses
  • small red and white roses

The beach, Plage du Sillon, was named France’s most beautiful beach last year. This year it is number 2 in France. We’ve taken many pictures up and down and love to walk on it.

In the afternoon we had a little walk by the harbor. The town is very crowded.

Sandy in the foreground wearing robin egg blue getting ready to head into the crowd.

mercredi 7 août 2019 – Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Sandy reads the Saint-Malo tourism site daily to see what events are happening. Today she read, again, about a special fishing event. When the tide is low enough, the city offers fishing lessons for catching EELS! The site encourages people to bring headlamps, wear boots, and to try to be quicker than the eel. It’s not an event we will partake. Ugh!

We took a 5 kilometer walk on the digue. We saw quite a few different activities going on at the beach this morning.

  1. ocean walkers, people wearing wet suits walking chest high in the water
  2. sailing students, a group of children taking lessons on sailing boats
  3. people flying kites
  4. people on paddleboards
  5. kids getting a lesson on how to surf
  6. wind surfers
  7. people surfing, or at least trying to surf
  8. three dogs – dogs ride behind their owner’s bike in a trailer
  • 1 ocean walkers
  • 2 sailing students
  • 3 flying a kite
  • 4 paddleboard
  • 5 learning to surf
  • 6 wind surfers
  • 7 surfers
  • 8 three dogs in their bike trailer

At the boules game this afternoon Philippe, Gavroche the Scottish Terrier owner, introduced himself to us. Guy, the player from the town of Nancy in the east of France, also introduced himself. Geneviève, the female player who teases all of the guys, introduced herself. Geneviève told us we were the “spectateurs fidèles” loyal spectators. We’ve been called worse things 😀.

Pierre told Phil again that he had to play boules with them next year.

It was another beautiful sunny day around 24C (75F).

jeudi 8 août 2019 – Thursday, August 8, 2019

Looks like rain on our way to the boulangerie. We dropped off recycling, garbage, and glass and noticed water coming up from underneath the street across from the recycling area. It was running down the street towards the harbor. It must have been going on for a while since there was quite a stream of water heading down the hill. Hopefully someone will notice a broken pipe. Most of France is under water conservation due to lack of rain since early spring and they won’t want any water to go to waste.

Today was Sandy’s day to visit her French teacher Christine in the Paramé area of Saint-Malo. Phil got to do the grocery shopping.

After lunch we walked to see if they were playing boules. They were not! We did see Madam Yvonne reading under the trees. We stopped to say hello and she invited us to sit with her. Phil explained how important it was for Sandy to listen to the conversation. She agreed and was happy to help Sandy improve her listening skills. Yvonne also told us she has a house in Rennes (an hour away) and spends April to mid September each year in Saint-Malo. She was 88 years old and had taken a trip to California when she was 80.

vendredi 9 août 2019 – Friday, August 9, 2019

Sandy read in the newspaper Ouest-France that there are strong wind warnings for this afternoon, evening, and strong waves on the ocean. There was a red flag flying at the Plage du Mole meaning it is hazardous to be in the water. We also read where all nautical activities should be well planned and preparations taken. It was advised to securely attach all tents and marquees.

red flag at the life guard station indicating dangerous surf

We saw the sailing ship Renard (Fox) depart from the harbor and were glad we weren’t onboard. It will be a rough, rocky sailing.

the RENARD (FOX) setting out from the harbor

Christine invited us to come for an aperitif this evening at the “usual” time of 18h. We had a very nice time with Christine and her husband Michel. They served champagne, cherry tomatoes, rillette du pork, chips, cake with ham and vegetables inside, and melon de Charentais.

melon de Charentais – By Marius Kant – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

A Charentais melon is a type of cantaloupe melon, Cucumis melo var. cantalupensis. It is a small variety of melon, similar in flesh to cantaloupes, but with a more fragrant smell. It was developed in western France around 1920 as a more refined cantaloupe. Most are now produced in North Africa, with some limited production in the United States.

Wikipedia contributors, “Charentais melon,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charentais_melon&oldid=860915735 (accessed August 11, 2019).

Michel insisted on driving us home in his Citroën station wagon. It is always good to have a chauffeur.

samedi 10 août 2019 – Saturday, August 10, 2019

On our way back to our apartment from the boulangerie we met our neighbor Madame Bertin’s brother. Her brother’s name is Jacques-Louis and he is a fluent English speaker. He is retired now, but he told us he had worked in the U.K. and Saudi Arabia for ARAMCO. Interesting.

We took a short walk to the basin and found that a nice sail boat was moored there. The FS BELLE POULE is a French navy training ship. It is actually classified as a schooner.

  • schooner FS BELLE POULE
  • French naval jack with the cross of Lorraine

The french words “BELLE POULE” translate to “BEAUTIFUL HEN”. Here is the story behind the name.

The name Belle Poule derives from an incident in 1533. Francis I was presented with the keys of Toulouse by Paule de Viguier, the baroness Fronteville. Paule was a young girl known for her beauty, and Francis nicknamed her la belle Paule. The name became altered over time to belle poule through the difference between French and Occitan pronunciation.[1] The name was later adopted by a Gironde corsair for his vessel, giving rise to it as a ship name in the French navy.
Another version of the story is that Francis called her belle poule, as a play on words. The word belle is “beautiful”, while poule is a reference to her name, Paule, but also means “chick”, which in French, as it was later in English, can refer to a young girl.

Wikipedia contributors, “French ship Belle Poule,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=French_ship_Belle_Poule&oldid=858016935 (accessed August 11, 2019).

Again this morning the wind is strong. Sandy read in the newspaper Quest-France that a tornado touched down on the border between Luxembourg and France. It damaged over 100 homes and is quite rare there. There were many train delays due to downed power lines caused by the wind in the north and west of France.

We took a walk on the beach. The wind was at our backs as we started out, but was in our face on the return. The wind was so strong that there were small waves of sand blowing along the beach. In the water, the waves were breaking hard against the small exposed islands.

waves breaking against the small exposed islands a few hundred feet from the beach

A music festival taking place this weekend called “No Logo” also experienced wind delays . Since they are primarily using tents for stages, etc., it wasn’t safe for festival goers to be allowed onto the site until the wind calmed down.

“No Logo BZH is steadily establishing itself as one of the top reggae festivals in Europe. Spread across three glorious days in the historic port city of Saint-Malo in northern France, the festival maintains a sense of independence and, as its name suggests, is all about the music.”)

https://www.festicket.com/festivals/no-logo-bzh/2019/

The crowd was really thick today on the Rue de Dinan, the main road in the Intra-Muros.

We did not take on the crowd. We took a short cut through a series of side streets.

dimanche 11 août 2019 – Sunday, August 11, 2019

Just after noon we walked over to the QUAI SAINT-MALO to attend an artisans exhibition called “MALO MÉTIERS D’ART.” We walked around and found two vendors which had some items we really liked. This was the first year for each vendor at the exhibition.

After attending the artisans show we walked over to the restaurant B’Art à Thé. We had a wonderful mid-afternoon meal.

  • Phil’s mystery fish item
  • Sandy’s bruschetta
  • citrus cake and red fruit cake for dessert

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

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