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le semaine se terminant le samedi 30 septembre 2017 – the week ending Saturday September 30 2017

04 Wednesday Oct 2017

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This is the last blog for our trip to France in 2017.  A little sad, but there is next year! Back in the USA.

le lundi 25 septembre 2017 – Monday September 25, 2017

Sandy walks through the Place du Marché aux Légumes her way to the boulangerie each morning. She noticed today that the trees lining each side of the place were full of birds. There was a lot of chirping, singing, etc. She wondered if they were getting together here in France as they do in the USA just before they migrate.

We had our final tutoring course with Christine for this year. Sandy has learned a lot from her and she makes learning fun. On the way to Christine’s house we went past a chocolate shop with a funny sign in the window.

mon cul fait mal - quoi? in Paramé

mon cul fait mal – quoi? in Paramé

 

While we were waiting for the bus to return a delivery truck stopped across the street at the butcher shop. We could see right inside the truck when they opened the doors. Two full size pigs were hanging by their feet inside. They had been skinned and the head removed. Too much visualization for us. Our bus trip to her house and back was uneventful and not crowded.

After lunch Sandy organized our prescriptions. She made a list of the kind and quantity of medications left in our apartment. That will make packing for next year a little easier.

le mardi 26 septembre 2017 – Tuesday September 26, 2017

Today was our final haircut in France. The coiffure is very skilled and we like the way she cuts our hair. We wished her farewell and a good winter. We told her we hoped to see her next year.

Sandy shopped for the last time at the marché. She told Monsieur Alix she would see him next year. He will also begin his vacation on Friday.

After lunch we returned Sandy’s last book from the library, mailed a letter at the Gare and bought a baguette to have with meatballs for dinner. We sat by the harbor for a while and the temperature was warm. Much too warm to even wear a light jacket.

le mercredi 27 septembre 2017 – Wednesday September 27, 2017

Our final day! Sandy brought home a baguette for breakfast to help us finish the butter. We cleaned, washed clothes, put away, sorted, and finished packing everything we could for today.

We took a last walk around the ramparts and spotted a cruise ship in the harbor. It was called Marina.

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Marina cruise ship in the harbor

On the ramparts we found a lot of gulls.  Sandy had some leftover bread in her pocket so she feed the gulls.

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Sandy feeding the gulls

While walking the 1 mile around the ramparts, we saw the court.  Our friend Alain was not playing today.

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looking down a the Bretonne Boules court

We did take time to get a picture of ourselves on the ramparts.

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on the ramparts with the sea behind us

We called our friend Alain, and emailed other friends to say farewell for this year. We checked our travel plans, train, hotel, airlines, and rental car. Our condo building distributed new door FOBS while we were gone and the old one we brought with us to get back into our building in the USA won’t work. Hopefully, our son left a new one so we could find it.

le jeudi 28 septembre 2017 – Thursday September 28, 2017

We were up, showered, dressed and walked to the boulangerie for breakfast before 8 am. It was still dark outside and Sandy was glad Phil was with her. We enjoyed delicious baguettes, croissants, orange juice and grande cafe creme for breakfast. We told the boulangere good-bye for the year and we would see her next year. We finished a few things in our apartment and walked to the bus stop. We got on the 9h35 #3 bus to the Gare. We waited just a few minutes, boarded a RER local train and departed. The train made 5 stops in 55 minutes before we arrived at our destination of Rennes. Rennes is a large city and the capital of Brittany. There was a lot of construction at the station and the noise was very loud.

We bought a sandwich to eat on the train, waited 55 minutes and boarded the train to CDG in Paris. Our trip was very uneventful. We traveled in 2nd class. The train car and seats were similar to Amtrak. We then took the CDGVAL, which is a tram that runs between Terminals 1, 2, 3 and long-term parking. We reserved a hotel room at the IBIS Styles hotel which is literally between the IBIS and Pullman hotels. It was just a few feet outside of the airport doors in Terminal 3. We had checked in online and our key was waiting. The hotel had been built after 2014. It was a decent sized room for Paris standards, was clean, everything worked and was very convenient.

We had dinner in the hotel dining room which was fairly small. There were 3 choices for a meal and 3 choices for a sandwich. We tried to check in online for our flight. We both received messages that said we were unable to check in and needed to see an agent. We didn’t understand this.

le vendredi 28 septembre 2017 – Friday September 29, 2017

We were up and eating breakfast just after 6h30. The breakfast was included with our hotel and was fine. The restaurant was busy even at that time.

We took the same shuttle from the previous day to Terminal 2A and were ready to get in line to speak to an agent. has many kiosks for self-service check in. There was an agent at the kiosks and Phil explained our need for an agent. He said he would help us at the kiosk. There was no problem checking in and printing a boarding pass. We dropped off our luggage to be checked and headed for TSA. In less than 45 minutes, we checked in, went through border control, TSA, and were headed for our gate.

However, we were very early (3 hours before boarding) because we thought we’d have to wait in line a long time to see an agent. We were relieved! It was almost boarding time when they called many names to see an agent – ours included. It seems Sandy was one of the randomly chosen people for extra security screening. We found out that the screening was the reason we couldn’t check in online. When we looked at our boarding passes, Sandy’s had printed on it. Phil’s boarding pass had different letters, none were an S. Sandy and about 20 other people were taken individually, to a spot at the top of the boarding ramp. She was asked to lift up her shirt at the waist to show she didn’t have pockets. She was asked to lift up her pant legs and roll down her socks. She had to open her purse and backpack, take both U.S and French cell phones out and lay them on the table. She and her items were scanned then the scanner was checked on the computer. After passing these measures, she and the other people were not allowed onto the plane or back in the waiting room. They waited about 20 minutes together before boarding the plane ahead of all other passengers.

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Gate A38 flight from Paris to Chicago then on to San Francisco

The plane ride home took off on time, was uneventful and landed 40 minutes early. We paid extra for first row of so we would have seats. It was definitely worth it! Phil stretched out his legs completely and there was no one in front of us. The meal that they served was delicious and the snacks were fine. Phil reminded Sandy that the food was prepared in Europe and that may have been the reason they were better to the food served on the way to France.

We landed at 13h40 local time which was 20h00 Paris time. We stopped at the Passport kiosk to print our re-entry ticket, waited to go through customs, picked up our luggage, stopped at the border control booth, and were in the rental car shuttle in 35 minutes! We were given a Jeep SUV for the ride back to Holland.

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Jeep rental car

The road traffic on a Friday afternoon was bumper to bumper on the tollways, but we had been in worse. Indiana highways were still under construction, but the traffic thinned out in Michigan. We stopped at a McDonald’s for a yogurt parfait, Family Fare grocery store in Holland for breakfast items and were in our condo parking lot by 20h00. We were exhausted after being awake for 20 hours. As soon as we put the clean sheets on our bed and unpacked necessary items we were in bed. It was a relief to be back.

le samedi 30 septembre 2017 – Saturday September 30, 2017

We both slept fairly well. The 6 hour time difference between Michigan and France is difficult. The eating and sleeping schedules are awkward. We returned the rental car and stopped at the grocery store for fruit and a few more food items. We took it easy and rested or napped a bit. We both still felt like our bodies were in motion.

April 22 in Saint-Malo – 22 avril à Saint-Malo

22 Friday Apr 2016

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April 22 is a day for us to be in Rennes.  Rennes is the capital of the region of Bretange (Brittany) and the city we have to visit for our VISA validation.

Friday April 22, 2016 is the day we’ve been dreading and are relieved that it’s over! Our appointments with the Office français de l’immigration et de l’integration (French Office for Immigration and Integration) were at 9:00 and 9:30 today. We left our apartment at 6:15 am to catch the bus to the train station.  It was still very dark and of course, we came across a group of young men that hadn’t been home after partying all night.  Fortunately, we avoided their path and they ignored us.  We arrived at the train station very early because the buses weren’t running very frequently at that time of the day.  There was a train in the station going to the same place we were and we took it, leaving 30 minutes before our scheduled departure.  It was a TER (Transport express régional) regional train instead of the super fast, deluxe TGV.  We had two very comfortable seats together and arrived without any problems.

The map worked on Sandy’s iPhone and we found the building without difficulty.  There wasn’t anyplace around to buy a cup of coffee for the hour we needed to wait.  There was a girl waiting by the side of the road and Phil asked her if she knew of a cafe or bar near by. She did not. But a man walked by, heard the conversation and told Phil there was a bar/tabac nearby.  He gave us directions, in French of course, and directed us to the bar/tabac.  It was a 4 block walk and a great place to have an espresso.  Sandy also ate the pain a’chocolate that she’d brought with us.  As it was raining, we were happy to have a dry place to wait.

We arrived back at the Office français de l’immigration et de l’integration  just before the scheduled opening at 9:00 am.  We showed the receptionist our passport and official appointment letters.  She checked us off her list and directed us upstairs, all in French.  We waited in a waiting room.  Sandy was called first for her chest x-ray.  She was directed back to the waiting room after the x-ray was taken.  Next a nurse called her to ask questions, check over immunizations, measure her height and told her she might need to visit a doctor in Saint-Malo for a booster immunization.  Again, Sandy returned to the waiting room. By this time, Phil had talked to the nurse and had his x-ray taken.  Sandy was next called to go with the doctor for an examination. It was in French too and she didn’t have any problems.  For the 3rd time, she was directed back to the waiting room and Phil was called.

The administrator was the last person to see.  He examined our papers showing proof of ownership/residency of our apartment in Saint-Malo.  He asked for our photo and proof of 241€ payment. He put an “official” sticker and stamp on our passports.  He also explained how to request a “Carte Sejour” in August. We had to meet alone with each of the four Immigration officials but finally we were finished!!!!

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The VISA validation stamp we need.

There were two other people there going through the same process.  A young man from Tunisia was also going through the process for the first time.  He is a student in Rennes, but plans on returning to Tunisia at the completion of his studies.  The other person was an asian woman who spoke English but very little French.  He company in Asia had transferred her to France and she was enjoying her stay.  She was developing her French and she was really enjoying the desserts.  It was very nice to talk with both of them.  We had a lot in common with them and since we were all going through the same process we all had a lot of empathy.

We walked to the metro stop to take the Rennes metro to the

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main train station in Rennes.  The main train station in Rennes is going through a major renovation.  It is part of the SNCF plan to improve the rail service by increasing the speed of the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse / high speed train) in Brittany.  That means improved rails and facilities.

The whole time we were in Rennes it was drizzling or raining.  Beautiful city, but not a good day for touring.

The train ride back to Saint-Malo was good.  Sandy had bought baguette, ham and lettuce sandwiches to eat on the ride back.  That and an Orangina made for a nice one hour ride on the train.

When we got back to the apartment after 14:00 / 2 PM we had about had it for the day.  But it had been a successful day and we were very grateful.

April 21 in Saint-Malo – 21 avril à Saint-Malo

21 Thursday Apr 2016

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First an update. On April 7 we had a very high tide here in Saint-Malo.  A local group created a nice short video of the high tide which can be viewed at this link.

Today is a cloudy day with an 80% chance of rain. We will see if the forecast is accurate.

Our French lesson is at 10 AM.  We left the apartment at 9:20 to walk to the esplanade Saint-Vincent. The number 2 bus was at the bus stop so we got on it right way.  The gare / railroad and bus station was just a 5 minute ride.  At the gare we waited about 10 minutes for the number 5 bus.  The ride on the number 5 bus is about 7 or eight minutes to the stop Jacques Hesry which is the closest stop to our tutor Christine’s house.  From the bus stop it is a 4 minute walk to Christine’s house and we arrived at 9:59.

The only rain during our trip was two drops while we waited at the gare.

During the bus ride we were interviewed by a person who was taking a survey for the bus company.  He asked us some questions about our use of the bus that day, the bus stop where we originally got the bus today, the purpose of our trip, what type of ticket we had (single ride ticket, day ticket, or monthly pass) and other questions about our demographics.

The French lesson was interesting as usual.  Michel, Christine’s husband, stopped by to say hello.  He and Sandy briefly discussed their visits to the dentist this week.

By coincidence we got the same survey on the way back from our French lesson.  We thought they might not want us to take the survey again, but they did.  Hopefully we gave the same answers as the previous survey.

At the gare we had to again change buses from the number 5 to either a number 1, 2 or 3.  While we waited for the bus, we saw 10 or 12 boys playing a version of rugby.  The ball was being tossed around quite quickly.

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Rugby pick up game at the gare, the boy on the left in the gray shirt has the rugby ball.

After getting our bus at the gare, we took it to the end of the line which is the esplanade Saint-Vincent at the foot of the Intra-Muros.  We walked through the Transat RACE VILLAGE in search of give-aways.  We got a few pastry items.  Sandy picked up a half of a ham and cheese sandwich.  I guess she was a little hungry.

No rain on our walk back to the apartment.  So the forecast was not exactly accurate.

There were a lot more boats in the basin Vauban today.  Not sure how many, but probably all of those that will participate in the race.  Since there are different classes (types/sizes) of boats participating in the race there is quite a variety of ships in the basin.

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boats moored at the quai Saint-Louis in the basin Vauban

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marques with give aways

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double-decker bus advertising the race

After lunch we worked on our French lesson homework and reviewed things we learned in class today.  Then we spent quite a bit of time checking on our paper work for the visit to the OFII office in Rennes tomorrow morning.  We have quite a bit of paper work to take with us and hopefully the right ones.

Later in the afternoon we did get a little shower, so perhaps the forecast was not too far off.

Tonight we are going to bed early.  We have to catch the 7:17 train to Rennes in the morning.

April 19 in Saint-Malo – 19 avril à Saint-Malo

19 Tuesday Apr 2016

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Tuesday April 19 is another very sunny day, but today it is getting quite a bit warmer in the afternoon.  Haircuts, French lessons and a visit to the dentist are on the agenda.

Our 9:00 AM haircut appointments have us up and going early.  This is our second visit to this haircut shop this year.  We went quite a few times in 2014 with good results.  The same thing applies this year.  We get really good haircuts and they are consistent, which is important.  The name of the shop is GOMINA Coiffure .

We left the haircut shop at 9:30, just a little behind our normal schedule.  So we hurried to the esplanade Saint-Vincent to get the bus on our way to our French lesson.  We just made it to the bus, mainly because the woman bus driver was nice enough to wait for us.  We changed buses at the gare and got to our tutor Christine’s house at 1 minute to 10.

Christine had her dining room table back in place after having it repaired last week.  So the French lesson was a success.  Sandy had to do a lot of speaking today and she is getting better every week.

We left Christine’s hours at 11:55 and caught our bus at 12:05 as planned.  When we got to the gare / train station, we went to the SCNF ticket counter to buy our tickets for our Friday trip to Rennes.

We got back to the apartment around 12:45 and had a nice lunch.  Phil had a ham sandwich and Sandy had soup due to her tooth problem.

At 14:00 Phil went up to the 4th floor to visit with our neighbor Jean.  In the mean time Sandy worked on writing her thoughts for her visit to the dentist.  She wrote the thoughts out in French so she could share them with the dentist.  There is no guarantee he/she knows any English and Phil’s French will only get her so far. Sandy also took a quick trip to the Carrefour city to buy a couple of items.

A couple of minutes after her return, we got a phone call from the dentist’s office asking if we could get to the office as quickly as possible.  They must have had a cancellation.  We tried hard to get there as quickly as possible, but we missed our bus at the esplanade Saint-Vincent and lost about 15 minutes.  We took our bus as planned, but we knew we had to walk for about 8 minutes to the dentist’s office.  Unfortunately we missed the office and walked past it.  Phil saw a man sitting on his front porch and asked the man for directions.  He pointed us in the right direction.  Merci monsieur!

The dentist’s office was pretty much a normal office.  The assistant who took our appointment call yesterday greeted us and Phil thanked her for being so helpful in setting up the appointment.  We waited in the waiting room for about 5 minutes, then the dentist came to get us and take us to his office.

The dentist’s office has 3 dentists and 2 dental assistants.  In our previous dentist’s office in Springfield Illinois, there was 1 dentist and 4 assistants.

Sandy gave her written thoughts to the dentist. He read them and then escorted her to the dental chair which was in his office.  He took a look at her broken tooth and gave his diagnosis.  He did not think the tooth needed a crown.  Rather he suggested using a resin like material to repair the remaining part of the tooth.  That was great with Sandy.  He suggested doing it right then and Sandy gave her okay.

About 40 minutes later we walked out of the dentist’s office with Sandy having a newly repaired tooth.  Things could not have worked out better for her.  At a later date we’ll write-up a blog entry to discuss our dentist and doctor appointments, how we set them up, how much they cost, and our take on medical issues in France.

On our way back to the apartment we walked past the basin Vauban.  They are setting up for a sail boat race between Plymouth, England and Saint-Malo.  It is a preliminary warm up race.  The real race will be between Plymouth and New York.  There are some racing boats in the basin and more to come tomorrow.  Quite a few marques are being set up to

the race poster
setting up the marques

provide entertainment for people coming to take a look at the boats.

One of the boats is captained by a man from Japan.  He is the first Japanese sailor to participate in the race.  His name is Hiroshi Kitada and his boat is called the KIHO.

Hiroshi Kitada’s ship Kiho
Hiroshi Kitada’s ship Kiho

We then resumed our walk back to the apartment.  On the way we passed the boules courts by the wall.  The group responsible for the boules courts had worked on the courts to get them ready for the summer.  The courts had new gravel on them and they looked good.  The group was playing boules, trying out the newly refurbished courts.

Playing boules
Boules group warning

April 18 in Saint-Malo – 18 avril à Saint-Malo

18 Monday Apr 2016

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Monday April 18 is a cool but very sunny day in Saint-Malo.  It was also a morning of teeth and phone calls.

Today’s blog actually started yesterday evening after dinner.  While Sandy was dental flossing, she felt a tooth break.  Previously she had problems with two teeth which had fillings and this was the same case.  A tooth with a filling had broken in two.  She was not in any pain, but it prevented her from chewing food on that side and it just felt funny.  Sandy immediately sent an email to our tutor Christine explaining the situation and asking her for the name of her dentist.  Christine replied quickly with the name of her dentist, so at that point all we could do is wait until Monday morning to call for an appointment.

Monday morning Sandy was not in a great mood.  The broken tooth bothered her, but it was the prospect of going to the dentist which made her most unhappy.  Not too many people like to go to the dentist.  Phil called the dentist for an appointment and we were lucky enough to get an appointment for 17:00 / 5 PM on Tuesday.

Sandy then had to call her dental insurance company to explain the situation and ask them how to go about getting coverage while out of the USA.  We will have to cover the costs ourselves and then submit the bills to the insurance company.

The next thing we had to do was to figure out where the dentist was located and then decide which bus would get us there.  That took a while, but we will be able to get a bus to within a couple of blocks of the dentist and then walk.

The next thing was to head out to Conforama to shop for some smalls rugs for the entry way.  Conforama is a store for furniture, appliances, lighting and rugs.  We have purchased rugs and lighting from them in the past.  We found the small rugs we wanted and purchased them for 9€.

We then crossed the street to shop at the Carrefour hypermarche.  There we purchased some potting soil, cranberry juice, napkins and yogurt.

On the trip back we got lucky and caught a number 1 bus as soon as we walked to the bus stop.

For lunch Sandy had soup and fruit.  She successfully avoided aggravating her broken tooth.  Phil got a ham sandwich on crusty bread!

The afternoon was spent making sure we had the correct paper work for our trip to the government VISA people in Rennes on Friday.  We seem to have everything we need.  The next task was to figure out how we were going to get there.  We will take a bus, then a train and then walk the last 10 minutes to the office.  That took a bit of doing because it ended up that the main train station was not the best station for us to go to.  Instead we will get off about two stops before the main station and just have the short 10 minute walk.  Not bad!

We did not get to take any pictures today, but I will borrow a picture from the Saint-Malo tourism site.  There is a sailing race coming up between Plymouth, England and New York, USA.  As a preliminary to the real race, the competitors are having a race between Plymouth and Saint-Malo.  There will be a lot of very large sailing ships in the harbor in the next week.

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April 4 in Saint-Malo – 4 avril à Saint-Malo

04 Monday Apr 2016

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Today is Monday April 4 and we don’t have a schedule for today.

dredger

dredger

We are going to start out by taking a walk.  First we stopped at the harbor.  There is a dredging vessel in the harbor today.  It is dredging the harbor to allow the fishing

boats to anchor in the harbor, rather than having to anchor in the basin.  Avoiding the basin means they do not have to go through the lock / ecluse which give them more flexibility for their schedule.

After the harbor we climbed the stairs to the top of the ramparts.  We started at the south end of the ramparts and walked toward

little red sails

little red sails

the north.  On our way we saw a group of sailing students get started for with their lesson.  There were about 10 small boats which were being pulled out into the shallow water near the shore.  After a while we saw that the students had raised the little red sails on their tiny boats and were sailing around.

We walked to the castle on the north end of the ramparts and then headed into the city.  Sandy needed to buy a few things at the Carrefour City in the Intra-Muros.

After Carrefour we head back to the apartment.  The walk had been 3.93 km or 2.44 mi.  A good start to the day.

Sandy did a bunch of cleaning around the house.  Phil spent a lot of time catching up on scanning the documents and memorabilia we had collected over the last few weeks.

In the afternoon we both received emails from the OFII people in Rennes.  They are the French VISA (not the credit card) people. We know they would be contacting us. We are scheduled for a physical examination and a review of our documents on April 22 at the OFII office in Rennes.  This is part of our request to stay longer than 6 months.  Translating the emails and the attached documents took a good bit of time this afternoon.  The good news is that we believe we have all the information they have requested.

We did go by thP1010980e La Fournee Malouine boulangerie and took a picture of the exterior.  Sandy has been trying to get Trip Advisor to reclassify the place from a restaurant to a boulangerie.  It is not a restaurant at all.  Being incorrectly classified may keep people for going there so we want to get it corrected.

 

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.

Jour 122 à Saint-Malo – Day 122 in Saint-Malo

16 Tuesday Sep 2014

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Mardi 16 septembre nous nous sommes levés à 5 heures pour faire notre premier train trajet de retour à Saint-Malo. Nous avons quitté l’hôtel à 6 heures du matin, nous sommes allés à la gare. Il faisait encore sombre, mais il y avait beaucoup de lumières de rue et presque personne d’autre à cette heure. Il nous a fallu 15 minutes à pied de 15258142475_ef933322e8_kla gare et nous avons attendu quelques minutes pour les cafés et les magasins à ouvrir pour que nous puissions acheter le petit déjeuner. La piste pour notre train a été publié environ 20 minutes avant le départ et nous sommes montés dans le train. Il est parti à l’heure exacte à 07h01 et nous étions sur le chemin du retour. Nous nous sommes arrêtés à Rennes changer de train – 15 minutes entre l’arrivée et au départ et le deuxième train parti à l’heure aussi. Le train de Rennes a dû être le train le plus ancien encore en cours d’exécution que les portes entre les voitures ne fonctionnent pas correct15258138095_5709d56976_kement et il n’était pas climatisé. C’était un tour bruyant retour à Saint-Malo avec toutes les fenêtres baissées dans le train. Nous avons pris le bus local de la gare de Saint-Malo à la ville intra murale. Nous avons pris un sandwich et revenais de l’arrêt de bus. Nous étions fatigués après le voyage, mais c’était bon d’être à la maison!

 

Tuesday September 16 we got up at 5 am to make our early train ride back to St. Malo.  We checked out of the hotel at 6 am and walked to the train station.  It was still dark but there were a lot of street lights and hardly anyone else up at that hour.  It took us 15 minutes to walk to the station and we waited a few minutes for cafes and stores to open so we could buy breakfast.  The track for our train was posted about 20 minutes before departure and we boarded the train.  It departed exactly on time at 7:01 and we were on our way back.  We stopped in Rennes to change trains – 15 minutes between arriving and departing and the second train left on time too.  The train from Rennes must have been the oldest train still running as the doors between cars didn’t operate correctly and it was not air conditioned.  It was a noisy ride back to St. Malo with all of the windows lowered on the train.  We took the local bus from the St. Malo train station back to the intra mural city. We picked up a sandwich and walked home from the bus stop. We were tired from traveling, but it felt good to be home!

Jour 40 à Saint-Malo – Day 40 in Saint-Malo

26 Thursday Jun 2014

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14327171768_58a2d46713_o 14327127159_c80067e73a_oLe jeudi (26/6 Quimper) nous avons dormi dans presque jusqu’à 8h30, très tard pour Sandy. Nous avons apprécié le petit-déjeuner buffet à l’hôtel et partons pour la vieille partie de la ville à 10 heures. Nous avons visité le jardin à côté de la cathédrale et pris le petit train qui a duré 40 minutes. Nous avons longuement cherché dans un grand magasin de 3 étages Eurodif, qui sont situés dans toute la France. Ils sont égaux à une combinaison de l’Amérique Kohl et Bergners sauf qu’ils ne portent pas de vêtements pour hommes. Ils font tout réaliser pour la maison y compris l’éclairage, rideaux, et un magasin de tissu. Depuis le premier jour de vente a commencé le 25 Juin, il y avait de nombreux acheteurs. Nous n’avons rien acheté parce que je ne veux pas porter de nouveau à Saint-Malo. (Phil et moi avions chacun un pack petit jour pour un séjour d’une nuit.) Nous avons marché une des vieilles rues pavées que nous avons manqué la veille. Nous étions à la recherche dans une fenêtre à Quimper en terre cuite que j’admire et quelque chose a cliqué. L’homme qui court le magasin fait semblait familier. J’ai dit Phil, j’ai reconnu l’homme comme ayant eu un atelier à Saint-Malo 3 des 4 années précédentes, nous étions là. Nous sommes allés dans le magasin et Phil demandé si l’homme avait l’habitude d’avoir une boutique à Saint-Malo. L’homme a immédiatement demandé s’il y avait un problème. Quand Phil a expliqué que nous étions d’anciens clients, a raté sa boutique l’an dernier et nos voisins ne savait pas ce qui lui était arrivé, il a expliqué son départ. Il était très heureux de nous voir et de connaître nos voisins avaient été préoccupé lui aussi. Nous avons acheté un pichet en faïence de Quimper avec un coq rouge sur le front et comme d’habitude nous a donné un cadeau supplémentaire de notre achat. Après avoir récupéré nos sacs de jour de la zone de rangement de bagages de l’hôtel, nous sommes allés à la gare. Nous avons pris un sandwich jambon / beurre sur une baguette pour le déjeuner et un cookie chocolat / canneberges à manger dans le train. Notre voyage de retour à Rennes s’est déroulé sans incident et avec seulement 8 minutes pour changer de train à Rennes nous l’avons fait en 5 minutes. Nous avons attendu environ 5 minutes de Saint-Malo pour le bus de la ville vers les portes fortifiées. Il était bon d’être de retour et beaucoup plus frais aussi! Sandy ramassé kebabs et frites de Chez Marcel pour le dîner avant d’aller à la “Maison de Québec” pour le film du jeudi soir. Nous avons apprécié notre séjour à Quimper et avons été très heureux de voir notre «vieil ami».  Link to all our pictures from Quimper.

On Thursday (26/6 Quimper) we slept in until almost 8:30 am, very late for Sandy.  We enjoyed the breakfast buffet at the hotel and set off for the old part of town by 10 am.  We visited the garden adjacent to the Cathedral and took the Petit Train which lasted 40 minutes.  We shopped in a 3 story Eurodif department store, which are located all across France.  They are equal to a combination of American Kohl’s and Bergners except that they don’t carry men’s wear.  They do carry everything for the home including lighting, curtains, and a fabric store. Since the first day of sales had begun on June 25th, there were many shoppers.  We didn’t buy anything because I didn’t want to carry it back to Saint-Malo. (Phil and I each had a small day pack for a one night stay.) We walked down one of the old cobblestone streets that we missed the day before.  We were looking in a window at Quimper earthenware that I admire and something clicked.  The man running the shop actually looked familiar.  I told Phil I recognized the man as having had a shop in Saint-Malo  3 of the 4 previous years we were there. We went in the shop and Phil asked if the man used to have a shop in Saint-Malo.  The man immediately asked if there was a problem.  When Phil explained we were former customers, missed his shop last year and our neighbors didn’t know what had happened to him he explained his leaving.   He was very glad to see us and to know our neighbors had been concerned about him too. We purchased a Quimper earthenware pitcher with a red rooster on the front and as usual gave us an extra gift with our purchase. After retrieving our day packs from the stored luggage area of the hotel we headed to the train station.  We picked up a ham/butter sandwich on a baguette for lunch and a chocolate/cranberry cookie to eat on the train. Our return trip to Rennes was uneventful and with only 8 minutes to change trains in Rennes we made it in 5 minutes. We waited about 5 minutes in Saint-Malo for the city bus back to the walled gates.  It was good to be back and much cooler too! Sandy picked up kebabs and fries from Chez Marcel for dinner before we headed to the “Maison de Quebec” for the Thursday evening film. We enjoyed our time in Quimper and were very happy to see our “old friend”.

Jour 39 à Saint-Malo – Day 39 in Saint-Malo

25 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by in juin poster - June post

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14327174188_38a7c101ed_o Mercredi (25/6), nous étions à la gare Saint-Malo par 7h15 et pris le train tôt à Rennes que nous avions prévu. Comme il s’agit d’un train local et ne prend pas les réservations de sièges, il n’y avait pas de problèmes. Nous avons apprécié un sit bas le café et le rouleau à la gare de Rennes pour attendre notre prochain train. De Rennes, nous avions seulement un train de 2 heures de trajet à Quimper, France. Quimper est une ville charmante. Il est situé sur la rivière de l’Odet qui traverse la ville et a beaucoup de belles, des jardinières de fleurs colorées accrochées aux grilles des ponts piétonniers. La ville a une atmosphère rustique avec des passerelles enjambant les rivières qui le traversent. Nous avons séjourné au Oceania Hôtel Escale qui était 8 minutes à pied de la gare et à 5 minutes à pied de la cathédrale et de la vieille partie de la ville. Nous avons visité la cathédrale (construite entre les 13ème et 16ème siècles), le Musée départemental Bretagne, la faïencerie Henriot Faïence, et avons traversé la vieille ville avec ses maisons à colombage datant des années 1400. Nous avons dîné au restaurant Chez Max, ce qui était situé dans une cour confortable dans une ruelle de brique. Le restaurant est composée de 10 tables à l’extérieur sous un parapluie géant (peut-être 25 pieds carré) et nous avons apprécié un délicieux dîner avec une brise fraîche. Phil avait steak et des frites et Sandy avait une salade de tomates constitué de tomates vertes, les tomates rouges, mozzarella et herbes vinaigrette. Nous avons tous deux apprécié pomme, poire, caramel et tarte encore fumante du four. Malheureusement pour nous, le mercredi s’est avér14327171768_58a2d46713_oé être le jour le plus chaud en Bretagne à ce jour. Nous étions presque malade de la chaleur pendant l’après-midi et parce que notre chambre n’était pas climatisée, dû dormir avec la fenêtre ouverte. Heureusement, il ne se rafraîchir la nuit en Bretagne et il n’y a pas de moustiques, donc le matin Phil avait fermé la fenêtre et nous étions sous la couette. Ce fut une journée très agréable malgré la chaleur de l’après-midi.

Link to all our pictures of Quimper.

Wednesday (25/6) we were at the Saint-Malo train station by 7:15 am and caught an earlier train to Rennes than we were scheduled.  Since this is a local train and does not take seat reservations, there were no problems.  We enjoyed a sit down coffee and roll at the Rennes train station to wait for our next train.  From Rennes we only had a 2 hour train ride to Quimper, France.  Quimper is a lovely city.  It is located on the Odet River which flows through town and has many lovely, colorful flower planters hanging from the railings of the pedestrianized bridges. The town has a rustic atmosphere with footbridges spanning the rivers that flow through it.   We stayed at the Escale Oceania Hotel which was an 8 minute walk from the train station and a 5 minute walk to the Cathedral and old part of the town. We visited the Cathedral (constructed between the 13th and 16th centuries), The Departmental Brittany Museum, the Henriot Faience earthenware factory, and walked through the ancient city with half timbered houses dating from the 1400’s.  We ate dinner at Chez Max’s which was located in a cozy courtyard down a brick alley.  The restaurant consisted of 10 tables outside under a gigantic umbrella (possibly 25 feet square) and we enjoyed a delicious dinner with a cool breeze.  Phil had steak and fries and Sandy had a tomato salad consisting of green tomatoes, red tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and herb vinaigrette dressing. We both enjoyed apple, pear, and caramel tart still steaming from the oven. Unfortunately for us, Wednesday turned out to be the hottest day in Brittany so far.  We were almost sick from the heat during the afternoon and because our room wasn’t air conditioned, had to sleep with the window open. Fortunately it does cool off at night in Brittany and there are no mosquito, so by morning Phil had closed the window and we were under the duvet. It was a very enjoyable day despite the afternoon heat.