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the week ending Sunday June 12, 2022 – la semaine se terminant le dimanche 12 juin 2022

13 Monday Jun 2022

Posted by philipdenotto in 2022-France

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

BRASSERIE EXCELSIOR, chartres, gtranslate, LeMans, partager restaurant, place stanislas, quiche lorraine, rennes, rocabey, Saint-Servan, sophie, troyes

Quick reminder that the blog now has the GTRANSLATE widget on the left side. The widget will allow you to translate the blog into a different language.


Monday-6th and we planned a much different week than usual. Our friend Geneviève had moved from Saint-Malo to Nancy in the department of Lorraine in eastern France. We had met Geneviève in 2019. Sandy and Geneviève had corresponded by email over the last few years. When we learned in February that Geneviève was moving to Nancy, we decided that a road trip might be needed to visit with her.

Monday was spent mostly getting ready for our first road trip in France. As usual, Sandy did most of the preparation, thank goodness. We had already made a rental car reservation (Philip) and a hotel reservation (Sandy). To make things interesting, Sophie the cat was coming with us.

Tuesday-7th and we got the rental office at 9:00 to get the car. Back to Intra-Muros to load up the car and then we started out of town. After about 10 minutes, the car signaled that the left front tire pressure was low. A quick stop at a service station to add air to the tire solved that problem. We hoped.

our autoroute (highway) to Nancy (788 kilometers / 490 miles)
  1. started in the west of France in Saint-Malo
  2. south to Rennes the capital of Brittany
  3. east to Laval
  4. continued east to Le Mans
  5. northeast to Chartres (had some rain between Le Mans and Chartres)
  6. continued northeast toward Paris (a lot of traffic in the Paris area)
  7. then turned southeast to Troyes
  8. east and then north to Nancy in the east of France

Our travel time was about 9 hours including 4 stops and lunch. Yes, this was more like an American road trip than a French road trip, but we wanted to try the autoroutes, renting a car, visiting another city and visiting a friend in another city. All things we had not done before. The autoroutes in France are predominately toll roads and there are plazas at fairly regular intervals. The big plazas have restaurants, a service station and other facilities.

We had no problems on the autoroute, the highway, but when we got to the center of Nancy, the gps failed us. There was a large number of small road closures due to repairs in the center of Nancy. The gps was unaware of the closures, so it failed to get us to the hotel, all we did was go around in circles for 20 minutes before we gave up. We found an underground parking lot by the train station and parked the car. The train station is a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Got checked in at the The Best Western Plus Crystal in central Nancy, got Sophie setup in the room then went out for a pizza.

With a quick call to Geneviève and we agreed to meet on Wednesday morning to start our tour of Nancy.

Wednesday-8th and Geneviève took the bus to our hotel. She lives on a bus route and that ride took her 10 minutes to get to our hotel. We started out by going to the BRASSERIE EXCELSIOR, a wonderful  art nouveau style restaurant. We had coffee and viennoise while we discussed things to do.

Then we were off to visit Place Stanislas. It is a wonderful square with beautiful entry gates and buildings. Stanisław (Stanislas) Leszczyński was at one time the Duke of Lorraine and Bar, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Lithuania. His accomplishments are memorialized in this beautiful place.

We spent the rest of the morning walking around central Nancy and the old city area of Nancy. We had a delightful lunch at a small restaurant in the old part of town. Sandy had a giant salad, while Geneviève and Philip had Quiche Lorraine. Very appropriate since Nancy is in the department of Lorraine in France.

It started to rain after lunch, so Geneviève invited us to see her apartment. She had only moved to Nancy in May so she had hardly been there more than a month. We took the bus to her stop and then walked 5 minutes to her apartment building. She has a great apartment. We talked and snacked for the rest of the afternoon. Then Geneviève took us on the bus back to our hotel. We had spent a great day in a beautiful city with our friend.

THURSDAY-9th and we plan to spend the night in Chartres. But first we had to check out of the hotel and then find our car in the underground parking lot by the train station. That did not go as planned. We had written down the location of the car, but it was not quite correct. So we had to do some searching, but we found it.

Chartres is about 5 or 6 hours from Nancy. We looked at the map and decided to take a different route than the one suggested by the gps. We decided to stay on an autoroute south of Paris, travel in the direction of Orleans and then go north to Chartres.

return trip day 1, Nancy to Chartres
  1. started in the east of France in Nancy
  2. south and then west to Troyes
  3. then west to just north of Orleans
  4. northwest to Chartres

The plan worked great and we avoided the Paris traffic. We had a nice night at the Ibis Styles hotel on the outskirts of Chartres. We did not get to see the famous cathedral, but maybe next time.

FRIDAY-10th had us eating an early breakfast, packing our luggage and getting Sophie ready to go. We left the hotel early for our trip back to Saint-Malo. Today, we had the same low tire pressure issue as Tuesday, but a quick stop at a service station corrected that problem.

return trip day 2, Chartres to Saint-Malo
  1. started in Chartres
  2. west to Le Mans (next day was the 24 hours of Le Mans)
  3. continue west to Laval
  4. continue west to Rennes
  5. then north to Saint-Malo

Got Sandy and Sophie back to the apartment. Filled the car with diesel and returned it to the rental office. Took the bus back to the apartment and then took a nap.

Sophie did wonderfully throughout the trip. In the car she wants her carrier open and she just naps on the carrier door. In the hotels she is great. Sandy sets up her food, water and litter box and Sophie adapts very quickly.

This slideshow contains all the photos we took on our trip to and from Nancy.

2022-06-07 - 10 Nancy voyage
2022-06-07 – 10 Nancy voyage
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SATURDAY-11th and it is a marché in Rocabey day! We purchased our vegetables (green beans), fruit (melon and peaches) and meat (filet mignon de porc and sausages) at the marché. We also purchased some Thai food for dinner. The rest of the day we spent recovering from the trip.

SUNDAY-12th with great weather, clear skies, light winds and the temperature around 16°C (61°F) we took an hour and half walk on the digue. A lot of things were happening on the digue. The sail school was having kayak competitions and were going to have events all day.


Now that you have made it this far you have a choice on how to continue. Below is a gallery of photos from this week titled 2022-06-12 week album. There are two ways you can view the photos.

The first way is to click on the title area of the album. So click on the 2022-06-12 week album and the album will open in FLICKR.

2022-06-12 week album
2022-06-12 week album
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  • scenes from a walk on the digue
    scenes from a walk on the digue
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The other way is to click on the right >arrow in the area below. Clicking on the arrow all show the next photo in the album.


That is all for this week in Saint-Malo. Au revoir.

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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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