Wednesday August 3

Wednesday August 3, 2016 is again a drizzly day.  The temperature was already 22 C or 70 F and the humidity was very high for here.  We took the Navette bus to the Gare (train station) to check on the train tickets we purchased online yesterday.  We reserved them in preparation for our return trip to the USA in October.  The seats that we selected were called “duo cote de cote” meaning face to face, but the numbers didn’t match up.  The agent assured us we had selected correctly and offered to print our tickets for us.  We only waited about 3 minutes and all our questions were answered.  Next we walked across the street to return library books, then walked to the Intermarche grocery store for 5 items.  It started to rain enough for us to use our umbrellas and the wind had picked up.

Thursday August 4

Thursday August 4, 2016 and we spent two hours with Christine for tutoring.

In the afternoon we went out to the harbor and saw some fishing boats unloading their catch.

Fishing boat unloading their catch – shellfish

Today was our 43rd wedding anniversary and we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Divers’ Cité Restaurant. Phil chose escargot for his entree and boeuf avec bernaise sauce (filet) for his plat.  Sandy ordered an entre of crab “fritters” on a large salad but asked to eat it when she served Phil’s plat to him.  Unfortunately, something was “lost in translation” and her salad was served with Phil’s escargot.  Really wasn’t a problem and it always tastes wonderful.  For dessert Sandy ordered profiteroles with caramel sauce and Phil ordered chocolat liegoise which consists of chocolate ice cream, hot fudge sauce and real whipped cream on top.  Too much “caffeine” for Sandy at 9 pm.  It is always a pleasure and a treat to eat out!

The highlight of dinner was being entertained by the restaurant owners’ little white dog!

Restaurant’s little white dog

Friday August 5

Friday August 5, 2016 Sandy met our friend and tutor Christine at the Mediathèque De Saint Malo at 14:00 for an outing.  Christine wanted to drive Sandy to see “one of the most beautiful villages” in France.  It is called Saint-Suliac and is about 5 km from Saint-Malo. Saint-Suliac offers a panoramic viewpoint of the Rance estuary. For a long time it was a village of trawler men who fished off Newfoundland and the statue of the Virgin de Grainfollet watched over these fishermen. In the narrow streets where children play as they come out of school, flowers grow between the granite stones of the magnificent houses. A tide mill, old salt marshes, a menhir or standing stone are just some of the local treasures to admire in an exceptionally well-preserved site.

Saint-Suliac

For more information on Saint-Suliac: www.saint-suliac.fr

They spent several hours wandering around the tiny streets, pathways, and alleys, admiring the beautiful flowers, architecture, and or course the beaches.  It really is a beautiful village!  The selection of a village to become one of the most beautiful is based on:  The selection of villages takes place in 4 stages:

1. Evaluation on the basis of a village’s application
2. On-site evaluation
3. Quality Committee
4. Quality Charter

The concept to become most beautiful is:  Some 32,000 villages have shaped the French countryside over time and those of them that are members of the Association “Les Plus Beaux Villages de France” (The Most Beautiful Villages of France) share the same passion and ambition: to make the exceptional quality of their heritage known and recognized and to invite you to encounter their history, their land, their culture and their inhabitants. Come and share an art of living, charm and authenticity in 154 places charged with emotions…

Saturday August 6

Saturday August 6, 2016 is the day of the grande braderie of Saint-Servan.  All of the commercial businesses have tables of sale items in front of their stores.  Individuals and salespeople from other areas also set out tables or blankets with items displayed.  There are always food tents of sausage galettes, and the bars/restaurants set up extra tables outside.  It is quite the “party” atmosphere.  We walked to Saint-Servan, up the street to look at items on one side of the street and returned down the other side without buying anything.  We saw our friend Jean-Louis J. and he now feels like we’re truly friends since he exchanged kisses on the cheek with Sandy.  Phil got a handshake.  We spent a few minutes at the harbor watching the pirate ship unload 6 people at a time into an inflatable boat.  The Corsair ferry was making it runs between Saint-Malo and Dinard. It was just 2 hours after high tide and the water was quite high up the ramp.

At 16:00 we walked to the beach.  Depending on the number of other pedestrians, the walk can take as long as 12 minutes.  The tide was out.  Way, way out!  We walked from the Plage de Bon Secours where the pool is over to the Plage de Mole.  We were able to walk in ankle deep water all the way around the mole.  That was a first!  The water was cool, but very pleasant.

Sandy enjoying the sun and water

Sandy walking through the water at low-tide

At low tide you can really get a good perspective on the size of the harbor breakwater. That is Sandy standing in front of the breakwater.

Tide was really out, we were able to walk out past the end of the breakwater. The breakwater is 500 meters long, about 1,600 feet.

Sunday August 7

Sunday August 7, 2016 was the day of the Marche’ de Créateurs in Rotheneuf.  Our friend Jean-Louis H. helps to organize and run this art show with his relatives.  It is set in a lovely place overlooking the sea.  There were over 100 artists displaying and selling their creations.  We looked at paintings, soap, candles, glassware, pottery, clothing, baby items, and many stands selling jewelry.  We didn’t want to buy anything so after a quick walk through we headed to the bus stop.  The sun was shining, the temperature was 26 C or a very warm 79 F and we were hot! The bus was 25 minutes late, but when it arrived was a deluxe “charter like’’ coach with windows open on both sides.  20 minutes later and we were back in our apartment with a lovely breeze blowing.  Since we spend most of the time here loving the cool weather, a warm day is very unpleasant.  Glad to be home.