St-Malo, France

We treated ourselves to an alarm free day today and consequently woke at 9:30am which to our internal clocks was UK time 8:30am. No worries it was not far to walk to our mini fridge and Nespresso for coffee, fruit and rice pudding and then we returned a SKYPE call to both the children and enjoyed talking with Oli as Casey was at home visiting him. He was so cute and as soon as he saw us he said “Nona, I miss you!”. What a honey bunny. I was able to show him outside the window and the Pirates castle on the beach which he found interesting. When talking about how many sleeps till we got home I was reminded of how very quickly the time has gone and its really not long till we are home and back to reality. Sigh.

We did some internet research on our 4 remaining days here and tried to work out transport routes which ended up that one of the places will be too far – but others it was hard with the French timetables so we needed to find the boat ticket office in town for going to Dinan to find out details. Later in the day we were pleased to have done this and had a lovely english speaking customer service person who gave us our tickets. She indicated the boat was getting full, so we were pleased not to miss out on that for Monday, as there is no boat tomorrow.

At home in our research we also looked for a good crepe place, as they originate from this region and we wanted to have a really good experience. We have also decided to eat out for lunch as its cheaper and then picnic at leisure at night. By the time we got to town and found the best recommended place it was 1:30pm and we were able to get a table ok, however 5 minutes later it was full. The reviewers had said it was not a tourist place but more local and off the main streets so that appealed to us, the down side was no English on the menu but I am pretty good with food translation so that was ok. We ended up getting a set menu each – which gave you two galettes (savoury pancakes) and one crepe (sweet pancake). Vern chose the second fixed option which included a wine of sorts – like a cider with a liqueur in it – very nom – may have been a cross between galliano and herby drambuie but mighty fine. We also ordered a couple of coffees which came with sweetened cream on top and were one of the best we have had on holiday so far.

Back to pancakes – oh my – the set menu was far too much but you never know till you get it set before you. The entree one would have been sufficient, but we paced ourselves and did our best. The savoury pancakes – galettes here are made with buckwheat flour which gives them a sourdough – hay straw type flavour (thats what I think buckwheat tastes like) none the less it is nice! Sweet pancakes – crepes are made with a white flour. The flavours I had were a ham and cheese, followed by smoked salmon and lemon creme fraise, and chocolate and cream. Vern had local wild pork sausage, followed by jambon (ham), Emmental (cheese) onion and egg, and salted caramel and cream. On the galettes they also serve about a table spoon of butter to melt over it and add some flavour and sauce – like you need it. Total cost including drinks was €41 which is at a lot better exchange rate than pounds. We are fortunate to still have euro left over from our last trip too. It represented great value and was deserved of its high rating on Tripadvisor. We may go back if we get time and just order one …. single price is about €7.50 each for a large savoury which would be quite sufficient.

The service was great too with smiley non english speaking staff who were patient and pleasant with our struggling of the menu and difficulty with basic communication. We used the iPad translator like a message board to thank her and say it was very delicious thank you and she was so delighted giving us a special farewell after paying the maitre de.

The rest of the day was spent wandering the streets, lanes, walls and shops enjoying the beautiful surrounds of this tidy, clean, attractive medieval town and blue/green clear waters fringed by golden sands. I keep saying places are scenic and pretty – and they truly are. Rather than try and put words to it I will let my photos describe what my eyes see.

We found a patisserie and got some dessert – typical Breton specialities of a prune custard tart and another apple and walnut flan with crispy topping and flakey base and then to the supermarket for fresh warm crunchy baguettes (they bake regularly all day), more pate, terrine, onion jam, and for a change some cider made from red delicious apples!

On our walk home we stopped at a bus stand to see if one went to the train station as its a decent walk there for our day trip tomorrow to Vitre and a lovely young lady asked if we needed help and quickly directed us to the right number bus to take. Its lovely when people take the time to help – unfortunately we experience a lot of that in the UK.

Footnote: Red Apple cider is not as nice as the others, actually didn’t finish it as it was just not up there (really). Its really like appletise and no character.