Bonjour and Happy Birthday to Lee. As we step down to the breakfast table this morning, we are beginning to catch up on our body time changes. Wonderful croissants, coffee, baguette, juice, yogurt and butter. We lift a proverbial glass to Lee and threaten to sing Happy Birthday, but, with protests from the surrounding guests, decide to leave it at best wishes.
This morning the weather is raining/drizzling and cool so we head out to the historic city of St. Malo, some 30 kilometres up the road. St. Malo is an ancient city that eventually displaced Dinan, on the river Rance, from its economic power - St. Malo is at the mouth of the Rance and boasts a much deeper harbor. Again, this was originally a walled city and is now surrounded by suburbs. However the original city and its walls (ramparts) are still intact and it has become much the tourist destination.
Small winding streets are, due to the inclement weather, rather uncrowded this morning. We wander the streets, looking in all the shop windows and reading the historical signs around and about. Around noon, we spot a creperie restaurant up on the rampart wall boasting a sea view. As the classic food in Breton is a crepe filled with either savoury or sweet fillings, we head up and secure four places at one of the communal tables. As we survey the menu, the youngest member of the threesome at our table suddenly stops her french discussion with the waiter, and addresses us in perfect American English.
We find out that she is an American from Louisiana here in France teaching English. She is today accompanying her aunt and uncle from Indianapolis and suddenly we seven Americans are chattering away about basketball, travel and luckily for us, the menu and what to order. We find that hard cider rather than wine, is the drink of Breton and order a pitcher of this 2% alcoholic beverage to go with our sausage, chicken and andouille galettes. We end with some coffee and a sugary crepe with whipped cream for dessert. A wonderful and native lunch in a bit of a touristy restaurant with a marvellous view of the sea (although cloudy and rainy, so much is left to our imagination, view wise.)
We head back out with the intent of walking the rampart around to our starting point. Soon, the wind and cold drive us off the wall and back down to the city lanes. We retrieve our car from yet another underground car park and head south back towards Dinan. We take the scenic route through the old port city of Dinan, gazing at these wonderful stone homes clinging to the cliffs overlooking the river Rance and its journey towards the sea. The scenery is very reminiscent of Cornwall and its rugged sea coast and small villages. It is easy to see that this was once a British colony and how the citizens of Breton cling to their Celtic heritage and ways.
We return to our hotel around 3:00, secure a parking lot stall and repair to our rooms for some rest and reading time. We reconvene at 6:00 and head to our restaurant of choice in the old city; Les 3 Lunes - The three Moons - is our restaurant of choice. A gourmet menu establishment owned and operated by Chef Thierry Teffaine and his wife Magali. (The third moon is their child who was not in attendance.) Our choices for the evening were lamb, pork loin and steak. The amuse bouche was a gelatin of salmon with small tomatoes topped by creme fraise. Vegetable on offer was asparagus accompanied by a creamy buttery sauce with a poached egg submerged. We dipped and spread the sauce over the properly cooked white asparagus! We selected a Loire Valley Pinot Noir as our wine and ended the evening with three desserts - a blanc manger fraisboise (raspberry), a baked Alaska and a selection of cheeses. A long and leisurely dinner.
We sauntered back to the hotel and were tucked in by 10:30. A relatively easy but interesting and educational day.
