Winter Activity

Porte de Dinan, the gate we go out each morning to visit the port. To me the town looks so inviting from this vantage point.

The character of Saint Malo changes significantly in January apparently. Although we still see the usual dog-walkers and joggers, and fisherman still come and go, much else closes down. Of the several boulangeries in town, only one is not on congé (seasonal vacation). Many shops are shuttered and commerce and tourism have slowed down. 

One thing that picked up, however, is construction! Right across the street we can watch workers building, painting, cleaning. Our local grocer, just down the block, is remodeling. Scaffolding has appeared on several neighborhood buildings. The sounds of saws and hammers is in the air.

Quiet backstreets of Saint Malo.

The weather is a little more challenging. Once this week we were heading towards our walk on the walls and were nearly blown off our feet. The narrow streets act like wind tunnels. There has been rain most days, but usually punctuated by moments of clear skies.  

A statue of the French 15th century general, Bertrand-François Mahé, born in St. Malo, located at the end of our quay.

We have taken to walking at street level and often going out the Porte de Dinan, around the port to the east side of town and walking back through the Porte Saint Louis, circling back home, or vice versa. 

One thing we've been watching this week is the installation of an enormous carnival, which arrived on the Quai Saint Louis early in the week. We wonder to ourselves how such an activity at this time of year could bring much business. The amount of time to raise it, the number of people who have worked to erect it and the enormity of it all, seem a bit crazy to us. But the circus is in town and will stay, taking up the entire quay in front of the walled city, for a month. It seems incongruous, at least visually.

Setting up the carnival.

The rides, which stretch all along the quay are set up right next to where the large ships are moored. It makes for a confusing tableau. 

We enjoy checking out the ships that cruise into port. This large vessel, the Goelo Enabler, is from Norway. It is a ship that spends two weeks at sea erecting wind mills in nearby waters before gliding into port for supplies, and then sailing back out again.

The Goelo Enabler.

Another ship that we often see is the wonderfully named Grain de Sail, a play on words. This is one we became familiar with 5 years ago when we were living in Dinard. We would watch it sailing out of St. Malo port on its way to North and South America. 

The Grain de Sail is a modern sailing vessel, using the wind, not a motor, to propel it.

You see its very tall masts on the right of the photo below. We were particularly curious to notice a U.S. flag flying on masts next to it. When we rounded the wall, we discovered that the U.S. flags were flying from one of the carnival rides. We haven't solved the mystery of why that would be yet! My favorite ride name, by the way, is the Adrenalyn. It throws you around high above the quay. I wouldn't be caught dead on it.

Walking from the Porte de Dinan along the south wall towards the Quai Saint Louis on the eastern wall of town.

The Grain de Sail is a French cargo ship that brings wine to New York and chocolate and coffee back across the Atlantic.

Sailors in St. Malo harbor doing maintenance on the Grain de Sail.

Meanwhile, Rick last weekend took a course in making Breton galettes. He came back home with enough buckwheat galettes, wheat flour crepes and small blinis to feed an army. They were delicious.

Rick at the international school of Crepe-making (Ecole Internationale de la Crèpe) in St. Malo.

Rick's niece, her husband and two wonderful girls came to France for their winter break. They stayed with us in Moulins for January first and a few days into the new year. They then traveled to Switzerland to ski in the Jungfrau. They came back to France early this week and were in Paris with Emily and her family. They flew back to Portland yesterday, then home to the Oregon coast where they have a farm growing organic fruits and vegetables. 

Uma and Cleo in Paris one night last week. Photo by Danny DeSurra, their dad.