St Malo - Jour sept

All good things come to an end and today is the final day in St Malo. What an awesome week this has been. The weather has been perfect. The Ibis hotel was great, made special by BB paying for an ocean view as we could watch the huge tide come and go. The staff were so pleasant. I've enjoyed each day, starting with a run, brunch at the old town, sitting watching the artist paint, watching the people on the beach or climbing Grand Be or Petit Be. Climbing Rocks or swimming in the pool, listening to all the buskers, or watching all the people sitting eating all the different fruits de mer.

This is definitely one of the nicest places to visit in France, hopefully will be back next year for the tdf.

Saw the Brittany Ferries leaving this morning with all the people standing on the back waving, bet they were all as sad as I am about leaving.

Saw this sign outside a shop - --Bring it back.....................

St Malo - jour six

A relaxing day of walking, window shopping , photo taking, drawing, exactly what a holiday should be. My bird friend came to our window so many times today, yelling at us to feed him, but made him wait til dinner time.

Know.we have 3 tier sponges but not here, it's 6. This shop was packed with people eating all these delicious cakes. Very tempted to join them.

St Malo - jour cinq

Can't  believe our luck with the weather, another perfect day. Not too hot or windy. Nice run this morning for about 55 minutes. Usual walk to the old town for grocery shopping. Brunch on the park bench, watching the people go by. I am certainly in holiday mode. Not in a hurry for anything.. Today's adventure was a walk to Grand Be. Only takes about 12 minutes to get there from the hotel. Walked to the top and looked over most of St Malo. So many people at the top picnicing, was a busy little place. Walked back to the old town and took a few more photos, you can't help yourself as this place is so pretty. Sat on the beach for a good hour, just relaxing and being entertained by all the people. So many joggers here, up and down the beach, all different shapes and styles

St Malo - jour quatre

Another beautiful day in St. Malo. Weather perfect at about 22, sunny and not too windy for this part of the world. Tourist everywhere, the Brittany Ferries overnighter arrives at about 7.30 bringing a new lot of tourist each day and this little town thrives on it. Started the day with a run, I've ran right and left from the hotel, today I went up. Should be able to cover most of St Mali at this rate.

Brunch in the old town as usual,, fresh baguette fromage and tomate. Love it, never tire of it. I stayed and watched the painters. The artist doing comical portraits were in demand this morning. I watched him do these two sisters, they giggled thru most of it.  I went back and did some watercolour painting myself, much harder than acrylic painting,, but all good fun and very relaxing.Each day the buskers are out, all very entertaining.

Pizza for dinner - aubergine courgette oignon champignons

View from Bed tonight

Ahh, what can I say

St Malo Jour trois

Great day today, first off 1 hour run, headed to the boardwalk, it's 20min to the end and back. Then ran around to the boats. Got some nice photos, then ran along to the end of the pier and got a few shots of the light house. BB saw me, caught up to me and we had a few photo moments. Showered, then into town for the daily shopping, spent 8euro on boire yogourt tomate et baguette, as we plan to have our long awaited pizza tonight.

Stopped and watched the painters again for a short while, then bb and I did the planned walk to Port  Little B.  Only problem was the water wasn't completely out when we got there. BB, being the patient man he is (not) striped down to his undies and swam over. He then walked part way back and  checked it was ok for me to walk over with camera etc without getting wet, only problem was getting my shorts wet  you could see straight thru to my undies, black poker dot. Hehe. We were the only ones on the island at this stage so not so bad. We climb to the Red Door of the fort over all the rocks, photo moments, then walked back to the hotel. Took two hours all up , but boy it was fun. Bit of painting for me, this watercolour painting is turning out to be harder than anticipated, but giving it a go and making the most of the learning op.

PIZZA for dinner, was it nice. Home made tomato paste on a very thin crust, only a small amount of cheese, zucchini and eggplant. Sprinkled with the hot oil sauce. Could easily have eaten 2 between us, it was so nice.

St Malo - Jour deux

Well much better weather today, windy but that's what you expect in St Malo and about 20 degrees. Started the day with run at about 9am for 1 hour, tide was just about totally in and the waves splashed up on the walkway, fantastic viewing .

Then walked the old town with BB. Took in all the sites and went back down to where the painters set up and paint the local landmarks in hope of selling a painting, I just love watching them. Brunch on a bench seat of baguette tomate and fromage, don't forget the moutade.
By about 2pm the tide was today out and I walked across to Le Petit B. 5 euro to get in , for me just happy to walk around it. Back to hotel, little bit of sketching and internet. Vin Rough and I'm happy for the rest of the night. Oh, my seagull friend came to the window for a feed, must remember to keep some baguette for them.

St Malo dans la pluie

Yes, it's been raining most of the day. We got up very early and drove the car down to the Ibis Hotel where we'll be staying for a week, so we could get a park. Couldn't check in until 1.30, so we walked for hours, along the beach, thru the old town and around the fort. The rain came about 11.30 and set in for most of the day. Went for a run in the afternoon and was blown about, but at least I did a run. Lucky to get the 3 floor of the hotel. Absolutely great ocean view, I am very lucky.

Au Revoir Auray Bonjour St Malo via Plumelec

After a nice couple of days in Auray, heading towards St Mali for a week. Drove about 40k to Plumelec. In 2008, we watched out first ever live stage of the TDF, Went on to watch another 102, but this was the first and very memorable. We walked to town today, went to the same Marche, the community camp ground (which appears not be in use anymore), the stage Arivee and even the toilet (Long story, but this was my first experience of both sex toilets that are everywhere in France, but when you need to go, you need to go) .

Joyeux anniversaire à moi

Well I have celebrated my 54th birthday in a memorable way today. BB has totally spoilt me. We went to the carnal stones then on to Quiberon,  a small look look an island but not. What a beautiful place . Did some jogging, photo taking, picnic , walking , dipping in the water, running on sand. Doesn't get any better than this

Made it back to Ibis Auray about 1, which naw good timing as the traffic going to quiberon was huge.

Late walk to town, found a market and also found the exact spot we stood in 2008 tdf depart from Auray.

2 bottles of champagne, one exploded, pizza and 2 fruit tarts

Carnac Stones

Celebrating BB World Masters Athletics Results

Celebrating BB awesome results with a Pizza and unfortunately some bad tasting alcoholic cider. First naughty bit of food for. Bb in at least 6 weeks.

World Masters 10k Mens Champs

Little bit of rain about in the morning, much better for BB 10k race than it was for the 5k in the 40degress heat. Ran to the Saint Laurent Gerin track from the hotel, about 5k, got there early and watched some of the other races.

BB had a hot field and when the gun went off at 16.00, it was on. A pack of about 7 broke away with in 2 laps and they battled it out, each having a go out front and trying to make a gap. Great race, BB ran another awesome race and finished 5th in the world for his age running 10k. Imagine that 5th in the world, these runners although in the 50's still run like they are 20, awesome to watch

Another Day of Sight Seeing in Lyon

Weather has cooled down to a pleasant 25ish. Decided to take the tram again into town and walk the rivers. Everything is closed in Lyon on a Sunday, except restaurants. And that's where everyone was today. Mussels and wine seemed to be what they were eating (Moules and Vin).

Mens 5K World Masters

Ran to the Stade Pierre Duboeuf for the running of the Men 5k World Champs.BB in the A start at 10am. Weather was already hot at 8am. By the start of the race temp was well in the 30's.  BB ran 10th in a world class field, awesome result

A chill out day today in 38 degrees

Was it hot today. Went running at 7am and was hot in the first 5 minutes. Managed to do 45 minutes , found the Stade Pierre Duboeuf where Bruce will be running tomorrow in the 5km. Predict hot weather again tomorrow, so hoping his race will be earlier rather than later. Spent the day window shopping, drawing and eating.  Typical diet this year, baguette, fromage, tomate, moutade, vin rough, café, yogurt and potage.

A day of touring Lyon

Big day today, bought a day travel ticket for 5.50euro which gave me travel on bus train and tram. Really easy to get around, well marked and colour. Went to the famous Les Halle Paul Bucose Mache first, this is filled with the best gourmet food in Lyon. Found this not to be as good as expected, maybe on the weekend it would be buzzing more, but today it was filled with people having lunch in the many restaurants inside. Made my way to the city centre and walk to the Old Town. The Cathedral was a good 2km walked up hill. Quite hot today so I was sweating abit when I reached the top. Went thru the old Roman ruins and the cathedral.  Was well worth the walk as they were very picturesque. The view down to the city was awesome, showing the Rhône and the Saone Rivers as theta both run thue the centre of the city.