Thursday, August 17, 2006

Rennes

We took the tgv to Rennes today. Its a place we usually visit.

It struck me today that its a city of two halves - the part south of République is a bit grotty and seedy and has an edge to it. The northern part has the nice buildings and old half-timbered houses.

Still it was here that we saw the police arrest a drink who had attacked someone else. They arrived quickly and screeched up in their Xsara with one hit jumping out before they had stopped. Yer man was Handcuffed and taken away.

Later on up near St Anne place we saw three cops go through a door that looked medieval and lord knows where the steps behind it led to.

Found a great shop near Virgin which sold DVDs for a tenner - excellent range too.

Forgot to mention that there was a quartet of police on the tgv as well casting their eyes over everyone.

Rennes is pretty and worth a visit and is a real city unlike the tourist spots that we are more used to.

Train to St Malo


Train to St Malo
Originally uploaded by despod.

Rennes doorway


Rennes doorway
Originally uploaded by despod.

Rennes old painted wall


Rennes old painted wall
Originally uploaded by despod.

Rennes where the police arrested a drunk


Rennes Hotel de Ville


Rennes Hotel de Ville
Originally uploaded by despod.

Rennes


Rennes
Originally uploaded by despod.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Fireworks in St Briac


Fireworks in St Briac
Originally uploaded by despod.

What is it about camper vans ?

Or, more to the point, Italian vans ?

The place is crawling with them - yesterday we met a convoy of three followed a mile later by a convoy of ten ! Its not as if St Malo has a regular service to Italy. Met another three last night.

Weather is sunny today after our few cloudy windy days which coincided with the high tides (coefficient of 106) which meant low tides which brought out all the shellfish gatherers.

I notice that flickr is still dicky and not all my pictures are making it to this Blog so head over for the latest pics http://www.flickr.com/photos/despod

Today is the feast of the Assumption and a lot of people are off. It is also the anniversary of the liberation of the local area from the Germans and we will be heading down later for the fireworks which will be launched over water from an old fort in St Briac.

I see in the papers all the hasle with hand baggage on planes - it must be driving the low cost carriers insane seeing as they are trying to reduce hold baggage. The airport authorities must be mad as well losing their bottle sales! If it continues I can see it harming day trips by plane due to the searching etc.

At least with the ferry we are spared that .

Monday, August 07, 2006

And there's more

We went to the market for our usual poulet roti. It was very busy and for the first time there were gendarmes on patrol. Strangely they were on the promenade as well today - never seen them here in the past 6 years !

Went to carerfour in St Malo today for the shopping and it was heaving - we won't be in a hurry back.

Weather is foggy but warm.

La belle France

Well we are here. Arrived in roscoff yesterday very early after a lovely smooth crossing. Our car was on deck 3 so we expected to get off quickly. However a donegal camper which was parked at the throat of the deck decided to turn up 10 minutes after the ramp was lowered. A galaxy and a cork BMW did their but to block the other lanes and make sure that the other decks couldn't disembark. Tee donegal man threatened to pull me out of the car after I pointed out to him that his tardiness was literally holding up the èntire ship.

The drive was uneventful and in a nice gesture the keys were waiting when we got to the complex. Nice balcony and nice view.

....

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Getting ready to drop the pilot


Getting ready to drop the pilot
Originally uploaded by despod.

Pont Aven


Pont Aven
Originally uploaded by despod.

And we're off

The ferry left at 17.16 loading seemed a but disorganised compared to usual.

Ship is of the same high standard and our deluxe cabin is excellent. After a snack the boys headed off to a magic show but joe stayed with his mammy.

There is a fair crowd onboard and I don't think I've ever seen so many caravans and campers.

Just turning toweds Roches Point now and the breeze is freshening .

Scheduled arrival time is 7am French time.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Miscellaneous

Flickr is still having issues and now Vodafone is having problems as well - mms sent to flickr aren't showing but sending the Same pics by email from the phone works fine ...