france - day 8

This morning we drove over to the town of Dinard, with Placido's fill-in, Patrice, at the wheel. We didn't realize what a superb driver Placido was until we had someone else driving us through the very small streets of these Breton towns. With Placido at the wheel there were no sudden stops, no close calls, no surprises. We hoped he was having a nice day off and looked forward to having him back in charge of the bus.

After visiting the open air market in Dinard, and looking back east along the coast to see St. Malo, we returned to St. Malo for a walking tour of the city. The St. Malo municipal flag was flying in the stiff breeze:



An important port in the past and still very active today, St. Malo is home to several restored sailing vessels:

Jacques Cartier (1491-1557), a native of St. Malo, sailed from here to the west and in 1534, took possession of Canada in the name of Francois I, king of France. Richard, our Canadian tour director, holds a special regard for St. Malo and thinks of himself as French first, Canadian second.

Another famous son of St. Malo was the writer and politican, Francois-Rene Chateaubriand (1768-1848). The birthplace of Chateaubriand is noted on this plaque:


and he is buried on the island at the left of this image. He directed that he be buried in a vertical position and facing the sea, forever looking outward across the waves:

While we were on this trip there was a great deal of civil unrest in France. Demonstrations were held on a daily basis, throughout the country, as displeasure with the government's proposal to raise the retirement age was voiced. Fuel depots were closed down by demonstrators and gas stations ran out of gasoline. Those stations that still had gas were beseiged by long lines of cars. Many airline flights were canceled and on at least one occasion, our flight from Canada stopped in Manchester, England on its way to Paris to refuel, so that it would have enough fuel to be able to leave on time and fly back to Toronto. We saw and heard many demonstrations, including this one in St. Malo:

After the walking tour we enjoyed a nice lunch on the town square and did a little shopping. One fabulous shop was a chocoholic's delight (and I am a proud, card-carrying chocoholic). Look at these amazing chocolate designs:


and at these bins of handmade chocolate. Doesn't get much better that this!!