Friday 22nd September 2017, 11.00am (day 2,220)
I did have a sea view from my hotel room in St. Malo. Kind of.
Last day in France. Despite the hassles getting here, it was a good trip.
Told you the sea came in…. the fort out there is the spot from where I took yesterday’s photo, at low tide. At high tide, and high winds…. wear waterproofs while walking along the sea front at St. Malo.
St Malo is on the northern coast of France, close to where the coast of Brittany takes a turn to the north and becomes Normandy. The old town is behind a complete ring of 17th century fortifications built to defend against the nasty English and Dutch. The tidal range here is extensive, some 45 feet between high tide and low; the broad beach you see here is completely covered by several feet of water twice a day.
We are all paying attention, honest. Not an exciting photo (with due respect to the people in it) but I should somehow depict the conference which actually got me to Paris. Last day here, a mixed break, to put it mildly, but life goes on. It’s certainly a fine city, undeniably a world centre.
Going a bit out on a limb with this shot because it’s out of focus, but I think it captures quite well the atmosphere of this totally unreconstructed bistro which we stumbled across at lunchtime. Food, wine, this is why I came to Paris… (well, OK, I came for a conference, but y’know).
So as you might have gathered from yesterday’s post (I said, don’t ask), we have been in Paris for a few days. France becomes the 22nd different country to feature on the blog. Not a new country or place for me, but it’s been a while (2003 was the last visit to France and around 2000, I forget exactly, to Paris). We were staying near Montmartre, a good place to amble around on a warm sunny day and enjoy the view over the city from the steps below the Sacre-Coeur, as these people (and several hundred others) are doing.