Cancale, Dinan, Dinard

(Lesley) Over the last few days we have stuck close to home but have not stayed home.  We have visited several interesting towns nearby.  Thursday, we went to Cancale where you can get lots of seafood.  Cancale is famous for their oyster beds.  We almost ordered oysters on the half shell with lemon, from one of the street stalls, but they only sold them by the dozens and we weren’t keen enough to eat that many raw oysters.  Sam and Mhari each committed to trying one, but John and I have tried them before and didn’t want to eat any, so we decided that moules and frites would be a better option.  So we ordered mussels and Yes, we ate in a restaurant!  We also had a an order of fish soup.  Both were good.  We had some moules marinieres and one moules with cream.  Then, we realized that because we have been eating from street stalls, grocery stores à la picnic, and cooking our own food, we had no idea about the etiquette of tips in France.  Here we were, in a restaurant, about to pay the bill and wondered what was appropriate in terms of tip.  How much? too little? Argh!  We have all read up on this matter, but that was months ago.  So, our bill was 32 Euros and we left 5 Euros tip.  We have since checked it out and re-read our guide book.  Turns out 15% tip is included by law in the price, but it is courteous -not expected, to leave small change, like a Euro or two, they suggested the price of a coffee.  So we gave a big tip and I’m sure our fellow was happy.  And now we are ready for our next restaurant adventure.  Which wine to order? That will be our next stumbling block.

We drove along the coast to St Malo before heading home from Cancale.  We stopped on a gorgeous beach and chatted with a fellow in a thick wetsuit who was heading in for a 45 minute swim, something he does a few times a week right through the winter.  I talked triathlon with him for a bit; he does a few each year. In St-Malo we played on the sand and between the posts near the Fort National.

Friday we went to Dinan.  An old medieval town, beautiful!  We arrived like usual just when everyone is closing down for the afternoon siesta.  That was fine, it is nice to wander the streets when things are quiet.  The old city is lovely and we took some good photos.  Then we got a couple of baguettes and had our picnic in a nice park just bellow the ramparts.  

Photos: Sam, don't open that door!, Or that one!, Sam don't open that drawbridge! Oh no, now, it's stuck.

Photos: Lesley in front of the musée, looking out from the musée, and leaving the musée.

Saturday, we went to the market in Dinard.  It is the city across from St Malo.  It is beautiful, but our goal was the market so we hit that first.  Clearly the markets are where you shop while in France.  The summer season is over so there wasn’t as much produce as there is in the growing season, but there was still plenty to buy.  We bought des haricots verts, un choux romanescu (which looked in colour like a cross between broccoli and cauliflower but the shape was different) check Sam’s blog for a link and photo.

We also bought fromage de chèvre avec poivre, some saucisses secs: piment, tauraux, kangourou, and canard, as well as some cheeses.  We ate gallettes avec saucisses and a crèpe caramel au beurre salé.  It was all so good.  We found lots of other fun things to look at: hats and caps, jewellery, sweaters, fish and seafood etc.

Gallettes aux saucisses, mmm!

After we left the market, we wandered down to the waterfront.  We did the waterfront walk for about 5 kms.  It was beautiful.  The sea quite powerful.  Dinard has lots of fancy homes built by the English along the water.  Apparently Dinard is a costly place to stay.  Budget travellers are advised to stay across the water in St Malo then ferry over to see Dinard. 
Photos: Dinard fancy home, then lots of fancy homes.

Climb, Mhari, climb!

Today, Sunday, we are at the gîte.  The kids have done schoolwork.  Sam is estimating square roots and exploring Pythagorean theorem, well, we all are actually.  Mhari knew it right away. Anything to distract her from the spelling she needs to do.  Actually, she is doing well with the spelling; John quizzed her today and she only made two mistakes out of the 90 words she had done in spelling sorts.  She got 76% on unseen words following the same patterns.  Not bad, considering most of her mistakes were silly ones like forgetting the r in cruel.  Both kids will do some comparing number stuff later, which is easy and fun.  I brought papers I received from math inservices in English.  One set is for developing number concepts and is  destined for junior high, grade 7-8,  but all the concepts are grade 5-7 review.  We can look them over then lighten the load by tossing them out once we are done.  Everyone loves throw away math! Especially when you are living out of one bag for a year.  With so much to see here in France we go many days without even thinking about school work so to take a day and play catch up is worth it.

Everyone has just taken a break and is reading.  I’ll do likewise, Bye Lesley