St Malo

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The breakfast room was pretty empty but also fully stocked, except my three-minute egg machine was not working, or it was working there were just no eggs. We had already taken showers so after breakfast it was just a quick finish packing and we were off. It rained pretty hard overnight and was still raining when we left. Its Monday and Victory day here in France, there was a bit gathering of French Naval personnel, in full uniform just up the street from our hotel having some type of ceremony to honor the day.

This was not a long driving day, a little over 2 hours to Dinan, our first stop. Would have been quicker but we had a bit of trouble finding a gas station. If you really want to experience France, buy gas in the middle of nowhere, where no English is spoken. We got through and were on our way again.

Brittany is basically the breadbasket of France, so the drive was through miles of farmland. No chateau’s here, if you want that, you need to be in the Loire Valley. Dinan, is a very cute village and everything you expect a village in the countryside of Brittany to be. Would we live there, no, but there is a train station. It is very quaint and a great place for lunch. Our first choice was Le Cantobery, got all the raves in Rick Steve’s and Trip Advisor. They didn’t take reservations and were already completely booked when we got there. Our second choice was Restaurant la Duchesse Anna. This was off the main tourist square and very French. It was located in a 1-star hotel and the owner/manager was a hoot. He spoke perfect English with a British/French Accent. He spent 8 years in London, so I assume that is where he learned English. He also live in Manhattan for a little under 2 years, he didn’t like it any more than we did. Now he is back in France with this nice little restaurant.

He played the rude Frenchman very well but was actually very nice. In his words, what fun is it to be French if you can’t be rude.

It was a very limited menu, prefix, each course only had a couple of options. Jerry has asparagus with hollandaise, I had a pork terrine for the starters. The standard bread was served, but again, not a baguette but a wheat bread of some sort. I have decided the only reason for bread in Brittany is as a vehicle for the butter. It is really the best butter there is, and you need the bread to justify eating it, otherwise you’re just eating a stick of butter.

Jerry had skate wing over risotto, and I had veal. Dessert was strawberries, rhubarb over baked méringue all on top of a light cream anglaise. The surprising thing the entire meal was 39 Euros. I finished with an espresso so I could finish the last 40 minutes of the drive to St. Malo.

The drive into St Malo was a bit tense, lots of round abouts, a couple of missed turns, and then the very narrow streets of the walled city. St. Malo is similar to Mont St. Michel, except larger and allows cars inside the walls. Mont St. Michel is also on an Island which at times is not accessible if it is a particularly high tide. We did drive right to the hotel, and fortunately that had a bit of parking (on the sidewalk) for check in purposes. We also opted to pay the 25 euros extra to park in the hotel car park, Jerry got the privilege of driving the car into that (picture on tomorrow’s blog post).

After we checked in, parked, and did a quick unpack we were off to explore the city. We started with a walk on top of the ramparts, which surround the entire old city. It is surprising how many people actually live inside the city walls. It was a nice walk with wonderful views of the English Channel. There are numerous ferries that leave from here to the islands of Guernsey and Jersey and also to Plymouth and Portsmouth England. We walked about 2/3 thirds of the ramparts, then came down into the city and strolled back to the hotel. We did stop and buy a couple of Macaroons; they were very good.

We are now in the room, just relaxing, wine thirty time. Tomorrow will be our last full day in France and a final night in Paris. I think we have made some in roads in places we might live, and certainly places we will not. Interesting, while we were in Brest, Lyon got put on the list. More on that later.

Just a bit of history regarding St. Malo. It was originally built during the reign of Louis XIV as a defense against the English and Dutch. It also has a strong connection to Quebec City which is its sister city and Jacques Cartier a Breton navigator visited the future site of Quebec City in early explorations of Canada. During WWI, the US bombed the city and almost all of it has been rebuilt after the war. It was a German stronghold on the French coast, thus the reason for the bombing.

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Just back from dinner, which was very good. I am, however, really tied, so may have to finish this in the morning or on the train back to Paris. The sea air always has had the effect of chilling me out completely, doesn’t seem to have the same impact on Jerry. So, I think I will just download the pictures to the computer and finish this up in the morning.

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To finish up our day in St. Malo, even after a night’s sleep, I am pretty tired, travel does catch up with you at some point. Dinner was very good and put for the two small children running around and making two much noise, it would be one of the best meals of the trip. Food-wise, it certainly was, but screaming children do not get you any positive marks.

We of course started with two glasses of champagne. It took us a bit to decide as there were several things that looked good on the menu, and they had several different prefix menus to choose fun, in the end we went ala carte.

Jerry started with a clafoutis of pears, arugula and Roquefort cream. I had Monkfish gravlax with a citrus emulsion, including kefir lime (takes me back to Thailand.) The bread and butter were of course on the table, and Jerry finally took the time to actually taste the butter and agreed it is simply the best. We had a very nice Burgundy with our meal. Wine has been difficult on this trip because one of us often has fish and the other meat, so the right wine becomes a bit more difficult to choose.

The mains were both good, but mine hands down is dish of the day (Jerry wanted the cheeseboard again.) Jerry had cod (yes, we have eaten a lot of fish this trip) with a very nice butter cream sauce and I had saddle of lamb in a lamb jus. The lamb melted and I mean melted in your mouth. We then shared a cheese board of 4 cheeses from different regions in France. Don’t ask me to tell you what they were, because the server went over them very quickly. We finished with a Rocher Praline. A chocolate mousse covered in a hard praline shell with dots of caramel and fleur de sel ice cream.

It was a very good final meal in Brittany. Today we are back to Paris for our last night in France, but first a quick stop in Rennes where we return the car and catch the TGV to Paris.

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Photos

Saddle of Lamb
Dish of the Day