Autumn 2024

Vouillé, Saffré & St Malo - 18,19 & 20 October 2024

18.10 - Vouillé

Ha, husband chose a Prime film last night - a bit weird! Called Unchartered with Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg and Antonio Banderas. Preferred my romantic comedy in the afternoon with Anne Hathaway! (The idea of you) - even if it wasn’t much good!

Dark and very quiet at Cavignac last night.

Tintin drove today. First filled up with diesel - again - over €110! He parked where there wasn’t really a parking space so I could pop into the supermarket. It was a huge store, and packed. So distracted by trying to be quick that I forgot the milk - what a pain!

Another 2-1/2 hours closer to St Malo. I swear he picks the better days to drive! No rain today - makes it so much easier. So many trucks/lorries - every day.

We’re parked up in Vouillé, a pretty little town which provides moho parking.

After a late lunch, we had good catch up chats with both our children 😊

Went for a walk - didn’t take long to be honest! We can see ducks and goats from our window, and walked through the park on the way back. Tried out the keep fit equipment - as you do!

We’re actually going out out to eat tonight!

19.10 - Dave service at La Chapelle-sur-Erdre - then Saffré

Well - our evening out in Vouillé made us smile if nothing else! We were the only people there at 7pm. We got the feeling it was the waiter’s first night! He gave us one menu between two - he did this for subsequent people, despite there being lots of menus. We asked to see the wine menu - there wasn’t one. He brought us over a choice of two rosé wines. He was about to open one, and we asked if it was cold. Err - no! We could wait 30 minutes! We weren’t going to bother - but then he said we could have a glass of cold rosé! (from a box!) Who forgets to have any bottles chilled?! Tintin was going to have the set menu - but based on experience so far - went for pizza too! Nothing special - crust very doughy. We watched as he slowly helped other people. He just wouldn’t look anyone in the eye. He did ask if we wanted any dessert, we said no thank you - but he wouldn’t even take our empty plates. We asked for the bill. Eventually he came over with his machine. Tintin didn’t know whether the payment had gone through or not - and of course we weren’t told anything straight away. Apparently they hadn’t put the machine in charge - so could we wait! We saw someone else pay - so went to the desk, so were able to pay. I feel sorry for the guy. Not his fault he’d been given inadequate training! The reviews on Google were actually quite good, friendly staff, good food etc. We didn’t have the heart to leave a review! €37.

Quiet and dark for sleeping - apart from the moon. Could hear owls too which was lovely.

I was driving today - so of course it was raining! My penance for forgetting the milk yesterday was going to another SuperU today, and having to park (which my husband said I did very well 😊). Quick pitstop for bread, milk - um and doughnuts!🍩.

Drive was due to be 3 hours, but was only 2-1/2 hours - obviously driving too fast!

The good thing about driving at the weekend is far fewer trucks. Our mission was to find somewhere to service Dave. Went to La Chapelle-sur-Erdre. Rubbish location - drive into service, then a fairly narrow reverse to park. Of course, when did the heavens choose to open again? Just when we were outside doing Dave!

Had lunch - then decided to move on - not a very nice place. I drove another 30 minutes, and we’re near the Nantes to Brest canal, and a lake. We parked near here in 2022 on our way home.

Not sure about this being back in jeans - been about 18/19° and quite nice now the rain has stopped.

Went for a very pleasant walk alongside the canal and by the lake. Great to have the warmth of the sun again for a few hours.

Today was the first time in nearly 7 weeks that our towels weren’t dry from showering the previous day - they benefited from the sun too!

We’re on our own again - very dark.

20.10 - St Malo Aquarium

All peaceful and dark for a good night’s sleep at Saffré last night.

Slow start, as not much to do being our last day away. Well - fingers crossed! Condor have cancelled all ferries today due to the wind - so will see what tomorrow brings… If we don’t write another blog - it’s because we’re home!

So - Tintin driving today - about 2 hours. And yes - it was slightly raining for him too! Stopped off to fill up with diesel for the last time.

This trip - diesel has been our greatest expense at nearly €1,000, followed by food shopping at about €500. Total for 7 weeks enjoyment is about €3,000 (including ferries too). We’ve done 90 hours driving, distance covered - 3,450 miles, average fuel consumption 24.8 mpg and average speed 38 mph.

As it was due to be a wet Sunday, thought we’d visit the Aquarium in St Malo - as I’d read some people slept over in the carpark - so kill two birds with one stone!

€39 entrance for us both. We had to queue! Tried to be clever and go at lunchtime as we know the French really like their lunch! Still busy. And what’s it with children sounding louder as you get older?!

Not convinced it’s much of a life for some of the fish - seemed really quite small tanks for the numbers?

Anyway - an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours. Some photos are a bit disappointing. Can’t decide whether it’s the camera on my iPhone making things darker than reality…

You can also see fish and rays in open water. There’s a gimmicky box you go into which simulates you going down 500m and rocks around - not quite Disney!