Our Last Sightseeing Day!

Hello!

 

I’m actually just up from a brief nap!  We had a lovely day in Vannes, and got back here about 3-ish.  I did my last load of wash – 30-minute quick wash, yeah!  And now there are a few things scattered around the apartment.  The very easiest way to get things dry, though, are radiators and the bathroom towel heater.  That works amazingly quickly, and voila! Things are dry!  So … to recap!

Vannes harbor

Old town Vannes

LOVE the colors!

 

Up this morning about 7:30-ish to a clear but very cold morning.  However, R did ask me to check Lyonweather – and we found that there is supposed to be SNOW there today!  Not a lot (maybe half an inch) but happy we’re near the coast now, that’s for sure!  I did, in fact, repack the suitcases, as we will be moving on tomorrow, back to Paris and Charles de Gaulle Airport.  

 

We went out about 10 am and headed towards Vannes, a very lovely small city that we have visited several times in the past.  Vannes is located on the Gulf de Morbihan and years ago, we went out on a boat ride and ended up being part of a huge boat parade around the harbor; great fun!  This time, we headed to Vannes Center; it was about half-an-hour’s drive from Carnac.  

Did I mention it was cold?

Vannes inner harbor

Town gate

Really a lovely place!

As we were driving into town, though, R spotted an Intermarche supermarket, and as we needed more water, and the place was open (it is Sunday, after all!) in we went.  Wow!  The Intermarche is a really fabulous supermarket!  SOOOO much better than the two smaller markets we had visited here in Carnac!  Who knew?!  I found an excellent assortment of soups stocked there, and their wine selection went on and on and on!  We were able to pick up a few things – including a bottle of Prosecco - (as well as water) that we needed.  I would have loved to explore the supermarket more fully – we’ll have to save that for “next time!”  

 

We drove through town and down to the old port area, where we parked the car.  Considering that it was a Sunday early afternoon, there were lots of people out and about, as well as folks riding bicycles, jogging and one group was even roller-skating!  Oh, my aching knees!  

 

Wine ... again!

Interior of restaurant; book pages!

All sorts of "sea" things!

Beautiful color in the trees!

We compared menus of several different bistros/restaurants (not sure exactly what the difference is, but I’m sure that somebody will enlighten me!) and Robert picked L’Escale, which I am told translates to “Stopover.”  There were actually people eating outside, but we were not going to be among them, that’s for sure!  In we went to a cozy table for two right next to a very efficient heater, so at least one side of me was warm at any one time.  

 

Robert ordered Gravlax for his starter, and it came with guacamole and some green salad – which was obviously homemade, and delicious!  I had ordered the hamburger, which I was told was HUGE, so I decided to skip a starter.  Robert’s main course was langoustines – which of course came with ALL of their parts on! Robert is so good and efficient in cleaning fish and shell fish.  The photograph is hilarious!  My hamburger – cooked rare, just the way I like it - was excellent!  It had some grilled onions, some melted cheese as well as some greenery around it, and came with French fries as well as a salad.  Lovely meals, both!

 

Then, for dessert, I ordered the Paris-Brest au Chocolat (whatever that was!) and R ordered the Café Gourmand.  That one I looked up, and it turns out that it is espresso with a variety of petit-four size deserts served on a plate.  Wow!  R’s assortment was wonderful – he had an almond cookie, and a hazelnut very thin cookie (Katy, think Julia’s hazelnut cornacopia’s, and you’d have it!) along with a small square of brownie-like chocolate, and almost a tarte-like creamy cake.  My dessert was basically a round large-donut-sized circle of pastry, sliced in the middle and then filled with chocolate cream.  Sprinkled all over the top was powdered sugar and toasted almonds.  It was great but, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish it! 

 

My hamburger

R and his langoustino

...with all the parts...

R's Gravlax and guacamole

(At this point, I am now officially in trouble!  I’ve done something to the computer and really need to wake R up from his nap to fix it … hopefully I can keep going and save what I’ve already written!  We’ll just do that, shall we?)  [Problem solved.  I think there are just too many menu items in Microsoft Word for some people to deal with. – R]

 

From Vannes, we decided it was time to get our groceries back to the apartment, so on we came.  When we got here, I put the last load of wash in, and R worked on the computer.  I then promptly fell asleep on the couch in the living room, and woke to find R was missing – but softly snoring from the bedroom.  Nice relaxing day!

R's espresso and desserts!

Paris a Brest Chocolat!

Delicious!

 

We stopped on our way back to pick up croissants and pain-au-chocolats for tomorrow morning.  We will just need to finish packing up and then I think we’re about set to head to Paris!  So!  More tomorrow – from Paris!

 

Love to all!

m

xxx