Too tired to get up early for the train trip to Vitre. Instead we had breakfast at the hotel and wandered out to the beach. The tide was out, so we could walk to the”National Fort”. Unfortunately, we needed to check out of the hotel so could not go on the tour.
It was a windy, overcast and slightly damp morning. I love to walk along the beach on those kind of days. We touched the cold waters of the Atlantic for the first time and breathed in the seaweed smell. The tidally exposed rocks were covered with a variety of seaweed. A number of species are used in local and international foods. We had bought a bottle of mustard with seaweed and a bag of sea salt, also with pieces of seaweed throughout.
After we checked out of the hotel we continued our wandering, taking advantage of the low tide to walk out to a grassy island and admire the views. St Malo’s massive walls and hodgepodge of stone houses and slate rooves make it a very impressive place to admire from a distance. Popped into a patisserie for some interesting looking baked delights.
Lunch was more seafood, followed up by a crepe with ice cream, a meringue and flamed Grand Marnier. Delicious!
Caught a bus back to the train station, then changed at Rennes, waiting about an hour. During the TGV ride to Paris I started to fill the thrill that comes from visiting my favourite foreign city. I tried to put my mind back to how it felt during our first visit here for our honeymoon.
It was about 8pm when we exited the metro at Odeon and started searching for our hotel: the Saint-Pierre. The area around the metro entrance was crowded. After dumping our stuff off in the hotel room, we went looking for dinner in the local area. The streets and restaurants were crowded and there were many queues to get into most of the restaurants. We were so used to having trouble finding places to eat in Paris that we were quite overwhelmed with the range of options.
The hotel itself seems decent, although our expectations are quite low. Tomorrow we will wake up in Paris. Yay!