Weather report November 10th 1997
Nov 11th 2006 | 5:08 am
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
Weather report November 10th 1997
We had a pretty good week last week, the winds blew up from
Bretagne and so it is cloud covered right now. The weather
has been warmer, above 50 F and the lows are not too low, in
the 40s. The leaves are leaving the trees now more seriously.
Last week, during the trucker's strike, we went over to Saint
Malo, in particular, the oyster "village", Cancale, in the
Mont St. Michel bay. Eastern France was pretty devoid of
gasoline and so for the first time we took the train.
It worked out very well. The Paris Montparnasse-Rennes TGV
run in only two hours and there is an immediate access to the
train to St. Malo on the same platform, 10 minutes after arrival
in Rennes. The total time is 3 hours from Paris to St. Malo.
We rented a car at the station, Avis has rental facilities and
so were in St. Malo in time for lunch, having left Paris at 10AM.
When traveling as a couple one gets a 25% reductionn on the train,
and the second class fare was about $150 round trip. That might seem
expensive but with gasoline in France 3 times the American price,
the gasoline costs of over there and back would have been around $100
and the autoroute fees en plus. The car time over to St. Malo
from Paris is around 5-6 hours, depending on one'e perpensity of
pushing the car well above the 130 km/hr limit (presumeably) on the
autoroute. At my age I find traveling a high speed, watching my
rear view mirror for faster drivers and dodging around the slower,
mostly truck, traffic nerve racking. The TGV is certainly a welcome
technological advance, I never did this trip on the older train system.
We have been visiting this area for over 20 years, each of our
successive dachshunds have done the trip with us. Gaston traveled in
his bag on this trip, he wraps himself into a dog ball and sleeps the
whole way. In Cancale we stay and eat at the Phare, which is in the
Guide Michelin and located in front of the oyster beds of that town.
The oyster beds and what comes out of them the main attraction of that
town. But the Phare has the best lobster we have ever eaten anywhere.
The patronne brings out the live creatures in a little basket for us
to choose from and these are grilled and served in a huge dish filled
with a butter wine wine sauce. In France, lobster is sold in the
restaurant by the 100 grams, and typical prices run around 50 francs/100
grams on the coast, higher in Paris. My guess this is about 3-4 times
the American price and so it is easy to run up a 100 dollar bill on
a single 1 kg lobster. The French have two words for lobster, the Maine
type with claws is a "homard", the California or caribbean lobster is
a langouste. The smaller crayfish type lobster appearing creature is
a langoustine, these having tails which have a lobster taste.
Any visit to Bretagne involves walking on the beaches, and there are
a number between Saint Malo and Cancale which merit a walk. The tidal
flows in this region are impressive and near Saint Malo one finds
a power dam whihc runs on the tidal flow. At Cancale, one only sees
miles and miles of muddy sea floor a low tide, and then it comes in to
wash at the sea walls around the town. At Saint Malo one can walk out
to the nearby islands during low tide although warnings are posted to
not attempt to return if the tide catches one on the island. It has been
claimed that at times the tide comes in faster than a galloping horse
so one can drown in disregarding the warnings.
Saint Malo is a walled town, Cartier left from here on his explorations
of Canada. During WWII the Germans held up in Saint Malo and the Allies
bombed the interior of the town with B19s, essentially destroying all
of the old buildings. The Germans actually held some coastal towns
until the end of the war but with Saint Malo the Allies made the
historical error of taking it, destroying it in order to save it.
The interior was rebuilt with more taste that a lot of post war
reconstruction (see Le Havre, for example, ugh). We actually ate at
a restaurant at the St. Pierre gate of the town, were we had
eaten many times before years ago. Our 5 year old daughter in 1966
actually learned to eat and like the plateau de fruits de mer, which
is a platter of partly raw seafood (the crab, shrimp, and sea snails
are cooked, the oysters not) at this place. Usually 5 year olds are
finiky about "new foods" wanting the familiar, but she learned to
accept nearly everything presented to her. We never insisted. But
many Americans freak out seeing people eat this stuff. She had
a short marriage with a Chicago man who really objected to her
eating this stuff in front of him, she having failed to test him
out before as to his degree of tolerance of the eating habits of others.
Ironically, being from Chicago myself, I half understand, I am not
a oyster eater with pleasure, I will take a lobster any time. But I
adore smoked fishes, as do many French, the "nordique" plates one
sees in French restaurants are not French in origins, the French
are not above stealing a good idea if it is edible. Our daughter
ended up with "yuppie" tastes (others sometimes think) at an early age.
In fact she was just here about two weeks ago and we made our annual
trip to Garniers (across from the Gare St. Lazare), which has the
best plateau in Paris according to my wife and our daughter. But it
all started in Saint Malo.
Ironically, my wife first went to Saint Malo in the 1940s. There was
a semiexclusive town built next to Oceanside California with the
same name, the houses all build in the Norman type rather than Breton,
and name given was Saint Malo. She use to go to Oceanside on vacation
with her parents, and was always curious about why they named it
after the original Saint Malo here in France. I can't remember why
that occurred, there are so many towns in the USA with European names
that their origins of naming remain obsure.
Bretagne and so it is cloud covered right now. The weather
has been warmer, above 50 F and the lows are not too low, in
the 40s. The leaves are leaving the trees now more seriously.
Last week, during the trucker's strike, we went over to Saint
Malo, in particular, the oyster "village", Cancale, in the
Mont St. Michel bay. Eastern France was pretty devoid of
gasoline and so for the first time we took the train.
It worked out very well. The Paris Montparnasse-Rennes TGV
run in only two hours and there is an immediate access to the
train to St. Malo on the same platform, 10 minutes after arrival
in Rennes. The total time is 3 hours from Paris to St. Malo.
We rented a car at the station, Avis has rental facilities and
so were in St. Malo in time for lunch, having left Paris at 10AM.
When traveling as a couple one gets a 25% reductionn on the train,
and the second class fare was about $150 round trip. That might seem
expensive but with gasoline in France 3 times the American price,
the gasoline costs of over there and back would have been around $100
and the autoroute fees en plus. The car time over to St. Malo
from Paris is around 5-6 hours, depending on one'e perpensity of
pushing the car well above the 130 km/hr limit (presumeably) on the
autoroute. At my age I find traveling a high speed, watching my
rear view mirror for faster drivers and dodging around the slower,
mostly truck, traffic nerve racking. The TGV is certainly a welcome
technological advance, I never did this trip on the older train system.
We have been visiting this area for over 20 years, each of our
successive dachshunds have done the trip with us. Gaston traveled in
his bag on this trip, he wraps himself into a dog ball and sleeps the
whole way. In Cancale we stay and eat at the Phare, which is in the
Guide Michelin and located in front of the oyster beds of that town.
The oyster beds and what comes out of them the main attraction of that
town. But the Phare has the best lobster we have ever eaten anywhere.
The patronne brings out the live creatures in a little basket for us
to choose from and these are grilled and served in a huge dish filled
with a butter wine wine sauce. In France, lobster is sold in the
restaurant by the 100 grams, and typical prices run around 50 francs/100
grams on the coast, higher in Paris. My guess this is about 3-4 times
the American price and so it is easy to run up a 100 dollar bill on
a single 1 kg lobster. The French have two words for lobster, the Maine
type with claws is a "homard", the California or caribbean lobster is
a langouste. The smaller crayfish type lobster appearing creature is
a langoustine, these having tails which have a lobster taste.
Any visit to Bretagne involves walking on the beaches, and there are
a number between Saint Malo and Cancale which merit a walk. The tidal
flows in this region are impressive and near Saint Malo one finds
a power dam whihc runs on the tidal flow. At Cancale, one only sees
miles and miles of muddy sea floor a low tide, and then it comes in to
wash at the sea walls around the town. At Saint Malo one can walk out
to the nearby islands during low tide although warnings are posted to
not attempt to return if the tide catches one on the island. It has been
claimed that at times the tide comes in faster than a galloping horse
so one can drown in disregarding the warnings.
Saint Malo is a walled town, Cartier left from here on his explorations
of Canada. During WWII the Germans held up in Saint Malo and the Allies
bombed the interior of the town with B19s, essentially destroying all
of the old buildings. The Germans actually held some coastal towns
until the end of the war but with Saint Malo the Allies made the
historical error of taking it, destroying it in order to save it.
The interior was rebuilt with more taste that a lot of post war
reconstruction (see Le Havre, for example, ugh). We actually ate at
a restaurant at the St. Pierre gate of the town, were we had
eaten many times before years ago. Our 5 year old daughter in 1966
actually learned to eat and like the plateau de fruits de mer, which
is a platter of partly raw seafood (the crab, shrimp, and sea snails
are cooked, the oysters not) at this place. Usually 5 year olds are
finiky about "new foods" wanting the familiar, but she learned to
accept nearly everything presented to her. We never insisted. But
many Americans freak out seeing people eat this stuff. She had
a short marriage with a Chicago man who really objected to her
eating this stuff in front of him, she having failed to test him
out before as to his degree of tolerance of the eating habits of others.
Ironically, being from Chicago myself, I half understand, I am not
a oyster eater with pleasure, I will take a lobster any time. But I
adore smoked fishes, as do many French, the "nordique" plates one
sees in French restaurants are not French in origins, the French
are not above stealing a good idea if it is edible. Our daughter
ended up with "yuppie" tastes (others sometimes think) at an early age.
In fact she was just here about two weeks ago and we made our annual
trip to Garniers (across from the Gare St. Lazare), which has the
best plateau in Paris according to my wife and our daughter. But it
all started in Saint Malo.
Ironically, my wife first went to Saint Malo in the 1940s. There was
a semiexclusive town built next to Oceanside California with the
same name, the houses all build in the Norman type rather than Breton,
and name given was Saint Malo. She use to go to Oceanside on vacation
with her parents, and was always curious about why they named it
after the original Saint Malo here in France. I can't remember why
that occurred, there are so many towns in the USA with European names
that their origins of naming remain obsure.
Nov 11th 2006 | 5:12 am
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Weather report November 10th 1997
Earl Evleth wrote:
> Ironically, my wife first went to Saint Malo in the 1940s.
which division was she with ?
> Ironically, my wife first went to Saint Malo in the 1940s.
which division was she with ?
Nov 11th 2006 | 5:34 am
#3
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Weather report November 10th 1997
On 11/11/06 19:12, in article
[email protected] om, "Donkey Rapist"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Earl Evleth wrote:
>
>> Ironically, my wife first went to Saint Malo in the 1940s.
>
> which division was she with ?
Saint Malo is in California too. At the edge of Oceanside
north of San Diego. It is one of the early "gated communities"
founded in 1929. The housing style is imitation Normand.
http://www.stmalocalifornia.com/
Weekly Rental rates are in the $3000-4000 region
It is cheaper in France!
[email protected] om, "Donkey Rapist"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Earl Evleth wrote:
>
>> Ironically, my wife first went to Saint Malo in the 1940s.
>
> which division was she with ?
Saint Malo is in California too. At the edge of Oceanside
north of San Diego. It is one of the early "gated communities"
founded in 1929. The housing style is imitation Normand.
http://www.stmalocalifornia.com/
Weekly Rental rates are in the $3000-4000 region
It is cheaper in France!
Nov 11th 2006 | 6:45 am
#4
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Weather report November 10th 1997
Earl Evleth <[email protected]> wrote:
>We had a pretty good week last week...
Jaysus, Earl! A proper trip report and you smuggle it under a header
like that. I opened it only by accident, because I don't often care
about the weather in Paris.
Worth reading, thank you.
--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED
My travel writing: http://www.iol.ie/~draoi/
>We had a pretty good week last week...
Jaysus, Earl! A proper trip report and you smuggle it under a header
like that. I opened it only by accident, because I don't often care
about the weather in Paris.
Worth reading, thank you.
--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED
My travel writing: http://www.iol.ie/~draoi/
Nov 11th 2006 | 8:14 am
#5
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Weather report November 10th 1997
In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Padraig Breathnach) wrote:
> *From:* Padraig Breathnach <[email protected]>
> *Date:* Sat, 11 Nov 2006 19:45:32 +0000
>
> Earl Evleth <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >We had a pretty good week last week...
>
> Jaysus, Earl! A proper trip report and you smuggle it under a header
> like that. I opened it only by accident, because I don't often care
> about the weather in Paris.
>
> Worth reading
Indeed.
[email protected] (Padraig Breathnach) wrote:
> *From:* Padraig Breathnach <[email protected]>
> *Date:* Sat, 11 Nov 2006 19:45:32 +0000
>
> Earl Evleth <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >We had a pretty good week last week...
>
> Jaysus, Earl! A proper trip report and you smuggle it under a header
> like that. I opened it only by accident, because I don't often care
> about the weather in Paris.
>
> Worth reading
Indeed.
Nov 11th 2006 | 10:11 am
#6
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Weather report November 10th 1997
On 11 Nov 2006 10:12:14 -0800, "Donkey Rapist"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>Earl Evleth wrote:
>> Ironically, my wife first went to Saint Malo in the 1940s.
>which division was she with ?
;-)
--
Martin
<[email protected]> wrote:
>Earl Evleth wrote:
>> Ironically, my wife first went to Saint Malo in the 1940s.
>which division was she with ?
;-)
--
Martin
Nov 12th 2006 | 8:48 am
#7
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Weather report November 10th 1997
lol
"Padraig Breathnach" <[email protected]> a écrit dans le message de
news: [email protected]...
> Earl Evleth <[email protected]> wrote:
>>We had a pretty good week last week...
> Jaysus, Earl! A proper trip report and you smuggle it under a header
> like that. I opened it only by accident, because I don't often care
> about the weather in Paris.
> Worth reading, thank you.
> --
> PB
> The return address has been MUNGED
> My travel writing: http://www.iol.ie/~draoi/
>
"Padraig Breathnach" <[email protected]> a écrit dans le message de
news: [email protected]...
> Earl Evleth <[email protected]> wrote:
>>We had a pretty good week last week...
> Jaysus, Earl! A proper trip report and you smuggle it under a header
> like that. I opened it only by accident, because I don't often care
> about the weather in Paris.
> Worth reading, thank you.
> --
> PB
> The return address has been MUNGED
> My travel writing: http://www.iol.ie/~draoi/
>
