Arrondissement de Saint-Malo

Reached by a 10 minute ferry trip across the Rance River from St Malo, there lies the interesting township of Dinard. Apart from the impressive collection of subdtantial "old money" homes, the other dominating feature of Dinard is the large Casino.

Since we had no other definite plans for the day, five of us decided that it would be good to get a little sea air and take the short cruise to DInard. Another advantage of taking this short trip is that it also provides another vantage point to view the old city of St Malo.

When we arrived at the ferry terminal we noticed that two massive passenger liners had moored in the harbour. A steady relay of transfer boats were busy transferring people from the ships to St Malo. Gerry took one look at these multistory people transports and asked "Why would anyone ever want to get on one of those ?" Since I could not think of any rational answer to his question, I replied "Damned if I know".

Soon we had crossed the Rance and were walking along the waterfront walkway to the town centre. Since we had arrived at lunchtime, it was time to buy a baguette and coffee. Maggie recalled that the last time we visited this place her lunch had been stolen by an aggressive seagull. Not only did it pinch her raspberry tart, but it also managed to empty its copious bowels on us at the same time. It was not a happy memory.

Fortunately this time no avian attack took place and we were able to eat our lunches without incident. It was then that the ladies discovered that it was market day in Dinard. That discovery was akin to pouring petrol on a bushfire. Within seconds they had disappeared our of sight, leaving me to snooze in the warm sunshine.

Sometime later in the afternoon they reappeared, laden with fresh shopping and trying to justify the spending by some sort of lop sided logic about how much money they had saved. Maggie is the only person I know who seems to think that spending money can somehow actually save money that she can then spend on something else. Yes it makes no sense whatsoever, but she believes it like a fundamental law of the universe.

It was near 3 pm when we realised that the return ferry must be about to leave. Since we did not want to get stuck in Dinard, we fastwalked to the port and just managed to clamber on board as the ferry was leaving, The timing was perfect.

Another ten minute trip took us back to St Malo and a long walk took us back to the Beaufort Hotel. The tides had repeated their daily performance and the locals were back during their aquatic workouts.

At the end of the day the "St Malo six" went out together for our final dinner together. Tomorrow morning we will all be heading in different directions. Maggie and I will be heading back to the Loire to revisit Nantes and to collect our rental car.Read more