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Around France there are spots where you can pull off the highway or tollway or freeway where you can go to the loo, stroll around, have a picnic…generally places to revive after a long drive. They are great and generally are either a sort of woodland setting or full on services. When they are a woodland setting there’s usually a toilet…of sorts.
The thing is that all Aire de repos are not created equally. And this is regardless of how they look. Take, for instance the one below…
All very nice and green and inviting. Or so it seems. The toilet block just to the left of the photo has three toilets but only one has a door that works with any measure of accuracy. Actually it needs someone to stand outside and hold it closed. The user also needs to take his or her own toilet paper.
Still, as rest stops go, the one above was fine for waking Mirinda up on the way from Villandry to St Malo. Another stop we made was in a funny little place called Vignac where we chatted to an English woman who has lived in France for ages. She explained to us how, in France, in order to change jobs one needed to get training in how to change before getting training in the actual job. This might sound insane but that’s only because it is.
Church at Vignac
From Vignac it was an easy run into St Malo. We left the hire car in the same side street from whence we found it then made our way to St Malo via a cab.
Speaking of Doreen, we had an interesting drive back with her indicating various non-existent road works, which, of course, we’re used to but then completely missing the major roadworks detour occasioned by the same roadworks we encountered on the way down last week. I mean, seriously, Doreen. Who could possibly take you seriously?
Arriving in St Malo and checking into our hotel was the usual painless exercise and then we headed out and about for a chance to soak up our favourite seaside town.
First stop, obviously, was the Unicorn for a galette complet, then we wandered into town to buy our usual supply of biscuits and associated tins…
…then it was down to the water.
The beach was crowded with lots of happy French families enjoying the long weekend, little kids building castles, both impressive and very sad – the castles and the kids. We joined them for a while but then headed for the ramparts.
Talk about crowds. We’ve never seen it so crowded. It’s rare that you get human traffic jams as you walk around the walls but there were a few times we were forced to stop while the hordes raced by us.
Not that it mattered. It’s always lovely walking the ramparts of St Malo, especially when the weather is beautiful.
For dinner, Mirinda wanted to try an awful lot of crustaceans so we went to Cafe Ouest where we watched a Japanese family demolish a crab with great elan.
Then I watched, amused while Mirinda tackled her own.
We also watched the waiter making crepe Suzette, setting it on fire between the diners everytime someone ordered one. The woman beside us was almost emulated by one. I managed to survive unscathed though not without a little fear.
It was then time for bed on our last night in France. For now…
