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Charles de Gaulle Airport
Aeroport Charles de Gaulle

CDG airport

The airport reminds me of nothing so much as the movie "Brazil" - particularly the moving walkways thru gerbil tubes. I guess it's just an older airport.

Rennes

TGV - CDG to Rennes

I found the bus at Charles de Gaulle airport from the arrival terminal to the TGV station. I have about an hour to spare. Our old family friend Leon Buzy-Pecheu would turn in his grave: fast food quiche for lunch!! (Leon was a chef for Varig Airlines; for his daughter's christening he made 4 quiches - 3 were rejected because the crust wasn't perfect.)

The Train Grand Vitesse is delightful: I am traveling with Alyn Rockwood – we met at the baggage claim. For lunch a tuna sandwich and a nice bordeaux. Alyn is going on to St. Malo tonite but I decided to crash in Rennes.

Rennes

I did not see much of Rennes. I found a Moroccan restaurant and had couscous for dinner. Actually, a little couscous and a lot of meat. Well, when I left I was not hungry..

St. Malo

stmalo Le bassin Vauban au pied du Donjon (Hôtel de ville)

This is the main point of the trip: a week here for the Curves and Surfaces conference.

The hotel is the Ajoncs d'or on the west side of the Old Town so I have about a 20 minute walk to the Palais du Grand Large every day. I cover most of the Old Town by walking a different way every day. I never did get into the City Hall (the picture above). Breakfast is croisant, cafe au lait and yogurt. At the start of the week I spoke French and Mme. Robin spoke English, but after 2 days we are both speaking French.

This is a tourist town - lots of nice restaurants. My first dinner was a Javanese restaurant: curried mussels! The week had many meals of mussels: 'twas the season. The Duchesse Anne was recommended by the Robins, but I found the service a little uppity. My favorite restaurant the Porte de St. Pierre. Great food, friendly service and an incredible cheese tray.

Other culinary delights: salade nicoise with fresh anchovies, wonderful crepes, black currant ice cream.

Mont St. Michel

The excursion organized by the conference was a trip to Mont Saint Michel with a visit to an osyter farm en route.

Dinard

Sunday is a day off so I take a boat across the mouth of the Rance to Dinard for a Picasso exhibit. Lunch was at a Tex-Mex reastaurant: nopales salad was delicious.

Dol de Bretagne

Got back to St. malo in time for one more excursion so off to Dol de Bretagne by train. It was a good walk from the train station into town but worth it. A really nice gothic cathedral and an exhibit about cathedrals called the Cathedraloscope.

Clermont-Ferrand

This is the town where Pope Urban II started the First Crusade. I picked it as sort of half-way bewteen St. Malo and Argeles. The hotel (as advertised) is right across from the train station - a good hike into town.

Two great churches: the Gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame and the Romanesque Notre Dame du Port. Notre Dame (the cathedral) was started in 1248 and completed by Viollet le Duc at the end of the 19th century. Notre Dame du Port "believed to be founded in the 6th Century [destroyed and rebuilt] completed in the 12th century."

Argeles sur Mer

I chose Argèles because it was on the southern coast but less expensive than Nice. Marie-Laurence Mazure said to me:

I said: I want to go to the south. It seems to to me that Argèles-sur-mer would be less expensive than, for example Nice.
She said: Exactly.. This part of the mediterranean coast is definitely less expensive than the Riviera. It is less " smart ", more family. There is wind more often, but there are beautiful beaches.
I said: Is Argèles-sur-mer a nice city?
She said: The town of Argèles includes two parts:

Argèles-sur-mer itself which is the small original Catalan city situated some kilometres from the beaches, and which has grown much recently.
Argèles-plage which was built in edge of the sea around 1960.

All of this is 20 kilometres from the Spanish border. The area is pretty since it is bordered by the Alberes (beginning of the Pyrenees where amateur hikers can go for walks) very close in the South, and a little further one canb see the Canigou Mountains to the western dimension (weather permitting).
In the summer there are a lot of poeple on the beach, but it is huge. If you want to take advantage of the ocean, you will have to visit Argèles-plage.The southern poart hjas more action, the northern part more calmness.
Collioure (6 km south) is a typical village.

It was a hard visist: get up, have breakfast, go to the beach, have lunch, go to the beach, have dinner.. I did get to see a film version of Asterix and Obelix! Gerard Depardieu played Obelix.

Paris

I have stayed in France long enough to be in Paris for Bastille Day! My friend Deirdre Chan from Cupar, Scotland is taking a 2 day holiday to meet me here.

We are quintessential tourists: the boat ride on the Seine, the walk back past Notre Dame. We avoided the parade but got to see the jets fly over and the Horse Guards going home. The fireworks were spectacular, and the crowd on the metro on the way back was pretty imPRESSive too. (They close some metro stops to avoid crushes).

I am glad i did it once.

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