G & J away from home

Saturday, 11 June 2016

Grabbing a quick few photos to hold the place of today's post as I am sitting sideways on the end of the bed using the smallest, most difficult to access 'desk' in the world.  Such are the excitements of Hotel Ibis Budget in St Malo, our only overnight stay in France.

I thought St Peter Port was shown to best advantage from the upper deck of the Condor Ferry Rapide while we waited to depart for St Malo:

Pretty St Peter Port

Marianne is a notoriously poor sailor and had taken Gary's advice about using a patch against sea sickness and so looked relatively cheerful in this photo ... of course, we hadn't yet left the wharf!

Marianne with St Peter Port in the background

When we did leave the boat moved very quickly and I barely had time to snap more than a dozen or so shots of this very cute lighthouse:

Guernsey lighthouse and St Peter Port

Almost as soon as we were underway we sailed into the fog and even Marianne was driven down from the open deck to settle with us on the lower passenger deck.  She still looked okay but opted to have a snooze.  So far, so good.

What with being parked immediately in front of the cafe and having Guernsey money to dispose of time passed fairly quickly and I almost missed our approach to St Malo.  As soon as I realised there was land ahead (even if it was all still a bit foggy) I grabbed my camera and headed out the first exit to find that, right in front of my eyes, was another lighthouse:

Red to the left

Dashing from side to side of the upper deck to make sure I didn't miss anything I then spied this little sailing boat:

What sort of boat is this?

Then came the lighthouse on the other side - I suppose they were channel markers, really but they had lights on them!

Green to the right

Finally we came within photographing distance of St Malo's old town just before we docked:

St Malo

After a much-longer-than-suggested walk to the hotel Gary and I found ourselves in our smallest room yet with an incredibly small and complex bathroom.  If I can manage to climb over the toilet i the morning I should be able to reach the shower.  Whether I can move around in it or not is another matter.

After a short break we headed out again, this time to get some tea.  I had a lovely salad which looked so nice I was moved to take a photo of it:

My meal

But Gary's 'seafood' turned out to have gone a little astray in translation:

WHELKS!

And he ate the seaweed too. Welcome to France, people.


Reading:

• The Head Girl of the Chalet School by Elinor Brent-Dyer (Jane)
• A Problem for the Chalet School by Elinor Brent-Dyer (Marianne)

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