St Malo

Hey everyone!

First of all, it's my 3 month travel-versary today. Can you believe I left Melbourne three months ago?! Time is flying by!

This morning I got up at 6, got ready and left the hotel. I got to the station only to find that my train was not on the departures board. Luckily after an incident in Florence a couple of years ago where mum and I were at the wrong station, I always leave some emergency time in case something like this happens. 

I ran back to the hotel and in very broken English the man on reception told me there was another platform! And sure enough, 500m away from the eastbound platform was the westbound platform. No signage to explain this though!! Never mind. 

Got my train all ok, changed at St Pierre des Corps and then at Paris Montparnasse. The trains were fine but when I boarded the last one for my three hour journey from Paris to St Malo, I was really surprised by how rude the people on the train were. I had my suitcase, my small backpack, my little handbag and a bag of Easter chocolates. When I got on the train there was hardly any room, but thankfully I found some space on the luggage rack. While struggling to put my case on it not one person offered to help, instead the lady behind me got all pissed off that I was holding her up for an extra ten seconds. Rude! In this way travelling by yourself can be quite challenging. I'm not weak but I'm small so it's hard to put my case anywhere! Another annoyance when alone on trains/at stations is weighing up whether going to the toilet is worth it. You either have to cart all your crap around with you or leave it somewhere and risk it being taken. You never really think about these things until you're in the situation!!

The last train ride went smoothly except for a strange little old lady who kept screaming at the conductor in French (wish I could have understood!), and I saw some cute chateaus and churches in little villages we passed through, then I arrived in St Malo and my faith in humanity was restored when a kind old man offered to help me off the train with my suitcase. He had very friendly eyes!

I walked the 20 minutes from the station to the apartment and met the owner, Bernadette. Her and a man were there fixing a leak in the roof so I went and did some grocery shopping to get out of their way. I bought everything to last me three days so I can pack lunches, cook dinners and have a health breakfast each day :) I also bought a Brittany Sausage for lunch, basically a sausage in a crepe. It was yum! The apartment is really good too. Cosy and has everything I need. 

Got back, put everything away and set off again. I had been a bit unenthusiastic to at this point because the weather was cloudy and rainy, but when I stepped outside it was blue and sunny!! So I made the most of it and headed straight for the city walls. It is SO beautiful here! The sunshine made it even more so. 

St Malo was originally built as a walled citadel to protect the nearby river. All the city walls still stand today, and you can loop the whole way around the old town! So this was exactly what I did. I saw various forts and gates along my way and the beautiful expanses of beach. I'm going to go for a big run/walk on Sunday as the weather is meant to be sunny all day, so I'll see more of that then! I got around to the Hotel de Ville (town hall) and decided to read a sign on the door. I couldn't read it, but a friendly worker there told me it was the city museum and on the first Friday of the month (today!) it was free! So in I went! It was all in French but he gave me a brochure. It basically had lots of artefacts from over the centuries and went over St Malo's history as a fishing town and a pirate haven. My favourite part of the museum was the watch tower! I got an epic view from up there, but it was really windy!

I came back down and it greyed over and started to rain again. It's a lot like Melbourne weather here - four seasons in one day! I passed through the St Vincent gate, which has the coat of arms of St Malo (the town) and Brittany/Bretagne in French (the region) on it. I continued along the city walls but at this point it got so windy and rainy that I decided to give up for the day. 

You wouldn't know it's Good Friday here today though. Absolutely everything was still open!

I headed back to the apartment and cooked myself some ravioli with bolognaise and mushroom sauce - bloody good if I do say so myself! I skyped Brendon for about an hour and he had a good laugh at me trying to figure out the washing machine. It's the strangest one I've ever seen - a top loader but really narrow and tall which has to be unclipped to put washing in. I followed all of the instructions and nothing happened, and Brendon laughed at me trying to figure it out. Eventually after ten minutes he said "are you sure it's shut properly?" to which I responded by jokingly slamming my fist on the lid and ... Voila! It started to work! He just about wet himself with laughter. I'm not hopeless I promise, the catch is broken!!!!! Haha. 

Tomorrow I am headed to Mont St Michel as it's the only day this weekend the bus runs there. Which means I have to miss our (Collingwood's) first match of the season against Brisbane. Will be thinking of my family all together while I'm on the bus and walking around, have decided I'm going to wear my pies jumper all day!!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox