Well, after going to church and going to our favorite little bakery for yummy french bread sandwiches Craig and I headed out to Saint-Malo.
These are a few pictures of the beach near where we parked. Parking in France is not fun (although I don't find it much fun downtown in the states either). Just think of it as trying to find a parking spot downtown no matter where you're going. Every town is all downtown all the time :)
Which leads us to our next problem. See that city of in the distance, that's actually Saint-Malo, we have to walk over there now. It's not that far away, just a mile or so.
Here's one of the streets in Saint Malo. It seems like most streets in other French cities, except that even though most of the streets here seem pedestrian-only here there are tons of cars around. And there are only a few entrances into the old city anyway, why bring a car in here?
Okay, okay, I know what you're saying. Another cathedral? Come on Brad show us something else. But wait, this is different. Okay, the cathedral looks the same, but that's not what I want to show you here. As we were walking into this particular cathedral I noticed this guy in a trench coat go in just before us. The reason I noticed is because it looked like he had no pants on (in December!). Well, turns out he was a weirdo, but in a totally good way.
So, most of you have probably been in a cathedral before (if not, for this exercise you can think of a really big library instead). It's big, and everyone's doing their very best to be quiet and reverent. But then, a voice starts up in the distance. This singular male voice filling the entire cathedral with Gregorian chant. Notice I said one guy, not an entire choir, but just a single man (the guy in the trench coat). And when I say it filled the entire cathedral, I mean it. His voice is echoing off every surface as if this guy has trained his whole life for this. It's absolutely amazing!
Craig and I just sit down and listen to this guy while he sings for 10 or 15 minutes or so. Now don't think we forgot about you watching (and listening) at home. Luckily for us my camera not only takes pictures, but movies! Unforutnately, I don't know how to upload a movie to Google, so I've put it on my school site. Don't worry about what it looks like (its really dark and blurry actually), the important thing is to listen to what this guy sounds like, it's so cool!
Warning, link is about 110 MB. It's a zip file that contains all the movies I took of this guy. I hope it plays on Windows Media player, but I know it plays in VLC and Quicktime. Single Gregorian Chanter
Back to the more secular world, it looks like the French enjoy going out on Sundays. Most of the places we've been were fairly deserted (even on Saturday), but Sunday the French are out in force.
Just a pretty man hole cover.
Saint Malo is another walled city, and it lets you up on the ramparts to wander around the city. The walls give you great views of the streets beneath and out onto the water.
Ah Brittany, such beautiful coast line. I think it might even give B.C. a run for it's money.
I don't know exactly why, but out in the middle of the water (when the tide is up) there's a fortress. Unfortunately we couldn't go inside (not allowed except with a paid tour guide, and they don't work Sundays for some reason). But it was quite the sight.
Here are some more shots of the Brittany coast line. Some people even come out here to fish apparently.
And then a view of Saint Malo from the beach itself. What a nice little town.
Since once we were done (ie it got dark) it was once again the French dead-food hour (before 7:00 pm). So, we decided to walk back to the car and drive it back to a parking lot that was much closer to the city (just outside the gates). By the time we got back we were just in time to eat at our fancy little hole-in-the wall French restaurant. They didn't disappoint! I had a thin slice of fresh salmon as an appetizer (Craig seemed to love his oysters, but they were too salt watery for me), and then some nice veal with a Roquefort sauce. I finished it off with some Brittany Tiramisu (not bad, but not Palermo's). All in all, it was a great day!
