Tour de France and St. Malo

Tuesday morning Melissa and I set off for St. Malo to spend the day at the beach. We were looking forward to a day of sunshine and relaxation. St. Malo is a famous, old, walled port city on the English Channel. It is at St. Malo that famous explorer Jacques Cartier was born and set sail for Canada.

When Melissa and I arrived near the old walled-in part of the city, we saw a sign for le Tour de France! Sure enough, shortly after we started noticing policeman blocking off roads. I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of any biker-looking person I saw! They were everywhere! 

Some were walking their bikes.

Some were at cafés.

 Some were strolling with no bike at all.

 Some were getting in some extra seaside biking practice!

So, I actually don't know/think any of the above were related to le Tour de France, but the atmosphere was still so very exciting. Leaving the city later that afternoon, we saw a lot of advertisements for the race.

 Do you see the Tour de France written on the side of the glasses?

 This was advertising a kind of drink.

 Again, proof we were in close proximity to the famous race.

I found out later that the bikers weren't reaching St. Malo (the 10th stage of the race) until later in the evening.

St. Malo is beautiful. 

We had a little beach-side picnic.Yes, I put chips in my sandwich. Very un-French.

These birds were terrifying. While we were having our picnic lunch they keep swooping down trying to get food. I felt like I was in a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Birds. One actually came down and grabbed onto the baguette I was eating, but was unable to fly off with it.

The weather was perfect--mid 80's with a breeze. After getting nice and warm, Melissa said we had to get in the water. It took A LOT of coaxing from Melissa for me to get all the way submerged. The water was freezing. Eventually your body goes numb and then you no longer mind the arctic temperature! Dad, you would have loved it. 

This swimming pool is built on the edge of the beach so when it's high tide, the pool fills up with seawater. Rather nifty, huh? 

Do you see the two diving boards? One is a high dive the other one, a little bit more to the right, is a really really high dive. Since Melissa made me get in the water, I made her go off the "low" dive while I went off the high dive. Erika, you would have HATED it. The steps were slippery with moss growing on the stones and when I walked off (my legs were too weak to jump) I thought I was never going to hit the water. I had to go a second time, just to prove that I could. It was just as frightening as the first! 

Here's a close-up of the diving boards. From here it does not look very high at all, but take my word for it, it is.

After spending some quality time in the sun, we wandered along the top of the wall, and then through town.

 Jacques Cartier, himself.

 I think I'm going to go through flower withdrawal in Emporia.

I had the best ice-cream in the world at this place. I'm not exaggerating. 

It was such a fun day. Stéphanie, I think it's so cool that you are from St. Malo!