Going separate ways
Today, Kim commences his journey back to New Zealand with a flight from Paris CDG to Haneda on standby while I take the train to St Malo.
My train is at 1030 while his was at 1300. He walked me to the station where we said goodbye. The 2h journey from Le Mans to Rennes connecting to St Malo went quickly and easily, despite the 5 min delay on the first train which reduced the connecting time to just 13 mins. With time required to disembark and walk to the second train, I really only had 5 mins spare.
Disappointed with myself
Arriving at St Malo at 1230, I had time to kill till the official check-in time at my little apartment. I did everything in slow motion, taking my time to get to the area, sitting in a café for a leisurely lunch then looking for a public toilet. I did have to kill about 1h30 in a non-productive fashion.
When the clock ticked over to 1500, the check-in instructions for the apartment still hadn’t arrived by email, Booking.com message or WhatsApp.
I message the owner and he said the instructions should have been in Booking.com but he kindly resent me the locked-box code.
I later realised that the instructions were in the booking confirmation on the app and website page, but never sent out by email or in-app messaging. I then had a brief recollection of having seen this, thinking that it was terribly brave of them to give the locked-box code (and address) so far out in advance.
As I strive to be good with my travel admin, I was terribly disappointed with myself for not remembering this, or not looking in the app. I had wasted a few hours of good time in excellent weather (not knowing that I would lose time in subsequent weather to bad weather).
Once inside the lovely apartment with the loft sleeping area, I was happy.
Exploring the walled city
I rested till 1600 and headed to the old walled city about 20 mins walk away. It was cool with the wind but hot with the sun. To me, it wasn’t swimmable, so I didn’t bring the appropriate gear.
It was touristy near the entrance gate to the city with many restaurants and shops but as it got closer to the sea side, it was mainly residential. St Vincent Cathedral was somewhat in the middle of the old city.
The beaches were gorgeous and very busy with young people. With the heat radiating from the stone buildings and paths on my walk, I was ready for a swim now. It certainly felt hot enough now but alas I wasn’t prepared.
Apparently, it is very tidal here, with tidal differences of up to 10m, and one has to plan swimming times carefully, so I snapped a photo of the tide chart from the tourist office.
Despite the heat, I took a walk along the sea wall protruding out of the south-west corner of the old city where I was able to get a good view looking back.
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- Outside the walled city (taken on a few days later in grey weather).
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- Main gate of the walled city (taken on a few days later in grey weather).
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- Commercial area inside the walled city.
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- Commercial area inside the walled city.
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- Bon Secours beach just outside the old city wall.
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- Bon Secours beach just outside the old city wall.
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- St Malo from the sea wall.
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- Looking out towards Fort National.
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- Du Sillon Beach outside the walled city.
Rest of the day
With four nights in St Malo, I was lucky to have a cheap supermarket Lidl nearby, where I stocked up on healthy food for simple meals.
Kim had been a bit stressed as all three flights from Paris CDG to Haneda this evening were fuller than we had expected. Fortunately, he got on the first flight, operated by All Nippon Airlines and I refunded his Japan Airlines and Air France tickets after my dinner.