[i had a good day at work today - praise the Lord for that!! (1) i walked into our 'supervisor room' and one of them who yelled at me last week, smiled and gave me a compliment on the work that i have done before my vacation, where he only manage to review just before i walked in. (2) my colleague who refused to use a common system all these while and i had received a lot of push back suddenly come to term and say i should give him a few days including this weekend, so that next week he will use the new platform for management reporting, now back to my travel story, i will continue from where i stopped....]
thirtieth august
although you stayed at the seaside apartment, but you know that you must visit the wall city somehow. so you make plan to visit on this fine sunny but windy day. as you are approaching, you wonder if you are at valletta (malta) again. For a few moments, you thought the view and scenery looks so very familiar with the exception that the old town is not really big but facing a fierce atlantic ocean. The fortresses, the castles are alike except you are surrounded by a different sea, unlike valletta where you are facing the mediterranean sea.
the wall city, also called intra muro welcomes you... this place has witnessed many history, used to be a fortified island at the mouth of river rance, a feared based for pirates, heavily fortified against the norman (english) attacks but now part of the mainland. as the name intra muro ssuggests, the wall is quite high and seclusive, you almost not able to see anything from the outside the city wall.
you walk past the wall and the fountain before entering the old city gate where you can see the town crest clearly visible from afar
the main building besides the wall is this cathedral st vincent which you didn't go in at all, you have enough cathedral visits but what catches your attention is the architecture of this cathedral. look at the monster like beast at the wall. is this medieval, gothic or renaissance? you are not expert in architecture but you think this is more gothic like but still the beast ornament is quite amusing. you ask "what is the function of these long neck beast?". he replies "may be they are water drainage, the rain water will flow through the mouth of these beasts". well you never know if this is right or wrong, but you don't care either...
you walk through the city center which is noisy, busy and full of people, lots of restaurants, smell of seafood and aroma from the bakery shops and finally reach the north western side of the wall...
you walk up the staircase at one of the station, from here you have the beautiful view of the ramparts and the sea. you enjoy the sound of the wave and wind here under the late summer sun... "quite an impressive view really", you say to yourself.
you walk along the wall and ramparts, you are refreshing as the cool breeze kisses you face. the view is superb, there are a few smaller islands that you could possibly walk over to at low tide.
by now you are hungry, you need food!! you walk passed many restaurants determining if these are for tourists or locals and you cannot decide until you walk into a small alley and see this restaurant where both of you know this one is probably not tourist trap. so you walk in and the ambiance is so homely. or rather girlie.
the restaurant is run by three young ladies, and there are color pencils on the table which encourage the creative inner you to start drawing something while waiting to be served...
you had a rather typical breton dish - blood pudding/sausage as your starter.. the dark lump is the blood sausage and the apple compote complementing it quite well...
your main course is nothing more than the humble salmon and scallop tartare. raw. fresh from the sea. simple but delicious...
he has this seafood tapas as starter that he is quite disappointing as he assumes it comes in the spanish version of tapas. but really you know tapas is just small bites
then the rather rich but really fresh fish in creamy sauce as his main. he likes his food but you just think it is too heavy for summer.
first september
you came back one evening, wanting to taste out the night life in the wall city.
you are disappointed by the quietness of the city wall. the city looks quite deserted outside, but as soon as you enter the city gate and into the inner city....
everywhere you go, you see restaurants packed with people.. the crowds are everywhere, almost all the restaurants are full at 9pm, it seems to be the perfect dining time. you already eaten at 'home' and so you settle yourself in a cafe for drinks only.
you wanna go to check out the city wall at night, but he doesn't have courage to do so, so you just turn back to the inner city...
as you leave saint-malo wall city, you turn back for the last glimpse and the city gate gives a different view and atmosphere at night.
and thus you bid so long, farewell, you need to say good night and perhaps good bye...
you return to your 'home' at the seaside just about ten minute drive away...
No comments:
Post a Comment