Jamie and Scott Go Francing: Day 1

Saturday, 17 May 2008

Our first day back in France, I can’t believe its been almost two years since we were here. Our flight left late from Stansted, 3:45pm, I’m not sure that I liked the late departure as it seems like a bit of a waste of a vacation day. On the other hand it was nice not having to get up at 3am! It also allowed us to do some last minute chores before heading out. We made it to the airport in good time and got on the flight without incident. As usual, I fell asleep within about 10 mins and stayed asleep pretty much until we landed. We flew Ryanair and it was fine. Jamie hates flying Ryanair because they don’t assign seats and being the competitive one that she is she feels driven to try to get the best seat on the plane. Very stressful.

We arrived in Dinard about 6pm (France is an hour ahead of the UK). The Dinard airport is even smaller than the Cranbrook airport, but still had a Europcar where we picked up Isabelle - a 2008 Volkswagon Golf. Very nice little car. We have this thing where we name all our rental cars, usually after the first female who serves us that day. On our previous trip in 2006 we had a Fiat Stylo named Floriane.

We managed to drive the 10kms to our hotel (Grand Barriere Hotel http://www.lucienbarriere.com/localized/fr/hotel.htm ) without getting lost AND I didn’t hit any buses! (My first attempt to drive in the UK started out by sideswiping a double decker bus in London last summer…oops). The girl (Isabelle) at the airport offered us GPS, but we decided to wing it ourselves. Jamie actually likes being navigator and the signage in France is fine. Even getting lost can be a bit fun…for a while. The hotel was incredible. 5 star all the way. Jamie had booked it through Ryanair and got it for a very reasonable £100 a night. I felt a little odd leaving Isabelle with the valet after only having her for 10 mins but that’s how they roll here.

After dropping off our bags in our room, we started out for a walk around the edge of the ocean. I think Dinard may have been one of the most beautiful towns I’ve ever been in (at least before I say Dinan…more on that later). It’s simply amazing with the lights of St Malo across the narrow bay.

We got some cash out of a bank machine and found a decent looking restaurant for dinner. Jamie was all excited when she saw all the platters of seafood on other peoples table and so we decided to have one. They looked like a decent side so we ordered appies and ‘The Admiral Platter’ for 2. Turns out the platters on other tables was the appy size platter. The Admiral Platter proved that I am at best only a captain. Our platter was HUGE!!! Two layers of platters stacked high with 2 types of crabs, languistines, prawns, whelks, winkles, oysters and shrimp. We laughed and took a picture it was so big. But we dug in and finished most of it. As it turns out we don’t have a liking of whelks and winkles (snails), even though we do like escargot.

After dinner we wandered up through town and back to the shore where we found a little place for dessert and beverages – an amazing apple tart and muscadet for Jamie and three mini glasses of Calvados for me. An excellent end to our first day back in France!

Pictures from Day 1: