Dinard

Yesterday, sunday, we caught a bus from here to Dinard, about 35 minutes away. Dinard used to be a quiet fishing village on the other side of the Rance river mouth to St Malo. In the late 19thC the English aristocracy arrived en masse.  There are consequently lavish Belle Epoch villas (some a bit tatty)  through to a few modern apartment blocks and a casino. It still has an old feel. We sat on the beach for a while watching the passing parade of well- dressed holidaying French people and, at the other end of the scale, British holidy makers.  There were seagulls as we know them and larger white ones, about the size of herring gulls  in Cornwall but with speckly faces and ones almost as big as the large ones but speckly medium brown. They didnot intermix.

The holidaying British were catered for with several shops labelled 'fish and chips' and a few british pubs

We bought some lunch from some markets we passed between the bus stop and the beach. The lady who we bought some grapes from asked us if we were eating them straight away and would we like her to wash them, which we did, Very kind.  As we left she said in French 'Good day for Sunday' . I have heard this in Italian villages - particularly the older people who you pass in the street instead of 'buongiorno'  will say 'Buon domenica' on Sunday. It is the first time I have heard it in France.

Back at the bus stop we had an unexpected  hour's wait in a nearby bar, due to the tour director's misreading of the timetable. The coffee was Ok  and it was interesting watching most of the other patrons betting on the horse races. There was a tablet sized thing on the wall where they would place their bets.

We had bought some dinner the day before and we enjoyed sitting in our 'window/doorway/ foot wide verandah' for a while with a glass of local rouge watching the people walk past below .