On The Sea Again, I Just Can't Wait To Get On The Sea Again: Two More Fine Days in France

Ce matin nous sommes arrives a Cherbourg - aw, forget it. This morning we arrived in Cherbourg after a great day in Saint-Malo yesterday. We had not been to either of those cities.

The day in Saint-Malo was outstanding. The old city is surrounded by ramparts originally built in the Middle Ages and in the 17th century. They were mostly destroyed in WWII but have been rebuilt. Our first endeavor was to walk around the entire ramparts. I think that it's about a 2K walk. There were excellent views of the city and the bay. The tide was quite high, but I'll say more about that later.

Part way through our walk, we made an obligatory stop for coffee and a croissant.

After completing the loop, it was time to walk in the old city and find a lunch place. We found a small cafe that specialized in crepes and mussels. As we walked around, we realized that crepes were a big thing here. But, we were booked to take a cooking class on Marina that afternoon where we would be making crepes. So, I had to opt for the mussels. Now, this wasn't Brussels, but I had to have a Leffe with them. In the US when you order mussels you might get a dozen or so. Here, they know how to prepare a proper serving!

After lunch we wandered the old city some more and indulged in a local Breton pastry - a Kouign Amann. Apparently the name comes from the Breton language from the words cake and butter. Yes, there was a lot of butter and it was deeeelicious!

Then we returned to the ramparts to observe the difference in the tide. In Long Beach we might have a 7 or 8 foot difference between high tide and low tide at the extreme. In Saint-Malo yesterday the difference was more than 40 feet! We were not by the water at the extremes and I fear that I did not get good comparison pictures, but, hopefully, these pics give you some idea of the difference.

Four PM was time for our cooking class. We made Saint-Malo Buckwheat Galettes, Savory Crepes a la Normande, and Crepes Suzette. I must say that we were quite successful and our dishes were quite tasty. After indulging in what we had made, we quickly realized that we would not be needing dinner that night! A beautiful sunset and a drink and a snack was all that it took to cap off the evening.

Saturday was a great day to be in Cherbourg. First of all, as I did my walk/jog on the ship's fitness track and we sailed into Cherbourg, I was rewarded with a nice sunrise. Thankfully, the sun said 'bonne nuit' last night and was there to greet me in the morning.

Guess what - we decided to spend our time walking the city and were we rewarded. Saturday is obviously market day and there was some sort of festival going on in the Place Notre Dame. The weather could not have been better (70 degrees and sunny) and there was a lot going on.

We then headed for the Abbaye du Voeu, a monument built by the granddaughter of William the Conqueror. It made me wonder what kind of monument my granddaughters will build for me. Anyway, one thing that we discovered is that much of Cherbourg shuts down between noon and 2PM. And that was just when we were at the Abbaye. So, we toured the outside.

Next we went to the Parc Liais, a botanical park with a Cabinet of Curiosities - which was, of course, closed. So it was time for the French thing - lunch of a sandwich on baguette followed by coffee and macarons!

Before heading back to the ship, we had to stop at the famed Manufacture des Parapluies de Cherbourg. Lovely umbrellas but, 180 Euro for an umbrella? Really? I think not!