France 2026—May 9-16, Cancale

 Back Together Again—May 14th & 15th

Thomas, Claire, and their eldest daughter Delphine arrived late Wednesday night to begin their four day Ascension holiday weekend. We spent May 13th doing laundry and just hanging out in Cancale. It was another restful day.

Grain de Vanille is world famous 

and their baked goods are to die for.

Read all about the Roellenger family.

here and check out all the links.

Be sure to read the Les Maisons de Bricourt. 

We brought five croissants back to the house 

after our coffee and apple treat.

We watched some of the pastry chefs work.

Thomas ordered a millefoille cake for Friday.

The local fish shop only has on hand what was
caught that morning.

Claire and the shop owner talked about the best
catch of the day. She took her advice, of course.

Delphine was practicing when we returned from

grocery shopping so I had to catch this moment.

Marie and Claire preparing Thursday's lunch.

Marie, Claire, and Delphine. Thomas in the
background photographing me.

 

All of us got our "moment in the sun."

This is Cancale's beach. It is sheltered from the wind.

This website shows three calmer pictures at  
Point Grouin. Thomas and I are standing at the
end where the wind is pretty fierce.

Looking out from Point Grouin on the Atlantic side.

Thomas and Claire drove us to the northern coast to share some
of their favorite beaches. Walking paths wind along the coast
from Cancale to St. Malo.

This is Collette's house. You can read about this writer here.

The beach in front of Collette's house.

This small stone chapel dedicated to Mary is
where fishers are blessed for the season.

Gives you a sense how close the chapel is to

the Atlantic Ocean.

We took a walk along the path skirting this cove.

A windsurfing and sailing school is situated on this 

protected cove.

We were really happy that Thomas and Claire drove us down small roads to these secluded beaches. We drove the same road to St. Malo a few days ago and had no idea about them. 

May 15th—our last full day in Cancale (😢)

This morning Thomas and I drove to a repair shop near St. Malo to drop off a stereo, and then we drove on Dinard to wash down his sailboat in preparation for the season. He winters it on land at a marina. Thomas manned the scrub broom and I managed the hose. It only took us about 1hr20min to wash the entire topside.

Marie and Claire stayed back and visited while preparing ratatouille for dinner and prepping galettes for lunch. Today was sunny again and Mont St. Michel loomed large across the bay.

This is where Thomas launches his sailboat.

We came to clean. This is the before picture...

    ...and this is the after shot.

  

Thomas is just about done.

After lunch we just hung out in the sunroom.

About 4PM it was time to get out and move a bit. Thomas led the way on a 3.5 mile walk along a trail he likes to run. It circles above and behind Cancale before dropping down to the harbor.

 

Taken from the trail behind Cancale houses facing the harbor.

These folks are either from Norway or Cancale.

I guess taking a 3.5 mile walk wasn't enough exercise for Thomas.

This Millefoille dessert from Grain de Vanilla was an amazing
way to top of our last full day in Cancale.

France 2026—May 9-16, Cancale and General Area

May 12th—Visiting Dinard, a 13th century town we didn't see

Yesterday, while driving along the Emerald Coast, the symbol for a flat tire came on when we were 15 minutes from Cancale. I pulled over and checked all the tires and thought I saw that the right front tire might be a teensy-weensy lower than the others. We kept an eye on it all day but didn't see a change. This morning we stopped by the Cancale tourist agency and asked where we might get some air for the tire, because the gas station we stopped at on our way back home yesterday only had gas.

The young lady at the tourist agency told us we could go to Super U to find an air pump. We found it and added some air to match the left front tire, but the flat tire light on the dashboard never did go off today.

So that wasn't the only thing that went kind of haywire. Our plan was to drive to Dinard and walk around this medieval town center and just do our walk & gawk thing. We got to Dinard okay, but the traffic in town was crazy! I followed the sign for the paid parking lot, but couldn't find it. We even drove to the casino thinking it would, like St. Malo, have ample parking. No dice! Add to this frustration, tourists blindly kept walking in front of our car as they crossed the narrow streets. 

We were in Dinard maybe 10 minutes and gave in. Okay Dinard you win! We talked about why we were struggling here when we could be sitting in the back garden in the sun listening to nothing but a breeze wafting around us. We could be exploring more of Cancale, meandering around its narrow streets and harbor. You know where this is going, right?

Right, we drove back to Cancale and made lunch from our Sunday market day and Super U shopping experience and enjoyed it on the back deck overlooking the garden and Mont St. Michel. After lunch we had a nap. It's not easy being us!

In the early evening after a light supper we strolled down to the harbor in search of something sweet and found a little ice cream shop. Then we walked down one of the piers to catch the evening light and take a few pictures of the harbor.

This WWI and WWII memorial is at the top of
the hill overlooking the harbor. It's at the end
of our street.

                       

The stairs leading down to the harbor or...

...up to the hilltop and the war memorial.

This house is on the harbor wedged
between rows of restaurants.

And that's the post for today!