Cyberspace to Paris - Part 10

April 5, 1998

I didn't sleep well that night but we got up as planned, had breakfast (croissant and coffee) and headed South.

Our first stop was St. Malo where I bought stamps and post cards to send to friends back home reassuring them that indeed I was still alive and not hacked up in a million pieces. We found a little cafe where I wrote my cards while drinking down hot chocolate. Then we decided to walk around a little.

St. Malo is a very interesting little town. First of all it is surrounded by a concrete wall and throughout the town there is a lot of concrete; we didn't notice much green at all. The weather was very very cold and the concrete seemed to emphasize that. The laughter of the children and the friendly people around us seemed to take the edge off the cold.

I observed a very strong tie to WWII in this town. I think that when the Germans were retreating from U.S. they set the place on fire and just about destroyed it. I remember while in the cafe seeing a large photograph on the wall that was of a boat carrying U.S. soldiers back to a New York Harbor. It looked like it had been taken in the '40's. There seemed to be a strong appreciation here for the U.S. but I never really had a chance to ask anyone; it was just something I sensed. I regret that we didn't spend more time here.

We continued heading South to our destination: Quiberon. This is where I learned a couple of interesting things about Andy. The first thing was his claustrophobia. I may have already known this about him but this was the first time I was able to really observe it. Our hotel room was on an upper floor and our bags were too heavy to carry up the stairs. Andy's solution was to put the bags on the elevator, press the button of the appropriate floor, then run up the stairs to meet the bags. That was hard core.

This particular hotel was located in a suburban area. When we stood at our window, we could watch children playing soccer in the field below.

We arrived here early afternoon and the weather was slightly warmer here than it was at Mont St. Michel so we decided to walk into town and wander along the coast. Both of us were in the mood for pizza so we set out to find a decent place to eat pizza and decided we would have dinner there later in the evening. This is the second thing I learned about Andy. Andy had to see all the options before deciding where we could settle down to eat. I was ok with this because I noticed that he did eventually decide but it became a routine throughout our trip.

Once we knew where we would have dinner, we headed to the sea wall to take a stroll. We weren't aware that the sea was as angry as it was because not long after getting there, we were drenched by a wave. Soaking wet, we found a bar to hang out and dry. This was really nice because the bar itself slowly started to fill up with people, even young people and children. Andy and I felt like we had stumbled across the most happening place in the village and everyone seemed so happy here.

We left and overstuffed ourself on pizza. (Interestingly, they put a raw egg in the middle of the pizza). When we walked back to our hotel we were both still a little damp and we were cold. So we raced each other back to the hotel, the winner would get to use the tub first. I lost so while he bathed I went down to the lobby and got a bottle of wine and glasses.

We grabbed the blanket off the bed and tried to cover ourselves with it while sitting on our terrace with the wine but it was just too cold, so we decided to spend the rest of the evening inside drinking wine and talking. Andy and I had our first kiss.