September 20...otherwise known as the worst day of our vacation!

Our little home is just so cute, I can't stop taking photos of it!

Gary and I got up early and walked through the town to the TI (traveler's information) office to pick up some maps and restaurant suggestions.  Ironically one of the top restaurants the gal there suggested was the place we stumbled upon last night, so I count that as a win!

This is the Rance River...Dinan Port is on the left bank and Lanvallay is on the right bank...we are staying in the walled town of Dinan which is at the top of the hill on the left, above the Port.

The town was so beautiful and quite in the early morning as the sun was coming up.

We found a little cafe and sat for a cup of coffee and croissant (heavenly!).  Next thing I knew, John and Babette passed by and joined us!  Our cafe was in the shade and Babette was chilly so the owner (another Scottish rugby player who relocated to France!), brought out a shawl for Babette to wear and he insisted on placing it on her...so charming!

Heaven!!

We met up with Ron and Lenore and headed off in our van to yet another walled medieval city, St. Malo.

This is a much larger city that our sweet little Dinan.  It was about a 40 minute drive.  We parked our van in a lot and walked about 1/2 mile into the walled city where we wandered around a bit.  We knew this area is famous for seafood so we asked a shopkeeper where the best seafood restaurant was and we took his suggestion.  Seated outside, we enjoyed a HUGE seafood tower that contained: 1/2 local crab (looked like Dungeness but nowhere as good - it was "dense"), langoustines, oysters, crevettes (a local shrimp/prawn-like delicacy), bulots (big whelks), and tiny sea snails that had to be pulled out with something that looked like an embroidery needle (tasty but too much effort for the reward!).  Of course we also got fries (they sound so much better in French...pommes frittes!), and then Gary went and ordered a lobster flambeed in Hennessy cognac!  And that was just for Gary and me to eat!  J&B had the same thing we did, Ron had perfect sole meunière and Lenore had the biggest Caesar salad I ever saw.  All the caesar salads in France seem to automatically come with chicken, which is not a bad thing!.  As we were lingering over our bountiful lunch, a HUGE wind storm came up and we were laughing at everyone struggling to walk into the wind with their hair flying all around!  Well that came around to bite us...as we had to deal with the same crazy wind as were walked around the top of the ramparts in the gale force wind.  We were laughing so much at the ridiculousness of the situation, and at how our clothes puffed up in the win so we looked like Macy's Thanksgiving Parade balloons! 

My windy guy!

View from the top of the ramparts at St. Malo...the clouds were gorgeous!

This is a salt water pool, fed by the ocean...several guys were swimming but we didn't see anyone go off the diving platform.  I remember swimming here in this pool when my grandparents brought me here in 1964.

The exterior of St. Malo...it is quite imposing and dramatic.

seeking shelter from the wind!

Oyster shuckers working down at the beach...I have never seen oysters shucked like this...One side of these local oysters is really flat, and the other side is very deeply curved, so they take that flat piece off and place it back on top so all the briney goodness stays inside the deeply curved side and is ready to serve.  These guys were so fast!

OK...it was about 4 pm and we had battled with wind sufficiently so we headed back to the car (the 1/2 mile walk being pummeled by the wind).  We got to the car, John clicked the key fob and nothing happened...none of the doors would open so we could not get into our van.  We took the key fob apart and kept clicking away...all to no avail.  Gary walked back (1/2 mile) to the walled city and found a Tabac store where he bought a new battery (thank goodness it was a very common type battery...of course I had 2 spares back at the airbnb in my suitcase for our AirTags).  He returned (1/2 mile walk again) and we popped that battery in, sure that it would work - NO...still dead.  We couldn't open the hood of the car (I guess you have to be inside the van to release the latch!).  The wind was whipping, we were freezing, and there was no shelter in the parking lot.  We couldn't even ask another tourist in the lot to jump our battery, since we couldn't get inside the car to turn the ignition and give it gas.  "Thankfully" we had purchased the emergency roadside insurance, remember?  Well, sadly all the rental paperwork was inside the van in the glovebox.  We got the phone number for EuropeCar online (thank you Babette) and I called.  I had to dial 011 to get my US phone to call outside the US, then 33 for the French country code, and then finally the phone number).  Of  course I got a recorded message in French, finally got an option for English, and then got an English virtual assistant asking me the license plate #, our rental agreement # (still locked in the glove box), my name, and on and on and on.  FINALLY a live body came on who spoke some English...between her modest English and my modest French I explained our situation. The wind was making it hard to hear her on the phone so I kept having to have her repeat herself.  She finally asked my location....WTF?!?!?  I'm in a parking lot, who knows that the address of a parking lot??!!!!  We used our GPS to get some street number of the parking lot.  She finally told me she would send a tow truck.  We waited about an hour.  As no tow truck had come, I called again, and again, and again and went through all the same stupid questions ("license plate number is G as in Gerard, W as William, 858, P as in Pierre, P as in Pierre").  Good grief, I'm going to have nightmares about the damn license plate number!!!  At some point she questioned me about who John was (the designated driver)...I said he was my husband (too hard to explain that he was my brother in law).  She assured me the tow truck would come and to please be patient.  More waiting, more calling, more repeating the phone number...we had no place to sit, we were freezing (poor John was wearing shorts).  The only saving grace was that we had eaten a HUGE lunch...we were cold and angry, but not "hangry"!  All the other cars had left the parking lot, when we finally saw the tow truck drive down the street!!!  We all jumped  (well, as much as 6 senior citizens can jump around without hurting themselves!)  like a bunch of castaways on a dessert island!  The tow truck driver was a nice young guy...he walked to the back of the van and said "oh...a Renault, I can not touch this car; by contract, I am only allowed to tow it directly to the Renault dealer".  We asked him to just open the hood and see if it was a matter of just jump starting the car battery, or just pop the door open...but NO...he was only authorized to tow the blasted van!  He had us over a barrel, so we left him to tow the van (with our paperwork still in the glovebox and my beloved brand new Frank & Eileen triple fleece sweatshirt which I had left in the van because it was warm when we had actually arrived at St. Malo, before the gale force winds whipped up.  (Nancy H.,...you know how valuable that dang sweatshirt is!!). 

I got NO paperwork from this guy (I asked but he said he had none to give me).  I got his business card, but I hope we don't get accused of loosing our car, or for stealing it!

We walked back to the walled city (1/2 mile again!), found a fairly uncrowded restaurant and sat outside but sheltered from the wind.  I called the "assistance" number (which really has not impressed me with their level of assistance!).  At this point we needed a large cab to get us from St. Malo back to our little town of Dinan.  I kept going through the EuropCar assistance number since we had paid for the insurance and they said I should go through them.  Every time I called, (and went through the whole rigamarole of name, license plate number, etc. I always got somebody different, they always said a cab will come, blah, blah, blah. It is such an out of the way location, I guess no cab wanted to take a one way fare, knowing they will never get a return fare after dropping us off back in Dinan.  Gary ordered me a French75 which was delicious and beautiful (and just what I needed...well, maybe I needed 3 or 4 of them!)...it may have kept me alive at this point!  I walked across the street to make yet another call in a more quiet area.  I didn't realize Gary had come also and was standing behind me as I sat on the curb...in my exasperation I shouted "get me a fuc*#@g cab NOW".  Gary squeezed my shoulder to calm me down, and the voice on the end of the line assured me a cab would come (but we had heard this about 10 times so far so I was not helpful).  We walked back into the restaurant and I apologized to the restaurant owner for taking up 6 seats and only ordering 1 cocktail each (we were afraid to order more, just in case the cab actually came and we might have to run out quickly).  I explained our situation and he said "let me call my friend who is a taxi driver, he will be here in 1 minute to drive you to Dinan".  It was a miracle, and like clockwork, his friend pulled up out front in a Mercedes van.  I hugged the restaurant owner, we piled into the Mercedes and instantly relaxed as his opera music soothed our nerves for the 40 minute ride home.  The ordeal had started at 4:15, and we finally returned to our Dinan airbnb at 9:30...5 hours and 15 minutes!  I am going to fight to get our Mercedes cab paid for by the AutoEurope people...wish me luck.  They also promise they will get a replacement vehicle to us...wish us luck with that also, because we need the van to go to Mont Saint Michele one day, and the American Cemetery at the D-Day beaches in Normandy...stay tuned!

My "life-saving" French75 with little floating flowers in it.

As soon as we got home, we opened the fridge and devoured everything in there...bread, cheese, meats - we didn't even take the time to arrange it on a plate...we just stood and shoved food in our faces, still shivering.  We headed to our warm cozy beds, happy that we were finally out of the wind.