Geezers shouldn't spend the night at the track (although some in our party, who could fall into the category, did) so we left the track late at night and arrived back at the hotel just in time to turn on the TV and watch the gut-wrenching clutch failure of the No. 7 Toyota which had been the overall race leader. He couldn't make it back to the pits under hybrid power and retired. Only a few minutes later, the No. 9 Toyota collided with another car, causing a puncture. This led to gearbox damage and out went the No. 9. We couldn't take it anymore and around 1:00 a.m. we decided to go to bed. When we returned in the morning, the No. 1 Porsche was leading but with four hours to go it failed and retired from the race.
We continued stuffing our faces at the hospitality tent. After lunch, Pati emptied half a bottle of wine into a plastic water bottle, to the horror of our table mates, and stashed it in her backpack. Later on, when we had wine and they had none, the idea seemed better to the assembled crowd...
For the first time in history, a LMP2 car led the race. This may not mean anything to someone who doesn't follow endurance racing, but take it from us, it was a big deal. In the end, the LMP2 car (Jackie Chan Racing, believe it or not), finished second overall with its team mate finishing third. Again, it really was a big deal. Especially for Jackie Chan.
Our next stop was St-Malo, France. This is a small, walled city on the northern coast of France not far from Mont St. Michel. It is famous for its beaches, the Barbary pirates, and seafood. After a harrowing journey by train that included two cancellations, a run to and from the bus station, a lovely conversation with a very helpful SNCF employee, and a train with no air conditioning on a 90-degree day, we arrived at our boutique hotel, the Des Abers. We were greeted by the watchdog, a fuzzy poodle mix with an entertaining woof woof woof routine conducted without lifting her head. Some watchdog.
So, in St-Malo, if one doesn't sit on the beach, there's walking the walls and exploring the medieval town.
And stuffing one's face with seafood, crepes, gallettes, and the local specialty bread, Kouign-Amann. It's a rolled-up sweet dough with plenty of butter.
Near the Kouign-Amann place, there's the local cathedral. Beautiful inside and a dream for gargoyle hunters.
Is this a meerkat???
Of course, we found the bakery with the best coffee and croissants around for breakfast, and we enjoyed the galletes at dinner. The town was really fabulous. It was an incredible surprise and it far exceeded any expectations we had. We agreed that we'd definitely go there again in a heartbeat.
For years, we've watched the RoPax's come and go out of Nice. Don't know what a RoPax is? It's a ferry: there's RoRo's (roll on, roll off) and RoPax (roll on/off, with passengers). We'd never been on one. So we left St-Malo on the Brittany Ferry, headed for Portsmouth, England and our next stop, Edinburgh. Maybe we were lucky, but crossing the English Channel, which is known to be a rough ride, was smooth for us that day. We'll also say that the RoPax's are pretty neat: restaurant, bar, reclining seats, television, internet, game room, luggage room, gift shop, and so on. It's great transportation!
