Wednesday 30 July

Awoke in our palatial and antique room – well, spacious faded grandeur, but it is nice to have a bit more room. Russ and I were both out at 8.45am for a run. I was going to do less than him but we set off together on the planned route – a few metres along the Rue de Rimbaud into the park, down towards the coast, along the parallel park/floral route to the coastal cycle then pedestrian way. I was glad to do 41.30, my longest run since the injuries. Russ did just less than an hour. The route opened up onto a coastal path. Passed a very scenic (tho’ virtually odourless) sewage works, then continued North. I was pleased to achieve this and that my hip was so much better, tho’ frustrated that the right knee which gave me problems before the hip still felt niggly… After a shower we went out to breakfast at the Croissant Dore on the Place Verdun near the hotel. This is a wide open rectangular space incorporating a merry go round, underground car park as well as the city’s main bus terminal. This was a popular café and prices reasonable. Next stop the aquarium. This was quite a walk – beyond the Old port area and a recent (post 2000) addition to the city. The glass/steel/concrete structure looked impressive and after reading about it, it promised to be good. The exhibits were excellent – species arranged geographically according to world oceans/climatic regions – Atlantic, Mediterranean, Asiatic, but the place was rather overrun, mainly by English tourists it seemed. Many were loud with even more vocal kids…the school hols have started for real! The highlight of the visit was probably the battle of the crabs we watched for several minutes in the mangrove section. The transparent jellyfish tunnel, yellow ‘balloon’ fish and sharks were also worth seeing, as was the very French video presentation about the technical workings/daily routine of the Aquarium. We had lunch at a creperie/brasserie (salad and rose), then it was back to the hotel for a rare chill out – I stopped off for a bit of shopping on the way back and bought some shoes Russ is convinced are cycling shoes. I sat out in the garden and read for a while – in my bikini, trying to get as much sun as possible! There was just me and some Dutch? German? guys playing chess and a few statues. In the evening we went out to eat at the ‘4 seargents’ restaurant inside a huge glass/greenhouse in a street near the old port. I was initially impatient – hungry and the waiter took ages to get round for our order. Maybe I should go with the flow more…but after so long away I can’t wait to shop and cook for my/ourselves!! The food was excellent tho’, salmon trout and mackerel after various starters and an amuse bouche followed by melon crumble and ice creams.