A flight in the past

[Corsaire31 419]

 

On my flight from Guernsey to a small airfield near Nantes, I flew over my birthtown today.

 

Under the plane is Dinard with "La Grande Plage" - the main beach - (a wealthy holiday resort with wonderful houses from the 30s, which was developped by the Brits) and on the left across the river Rance is Saint Malo. (my grandfather used to say the people from Dinard were not like us, they lived "de l'autre côté de l'eau " - on the other side of the water !)

 

The red dot shows where I spent all my youth. I lived with my parents on the third floor, just had to cross the street to be on the beach, and in the back was the harbour where moored the big trawlers fishing cod around Newfoundland. I left in 1981.

[hifly 925]

Another good one Loic.  Nostalgia is not what it used to be, I guess we didn't really appreciate our home towns until we left them. The few posts on here lately about the Isle of Wight have made me want to get back there for a break especially as it's Cowes Week this week.

 

Must have been great for you to just cross the street and you're on the beach. The sea has a special draw, that's why after 14 years living in London I wanted to be near it again so we moved to Hastings. Where we live has panoramic views over the English Channel, I can just swivel round in my chair and look at it and feel the cool sea breeze. Heaven.  

[Corsaire31 419]

I lived most of my life by the sea (these were the happy days when you could choose where you wanted your job to be...) on the Atlantic (Lorient, La Rochelle) or on the Mediterranean (Nizza la Bella  ) Life has brought me inland near Airbus city, but from here I can be in one and a half hour in the mountains, in two hours by the Atlantic Ocean and in two hours by the Mediterranean. So it's not too bad, except it gets a little hot in summer (in two weeks from now temperatures will go down) and we live in the south fashion, with shades half closed all day and enjoying the evenings.

[brett 2,315]

Where we grow up has a large part in what mold's us as young adults, I never tire of old stories from the past. Life is good.

 

Thanks for a look into your past Loic, I can see why you ended up on boats for a good potion of your life.

[Corsaire31 419]

Thks Brett. You're right, one of my grandfathers had been a sailor on board the big three masts going around the Cape Horn to Valparaiso in Chile and I grew up with his stories (going to Valparaiso is one of the things left on my to-do list, I was very sad when there was the huge fire there lately).

The whole history of the town is made of sea trade , attacking british ships in the Channel, and explore the world (Jacques Cartier who discovered Canada, the first french settlements in Brasil, the cod fishing around Newfoundland (Saint Pierre et Miquelon) the Falklands which were called "Les Malouines" because it was a stop for the merchant ships )

I guess when you grow up seeing the horizon on the sea every day, you soon want  to go see what is beyond. 

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

La Rochelle is a lovely place, ....but the tanker birth there is a right bugger when it's raining(as it was twice when I visited there). The jetty is very very long and there is no shelter! Got soaked walking from the taxi to the ship every time! Great pic though.

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

The offending viaduct and jetty! It's a cold long walk in winter!  https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@46.1593448,-1.2338064,2831m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en