Things are going a lot better:

1. Thanks to an anonymised friend, I now know how to say ‘What do you mean “we don’t cater for vegans”?’ (It’s ‘Comment ça vous ne faites pas de service traiteur pour végétaliens? in real French.)
   1. It turns out RyanAir have only cancelled FR515 on Thursday, so my travel plans remain intact.
   2. But I admit I’m a complete nong for not seeing that straight away.
2. The same friend who gave me the leçons also found a Mac and PC repair shop within walking distance of the conference venue.
   1. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a replacement MacBook Air power cable.
   2. He did direct me to a big store that would have one, but it was an hour’s walk away and was due to close in 3 minutes time anyway.
   3. He didn’t have (or want to give me) a little bit of insulation tape so I could make a running repair.
   4. All of this conversation was in French – thanks for the leçons again, my colleague.
   5. But on the way to the computer store, I passed a supermarket which sells insulation tape. So I have applied copious amounts of tape to keep the power cable functioning.

3. I also bought some soya milk, vegan paté, and some soya yoghurts. So I’m not going to starve!
   1. And I got to see parts of St Malo that I wouldn’t otherwise have seen. It has some cycle-paths, a distillery, social housing and (according to the same friend) a restaurant that may sell vegan meals. The hallmarks of civilisation!

Remind me to shut up moaning in future!