The warm smell of Malouine crêpes has returned to the village of the Route du Rhum - Destination Guadeloupe, and with it something closer to Proust's madeleine: a sense memory, triggered without warning.
Four years is how long the skippers have been preparing for this, their own version of the Olympics. And four years is how long offshore racing fans have been waiting to see them again.
Breton drizzle was never going to spoil this reunion.
From midday, multihulls and monohulls filed through the lock one after another.
Up in the stands, the old gear came out again in their honour: the 2008-vintage jacket, the cap that's even older than that, and the memories that came flooding back with them. Mike Birch and his famous 98 seconds. Loïck Peyron's stolen start against Laurent Bourgnon. Alain Colas and his Manureva.
Among the diehards, dreaming of which boat they'd have chosen had they been skippers themselves, stand the newcomers, wide-eyed at the smooth hulls, the towering masts, the sheer physical presence of these sailors.
But being impressed cuts both ways.
On the water, the adrenaline is the same whether it's your first start or your seventh. The thrill of arriving in the Bay of Saint-Malo never dulls, no matter how many times you've done it.
Four years is a long wait. But maybe that's what it takes: time for the desire to build slowly and surely, so that every reunion feels like the first.
