April 21 - On to St. Malo

   Today we had another hearty breakfast at La Maison Pavie and said farewell to the wonderful innkeeper, Katrine. The house was once owned by Monsieur Pavie who was a diplomat to Laos and Cambodia and decorated with many things from those countries. Two books that he wrote were in the sitting room, in fact.

Mark by some brakewater pole for scale

    Mark drove about 25 miles to St. Malo where we had to wait to find parking- an indication of just how popular this beach-side resort it. We are at La Maison des Armateurs on the Grand Rue. Coincidentally we are right across the street from where Jecca had a flat for two weeks! She was able to give us a lot of tips about what to do and where to eat.

     

An old picture of St. Malo

We wandered around and got our bearings somewhat. We walked a good deal of the ramparts facing the sea and little islands; we also walked down onto the beach. There are MILEs of wide, sandy beaches here. And, the tide is immense - 16 meters. There are a lot of signs warning people to pay attention to the tides. The breakwaters are made up of huge wooden poles. They stretch for as far as the eye can see - at least a mile. Jec said they are worried these tall, straight poles cannot be replaced with trees that tall and straight.

     St. Malo was largely destroyed in WWII by bombs and fire. It was occupied for a long time. (All the Light You Cannot See)  There was consideration of leaving the rubble as a memorial, but it was eventually decided to restore the city. However, it has never recovered its pre-war population. It obviously does not have the charm of the medieval town of Dinan, but the ramparts are impressive and the sea is enticing.

   

The Swimming Baths at high tide with diving platform

On the ramparts. Rocks and sand

 It is quite windy, but with beautiful blue skies.  People lined up for ice cream, many with winter clothes on and some in shorts. We had a generic pizza/salad dinner; most of the restaurants are closed on Mondays.  After dinner, we walked most of the ramparts we had not yet walked. There were people in the water then as the sun had come out and the tide was way out.

Tide is in

Tide is mostly in