French road trip Day 2: St-Malo

We got up early and drove from the outskirts of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy back into Brittany to spend the day in Saint-Malo. This is also an ancient walled city, but nestled right into the more modern town beside it. It’s the setting for the book and movie, All the Light You Cannot See (highly recommend!). We wandered the streets and walked along the ramparts.

The city was heavily damaged during World War II, and subsequently rebuilt, but you can still see remnants of the original buildings:

Here too, we watched the changing of the tide, but this time in reverse, because we arrived in the morning. The beach at St-Malo was beautiful and watching it change as the day went on was fascinating.

There are nearby islands that look so far away, but as the tide recedes, you can walk to them. Here they are surrounded by water:

We also noticed in the morning a platform out in the water that people were jumping off of. We were so curious about it, and wondered what would be revealed below when the tide went out. As the day went on, we discovered that it’s on the edge of a pool filled with sea water and as the tide moves out, the walls of the pool begin to appear. The water from the ocean stays in the pool. It’s so simple but so ingenious at the same time. I kept thinking to myself, «Why don’t we have these in Nova Scotia?!» It’s like a natural lido!

Unfortunately we couldn’t swim since we had left our bathing suits in the car and taken a shuttle from the main city. We did dip our feet in the water, and it was pretty cold, so swimming may not have been a realistic option anyway, especially because it wasn’t a super hot day. Theo did enjoy playing in the sand though:

Here is a cool view of the walled city from a walkway out to a lighthouse:

We also checked out Maison Bordier, which is both a butter museum and butter/cheese shop. Brittany is, after all, known for its salted butter, and this shop says it all.

Both Saint-Malo and Mont Saint-Michel were beautiful but also very crowded. Although we’ve been in touristy places in Brittany, these definitely felt like the hot spots for visitors.