Farewell to France – St. Malo (the city and the Brittany Ferry) – Catherine DeZelar Krause

Our last stop in France was the city of St. Malo, a port city on the English Channel of approximately 50,000 people in the Brittany region of France. It has a colorful history. The city was founded by the Gauls in the 1^st century BC and has a unique language closer to Gaelic than French, although locals generally speak both. It was part of the Roman Empire, and later was for some time an independent city-state, not part of France or Brittany. It also was the center of the “corsairs,” French privateers. During World War II the historic walled city was almost completely destroyed by US bombing (it was occupied by the Germans at the time). The walled city has been rebuilt as close as possible to the original.

We stayed in a house within walking distance of the walled city but in a different neighborhood, Saint-Servan. The house was a nice place filled with interesting and often whimsical art. We had a small outdoor garden/patio area that we were able to use a bit, although the weather didn’t allow that every day.

An example of the whimsicle art in our Airbnb, this gnome windchime hanging over the table in the garden area

Many bees made a daily visit to these flowers in our garden

We enjoyed a walk on the beach near the walled city, and then a walk on the walls on the return. The walled city itself is now filled with tourist shops, restaurants and hotels.

Beachcombing at low tide, with the walled city in the background

Many people enjoying the beach at low tide, and the walk to some ruins

Seaside pool as viewed from the city wall; there is a similar pool in Mazatlan, but I would guess the water in this one is colder.

We saw this in several places in Europe; it seems that these boats are aground at low tide daily.

We enjoyed other walks near the marina and to some local markets. We also decided we couldn’t leave France without some French pastries for breakfast on our final morning.

After we selected our pastries, they packages them for us in this box, like a present. This is aparently normal and not for any particular occasion!

Our pastries, works of art and absolutely delicious!

We left the city of St. Malo on a ferry named the St. Malo. The company we used was Brittany Ferries, a French company that operates many ferries daily between France and England crossing the English Channel between several different ports. Our trip took a full day to transit the channel to our first stop in England in Portsmouth.

We decided to get a cabin so we didn’t need to carry our luggage around all day, and so we could take a nap as we often do in the afternoon.

As if we didn’t have enough sugar already in the pastries, the ferry had gifts for us in our cabin including these macarons. We ate them and had quite a sugar high!

The ferry is like a small cruise ship, with a few different lounges and restaurants and an art gallery.

We had a very pleasant and enjoyable day crossing the English Channel on the St. Malo.

Farewell to France – St. Malo (the city and the Brittany Ferry)

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