Trip to France - Part 1: Saint-Malo

I have been promising myself that I will write a post about our fabulous vacation to the land of the Eiffel Tower, the La Joconde (or the Mona Lisa), and crêpes before I forget all the details of the trip, but life kept getting in the way. It is almost one year since our trip, and  I figured it's now or never. I will dedicate a few posts to this trip, starting off with this one!

Flashback to January of 2016 - my then-10-year-old daughter had been begging to see the Eiffel Tower, so when we were trying to decide where our big trip for the year should be, Paris was on top of the list. We knew we had about 10 days we wanted to spend on our vacation, half of which would be in Paris, but the other half was up for discussion. We decided to spend that time exploring more of France instead of visiting another European country. After much research, we honed in on the Brittany region of France as our choice.

Brittany, or Bretagne in French, lies in the Northwest corner of France. We chose to make the ancient walled city of Saint-Malo in Brittany our base when we were there and made a few day trips to explore nearby cities/sights. (Yes! Saint-Malo is the city featured in the fabulous book, "All the Light We Cannot See", by Anthony Doerr! If you haven't read it, please do - it is one of my absolute favorites!) We spent about 2 days overall in Saint-Malo and did 3 different day-trips during the rest of our time there, covering the medieval monastery of Le Mont Saint Michel, and the Breton towns of Dinard, and Dinan.

Saint-Malo is an easy train ride from Paris, which was one of the reasons we picked it as our base. We took a high-speed train from the Montparnasse station in Paris and got to Saint-Malo in just about 3 hours. (Travel tip: Book your train tickets as soon as the booking window opens so you get the best price. For TGV/speed-rail tickets in France, booking opens 90 days in advance and the best-priced seats get snapped up in days!)

Saint-Malo was originally built as a walled citadel guarding the mouth of the Rance river, was home to feared pirates (or corsairs) for centuries and is part of the Emerald Coast of France. Saint-Malo was severely bombed and almost totally destroyed in 1944, during World War II. It was then painstakingly rebuilt and restored by its citizens. Today, the walled old city is absolutely breathtaking to look at!  

View of the walled city from a ferry ride on the Rance river.

The city's cobblestoned streets welcome you in. You can see and feel the history of the city everywhere you look.

We had made reservations to stay in a Bed & Breakfast called Accroche Coeur inside the walls of the old city, or "intra muros" which means "within the walls". This little place had to have been the best-kept secret of Saint-Malo! It is a 17th-century house in the heart of Saint-Malo that has been beautifully updated with modern amenities while retaining some of its original features.

Exposed wood on the staircase leading up to our room, and in the bathroom came from actual pirate ships!

Our hosts were awesome, and the traditional French breakfast they served us every morning was delicious! We would have loved to go back and visit Nathalie at Accroche Couer again, but at the time of writing this blog, it looks like the owners have decided to close the  B & B to spend more time together as a family.

The great thing about Saint-Malo is that everything within the walls of the old city is walkable. We climbed up and explored the ramparts, with breathtaking views on the outside and views of quaint streets and buildings on the inside. We got lost in the windy streets inside the walls, and had an absolutely lovely time!

View from the ramparts of Saint-Malo

View of Plage de Bon Secours and its pool from the ramparts, at high tide

My 10-year-old was delighted to learn that the French explorer, Jacques  Cartier, who she had just learned about at school, was born in Saint-Malo!

The city within the walls is beautiful too, with a lot of narrow cobblestoned streets lined by tall, narrow buildings, just like I had pictured from reading All the Light We Cannot See.

4 Rue de Vauborel from "All the Light We Cannot See"

  

The St Vincent of Saragosse Cathedral is an iconic shape in the skyline of Saint-Malo. We did not tour the inside of the Cathedral, but it is beautiful from the outside.

The kids had a lot of fun just exploring the different paths, stairs, and alleyways. It's just so different than what we are used to seeing back home!

                        

And, not to forget, riding the carousel in Saint-Malo was a favorite! The carousel has paintings depicting Saint-Malo. The kids also had a blast with random things they noticed on the streets, in typical "kid" fashion. They found these little metal discs on the streets which had a symbol that looked like a dog wearing a cape, the kids called it "Superhero Dog", and immediately made up a game that they could get a superpower each time they walked on one of these. This lead to races between the two kids and ongoing entertainment throughout our trip! (We never did find out what those discs actually were!) Store names were the source of constant entertainment as well, like the one below called "Undiz"! It's always the small things that make lasting memories.

                          

                                     

 

One of the other highlights of our stay in Saint-Malo was the beach, of course! We had a couple of gorgeous afternoons where the kids just got to play on the beach. Our hosts at the B & B were kind enough to let us borrow beach towels and sand toys - this was icing on the cake!

The beach at Plage de Bon Secours is also home to a seawater pool that fills up at high tide, and people use it as a regular pool all day! It was built back in the 1930's, and I thought it was such a cool idea!

The Bon Secours pool as the tide is receding. See picture earlier in this post (with the canon in it) to see the pool at high tide!

The other "not to miss" attractions off the beaches of Saint-Malo are the two little islets of Grand Bé and Petit Bé, which are only accessible at low tide. The land around them is submerged in water at high tide and slowly emerges as the tide recedes, letting us walk right up to the islets.

Fort on Petit Bé at high tide

Petit Bé and Grand Bé at low tide

Walkway to the islets exposed at low tide

The kids were fascinated by the different sea creatures that were on the rocky shores, exposed at low tide as we walked up to the islets.

The windy pathway on the islet of Grand Bé 

View of Saint-Malo from Grand Bé 

We are not typical foodies, but I cannot end this post without touching on the topic of the delicious food we tried while at Saint-Malo! Our hosts in the B & B introduced us to traditional Breton dishes like Kouign Amann (a French layered pastry that melts in your mouth) and Far Breton (another Breton dish that's like flan, with prunes in it). We had our first taste of French crêpes in Saint-Malo - we tried traditional sweet crêpes called "Crêpes sucrées" and savory ones called "galettes". Not surprisingly, the one with Nutella was the clear winner according to my 6-year-old! We also tried native abalone, or "Ormeau" that the Brittany region is known for. It was swimming in butter, and oh-so-delicious!!!  

(Probably not on the list for most tourists visiting Saint-Malo, but one of the best meals we had while there was actually at an Indian restaurant. Maybe it was just our taste buds missing familiar flavors, but all of us, including the kids, devoured the food there! Le Punjab is definitely worth a mention!)

I'll sign off on this post with one last picture - a beautiful sunset over the Plage de Bon Secours caught on our last evening in Saint-Malo! 

My next post will be all about our side trips from Saint-Malo. Stay tuned!