Robson Report. As we were planning three weeks in Paris, we thought about day trips and perhaps one longer overnight trip to someplace special. Giverny and Fountainebleau were the day trips. Jim wanted to find a place on the Brittany coast with a beach. After we read Rick Steves, St. Malo seemed like the perfect overnight destination, so we were off to Brittany for three days.

The train trip to Rennes began easily from Gare Montparnasse. For reasons we did not understand, as the announcement was in rapid French, our train stopped in the middle of nowhere for 30 minutes. We missed our connection to St. Malo but caught the next train.

Settled in Old Town

Jacques, our VRBO host, picked us up at the station and delivered us to an amazing apartment in charming old town St. Malo which occupies a strategic and beautiful location on the English Channel.

Our apartment is beautiful and is equipped with an elevator which our tired legs really appreciate. We are enjoying an ocean view on the third floor without having to haul ourselves and luggage up stairs. A boulangerie and grocery store which are very close meeting our food and beverage needs.

The wall surrounding this city was originally built in the 12th century. Louis XIV expanded the wall and incorporated 4 forts to protect the city from those dastardly Brits. A couple of these forts are still standing and are very imposing. St. Malo is straight out of a story book!

We enjoyed a late lunch in the plaza and strolled along the waterfront. We returned from walking in the sand along the English Channel just as the tide was coming in. We stopped at a cafe perched on the edge of the seawall to enjoy a beer in the late afternoon. The bartender told us of the best fromagier in St. Malo.

He says the finest restaurants in Paris use their butter and cheese. Of course we had to venture there to buy cheese from the region and returned with two delicious choices: one from goat’s milk and the other from cow’s milk.

At the grocery, we bought wine and crusty French bread to go with our cheeses and coffee for the morning. We considered going out for supper, but it was late and we were happy to stay “home” with our purchases.

Out and About St. Malo

The next morning, we decided to take a leisurely day exploring St. Malo and that was perfect. The old city is as quaint and charming as one would imagine It dates back to the ninth century, with most of its growth and power happening in the 16th and 17th centuries. Rick Steves suggested climbing the ramparts and walking the protective wall which we did—stopping along the walk to read the plaques describing St. Malo’s illustrious past.

St. Malo was a major seaport for centuries. In the 1500s the great Brittany navigator, Jacques Cartier, departed St. Malo on his voyage to North America when he visited the future sight of Quebec City, now St. Malo’s sister city. It also served as home base of the Corsairs who served France as sanctioned pirates famous for attacking and looting British and Dutch vessels during the 18th century.

At the end of our walk on the ramparts, we were totally shocked to learn that almost 80% of the old city, including the ramparts we had walked on, were destroyed by Allied bombing in WWII during preparations for the D-Day invasion. The intended target was a large German artillery installation just north of the city. (Related to this event, if you have not read All the Light You Cannot See by Anthony Doerr or watched the excellent Netflix three-part film, put them on your must read and/or must see list.)

After the war, the city decided to rebuild the old city as closely as possible to its historic state including rescuing as much as was possible stone from the rubble. This was a controversial choice because some people preferred a modern rebuild.

The restoration project lasted 16 years and has been praised as one of the greasiest reconstruction projects of the 20th century. We had no idea the buildings we saw which looked like 1650 were actually constructed in the 1950s! The main difference in the rebuild was expanding the roadways for modern traffic needs.

Ferry Trip to Dinan

A ferry to cross the Rance River took us to Dinan which was the go-to beach destination for Brittany and much of Northern Europe during the 19th century. When Nice was “discovered,” Dinan fell out of favor. St. Malo became the preferred destination in this part or Brittany.

We took a lovely walk along the coast, from the dock to the center of town, giving us great views of the 19th century mansions surrounding the town’s beach.

The town had little more to offer, so we returned to St. Malo via the ferry.

High and Low

On our walk along the beach on the first day, the tide was beginning to come in. We noticed a line of tree trunks stood in front of the 45 ft seawall that protects the city.

We read that the tides in Saint Malo are some of the largest in the continent—rising and falling as much as 45 feet each day. The massive tree trunks along the seawall buffer the waves and inhibit erosion of the sea wall.

It was hard to comprehend that the beach the we had walked on would be covered by over 40 feet of water. We had never seen such tides and could only imagine how scary it would be here in a massive storm!! But here are the pictures that prove the point.

Fare the Wall, St. Malo

After returning to Old Town, we had a very late lunch at LaDuchesse Anne. We wanted to enjoy specialties of Bretagne so I ordered moules marineres (mussels) and Betsy had a galette, which is a thin buckwheat pancake with chicken and mushrooms. Both were very tasty and authentic.

We continued our walk along the ramparts ending with a trip back to our favorite cheese shop this time for a delicious sheep’s milk cheese. Dinner again was cheese, bread, and wine—a perfect ending to a marvelous stay in St. Malo.

Our return to Paris on the train was uneventful. But getting back to our Passy apartment 28 turned into a big event with both our regular RER trains and Metro lines closed. We finally managed to patch together a route that delivered us close to 28 and ending with a medium long walk.