Spring in Saint Malo

Friday, April 8
Today was the start of my two week spring break. I took the train in the afternoon first to Nantes, then Rennes, and finally Saint Malo. It was nice when I got there, which was good because I had to walk 25 minutes from the train station to the "intra muros" (walled city) where I was staying. It was about dinner time when I got to my hotel so I dropped off my bag and went to a delicious little crêperie right next door. After dinner I walked around the city since it stays light out until about 9 o'clock.

A big ship in Saint Malo

One of the entrances to the walled city

Cathédrale Saint Vincent

walking along the ramparts of Saint Malo

When Amelia was here there was a beach here...

Fort National

High tide today

Saturday, April 9
This morning I went to the tourism office to get a map and see what else they recommended seeing. I walked around where they said was supposed to be a beach but of course the tide was too high again this morning. At least it was sunny! Before I left for vacation, the weather showed it as being rainy the whole time I would be up north, but in fact it was pretty nice the majority of the time!

Fort National in the background

This is where the grand plage is supposed to be...

Big waves

Petit Bé on the left and Grand Bé on the right

Canons on the ramparts 

I walked over to the lighthouse, which was smaller than I would have expected. 

Walking back to the walled city from the lighthouse

Look there's a beach! The sand was too wet so sit on since it was just covered by the sea an hour before.

A pretty little garden

After lunch, I planned on going to a museum, but as I was walking around, I noticed that the tide had gone way down!

I decided to take advantage of the low tide and walk to Fort National

Views from Fort National

the fort on Fort National

I decided to climb over the rocks from Fort National to le Grand Bé, which is in the background

Looking back at Fort National

It wasn't easy climbing over the rocks and my right foot got soaking wet from a big puddle, but I made it over to Grand Bé.

 

Beautiful views of the sea from Grand Bé

Enjoying the sun and the views

Next stop: Petit Bé

I did a tour of the fort on Petit Bé, which was much longer than I had expected.

Beautiful views from Petit Bé

Peaking out the window of the fort

Petit Bé

I was really glad to be able to visit each of the little "islands" since it seemed like the tide would never go down when I first got to Saint Malo.

Sunday, April 10
This morning I got up and walked to La Tour Solidor, which is about a twenty minute walk outside of the walled city, but not in the same direction as the train station.

La Tour Solidor

Inside there were a lot of displays of ships and talking about trade and other semi-interesting things.

View from the top of the tower

After visiting the tower, I walked around this area called Cité d'Alet. I got lunch and I waited for the museum Mémorial 39-45 to open for a tour at 2:30pm. 

ruins of Cathédrale Médievales d'Alet

This is a really pretty area of Saint Malo

Walking around there were several of these remnants of the German occupation in WWII.

More beautiful views walking around

Tour Solidor is on the left 

The tour of the museum was of a German "bunker" during WWII.

Monday, April 11
This morning I took the bus to Rothéneuf, which is another section of Saint Malo. I went there because there was a Jacques Cartiers Museum and I thought that might be interesting to visit since he "discovered" Canada.

A sunny morning in Saint Malo

I wasn't exactly sure I was going in the right direction for the museum since there was nothing else around it besides fields, but alas I found it.

This was Jacques Cartier's house at the end of this life. It was built and expanded in three different centuries.

Eglise Saint Michel de Rothéneuf

After visiting the Cartier Museum, I went back to the walled city and walked around.

 Beautiful Saint Malo

 Then I visited the Musée d'Histoire de Saint Malo (The History of Saint Malo Museum).

You guessed it! More boats.

Part of the museum is going up into the watch tower!

Nice views from the watch tower.

More history, more boats

After the museum, I visited Cathédrale Saint Vincent

I loved the stain-glass windows in Cathédrale Saint Vincent

A memorial near the cathedral

I spent a lot of time sitting by the beach enjoying the sun!

After dinner, I went and watched the sunset.

It was a really pretty sunset

Tuesday, April 12
Well I had visited everything that I wanted to and could in Saint Malo, so today was spent sitting on the beach and reading.

Sitting by the beach

Everyone was watching this large ship sail away

Best street sign I have seen in France (Street of the cat who dances) but I didn't see any dancing cats.

Wednesday, April 13
This morning I just walked along the beach and sat on the beach for a while before taking the train to Bayeux in the afternoon.

Enjoying my last day on the beach

It's fun to watch all of the people sailing.