St Malo, Brittany

We left the beautiful Bayeux early to get to Mont Saint Michel for a tour.

We traveled along the winding back roads past cute houses, farms and through some small villages. It always amazes me how close the houses are to the road.

When Mont Saint Michel came into view it was so picturesque sitting on top of a rocky island cliff. Steve said it reminded him of when Uluru comes into view.

As expected Mont Saint Michel was busy. The lines began from the parking, the shuttle bus and the entrance to the abbey. But the views from the abbey and the inside was worth the wait.

The island that the abbey is on is cut off by the high tides. On low tide the mud flats go on forever. Some days the tides change so quickly that the surrounding sand becomes unstable, effectively turning into quick sand. We learned from the story on the Bayeux tapestry that some of William the Conqueror’s soldiers lost their lives due to the quick sand.

Being a tidal island and having double-ended ramparts helped to protect the abbey from the wars between the French and the English.

But it was eventually taken by Napoleon in the 18th century. He closed the abbey and converted it into a prison for those who opposed his religious regime.

The views from Mont Saint Michel were amazing. Looking out it was so flat and you could see for miles everywhere from all around the abbey. Again it was great protection for the abbey because they would be able to see who was coming from land and sea.

As you could imagine it was very ornate throughout the abbey. It was very big with lots of different rooms. There are still a small number of monks and nuns living in Mont Saint Michel. Along with some residents. There are also hotels and shops on the way in.

After Mont Saint Michel we drove to St Malo which is a port city in Brittany.

We had heard that St Malo was a lovely city and we weren’t disappointed. The beach was very beautiful! It is a huge beach and when the tide is out it is even bigger. We were excited about our next couple of days!

It was another blue sky day and 31 degrees. We set off to find somewhere for lunch. We didn’t have much luck.

We have learned so far in France you must have a reservation at restaurants during peak holiday times.

We have also learned when staying in a hotel without a mini bar you need your own bottle opener! We will be shopping tomorrow to find one for the lovely wines we have in the fridge.

We had a quick dinner of pizza and had an early night.

The next day we hired some bikes and headed to the old city along the promenade.

We rode around to the harbour and out onto the pier.

The old city was very busy and full of restaurants and shops. We had a walk through the city and then found the steps to walk the wall.

Once again the views were stunning.

While walking around the wall and through the city there were small metal discs with a picture of a dog with a cape.

We learned that in the 1600’s the city of St Malo began using dogs as a way to enforce a curfew to protect the city at night. Every night at 10pm a bell would ring to warn the people that 20 or so English mastiffs were about to be released from their kennels. They weren’t fed a lot during the day so were very viscous and hungry! So they roamed the city at night until a horn sounded in the morning to call the dogs back.

The motto of the city became “Cave Canem” which translated from Latin to mean “Beware the Dog”.

After the walk Steve needed a beer so I could have a wander through the shops 🙂 And there were many!

We left the old city to have lunch in a restaurant that turned us away the day before. And yes! We had a reservation!

The location was perfect and so was the lunch. Steve tried some local Cancale oysters.

It was a very hot day like the rest of France. The predicted temperature for the day was 37 so it was time to have a swim in the English Channel. It was very nice!!

The tide was out but while we were sitting there it started to come in. Very quickly! People had to keep moving back. It was amazing how quick it came in.

We had a reservation for dinner in what looked like a nice restaurant but they put us inside at the back, right next to the kitchen. It was too hot so we left and found somewhere else so we were outside in the beautiful breeze.

Because it was so hot we didn’t want to go back to our room which was a hot box. No aircon! So we had some drinks in the courtyard. Our room was so hot we needed to ask for a fan.

Our time in the beautiful St Malo had come to an end. We both thought it would be a great place to have a holiday apartment to skip our Aussie winter. But as Daryl Kerrigan would say “You’re dreamin”.