St. Malo, Brittany

We arrived in gorgeous St. Malo, on the Brittany coast, after a hot week in Paris.  As we walked from the train station to our hotel we all gasped as we had our first view of the ocean.  The tide was out so there was a huge beach, the ocean was turquoise (yet freezing we later discovered) and there were little castles on rocky islands just off the shore.  

You can see in the photo how there is a cement wall that holds water for swimming as the tide goes out each afternoon.

Our hotel was inside a walled, medieval village, just on the beach.  This is a photo from our hotel room showing the red umbrellas from the restaurant at our hotel and then a walkway through the wall out to the beach.  It was a beautiful location.  Jacques Cartier sailed from St. Malo on his way to Canada so we could feel that the town felt a strong connection with us.  At one point a man asked me what region of France I was from (!!!) and I told him Canada, he replied, "Jacques Cartier, our little cousins."  We found the people especially kind in St. Malo.

I was happy to discover that Moules et Frites (mussels and fries) are a speciality of St. Malo so every restaurant in town offed a mussels special for supper.  We all happily ate mussels every evening during our stay!  The girls also greatly enjoyed the crepes and the ice cream of this region. 

Enjoying huge chocolate pistachio cones.

At low tide we went for a walk to one of the little islands just off the coast. 

After four relaxing, beautiful days we packed up and got ready to take the train to Blois, in the Loire Valley to begin our next adventure.