Before heading down to the southern part of Brittany we drove across the bay to St. Malo. St. Malo is a heavily restored fortified town. Why is it heavily restored? Well, besides the fact that there was no money to maintain much of the buildings anywhere in France, it was the base of the German army on the French coast in WWII. Of course, it was bombed heavily. The French resistance in Brittany was particularly strong as a result of the prominent German presence and the fierce pride of the St Malans is widely known in Brittany. They campaigned to raise funds to restore the town to its former glory.

Anyway… St Malo is a completely walled town. It is a working town surrounded by tall ramparts with 4 gates serving as entry and exit points. Its architecture is uniformly medieval and very very quaint. 

Here is St Malo:

We walked the ramparts and took a look around. One of the gates:

 

 

On the ramparts:

 

  

 

The St Malans kept English mastiffs (think Hound of the Baskervilles) which they let loose after the night curfew to roam outside the ramparts. The dogs were not fed, according to the official story, which resulted in several unpleasant situations. There are bronze images of these dogs mounted on the walls at several places. They seemed to be an almost official image of the city. I’m not sure how effective they were at keeping the English away, but they used the dogs for centuries.

 

When the tide is out, you can walk to some of the forts on the small islands just offshore. When the tide is up, water will cover the area surrounding the two rocky outcroppings in the picture below:

 

In Dinard and St Malo there are some rather ingenious saltwater swimming pools, which we were unable to try but looked fun. This pool has a high diving platform.

 

 

And this concludes our 2 day stay on the north coast of Brittany. Next we head down to Carnac for more calvados and crepes (and a few more things as well, ah the suspense)…