Day 3 -Blue skies, city walls, mud flats and mist

Day 3 France 2012

Patrick, our hotelier, recommended that we take a driving tour of the coastal cities and gave us a map, so, after our wonderful French breakfast, we headed north toward St. Malo.  This is a true Breton beach resort.  The old part of the city is walled and there are small islands out in the English Channel that are fortified as well.  One of the islands cannot be visited because WWII mines are still there.  The old part of the city has very narrow streets and tall buildings, and when you are driving on them you have no idea where you are in relation to the rest of the town.  I had wanted to see the church, but although we could see the spire from outside the town, once we were inside the city walls, we could not find it.  During WWII, 80% of St. Malo was destroyed by American bombs as part of the campaign to liberate France, so although most of the buildings look old, they have been rebuilt since 1945.

We walked along the ramparts and enjoyed the view.  The oldest parts of the ramparts date from the 1100s. It has been sunny all day and the English Channel, which has been grey and cloudy so far, was suddenly a beautiful, azure blue today.  The tide was going out, so there were great stretches of beach visible.  Some of the island fortifications (built during the Hundred Years’ War) can be reached by foot when the tide is completely out.  Along with Mont St. Michel, St. Malo has Europe’s greatest tidal changes.  There were tree trunks planted like little forests in the sand around some of the ramparts.  Apparently, these form some of St. Malo’s breakwater and must be replaced every 20 years.  Strong storms blast in off the English Channel and bring surges of waves that pound the seawalls.  The wind was blowing so hard that I had trouble holding the camera just to take a photo.

Jacques Cartier was born in St. Malo.  He was sent by the King Francis I of France as an explorer to find a northern route to Asia but he found the St. Lawrence River and founded the city of Montreal.  The French call the French Canadians their “French cousins from America.”  Robert Surcouf (statue below) is another famous resident from St. Malo.  He was a Corsair (pirate) who attacked English ships with the blessing of the French government.  He was so successful that he was decorated with the Legion of Honor by Emperor Napoleon I and was rich enough to retire at 36 years old.  The most famous inhabitant (to the French) of St. Malo was Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand, who traveled in America, was the Secretary of Foreign Affairs in France, and was an author who is required reading for French school children.  

We decided to pick up some sandwiches for lunch before we left St. Malo.  We got tickled to see a sandwich called “Americaine” that had ham, cheese, tomato, lettuce, mayonnaise, and big wedges of boiled egg.  We got one, and it was delicious.  We also got a ham and cheese sandwich with butter.  These sandwiches were huge chunks of baguette that were sliced open and then the fillings were put in and the bread closed back up.  So good!  We got canned drinks and headed out for Dinard.  We found a park, but it was so windy and cool that we decided to eat in the car.  

This area along the coast is full of summer or holiday homes that are still shuttered up. We were amazed at the number of homes that were shuttered.  I am sure that some of them belong to Parisians, but apparently most of them belong to Brits who can take a ferry across from England.  Most of these towns also have huge casinos.  

When you leave a town, there is a sign that has the name of the town with a red line through it.  It is kind of nice to know that you are out of that town and can start looking for the next one.

We stopped in St. Lunaire just so that I could take a photo of a beautiful small church.  We are amazed that these churches are almost always surrounded on all 4 sides by streets.  I told Leon that I am surprised that the French are not more religious because they have such beautiful places to worship.

As we drove on along the coast, we saw what looked like fields and fields of boats in mud.  The tide in the estuaries goes out for at least a mile and leaves hundreds of boats high and dry.

 About 2:30, as we were up by the seacoast, we thought it was getting cloudy, but in reality it was fog from the English Channel rolling it.  It looked like a dark wall in the distance that just got closer and closer and soon was blowing across the highway like smoke.  It reminded us of the fog rolling into San Francisco.  We saw lots of hikers and campers up in the high country around Cap Frehel.  The hills are covered with what looked like heather or some thick bracken.  I can’t imagine walking through it, but trails were cut through it.  We watched some of the hikers as they walked on the trails, and they were just enveloped by the mist.  

Because of all the holiday folks, there are tons of new subdivisions sprouting up with cute but small houses.  It is obvious that they are not very old, but most of them are well landscaped and neat and tidy.  This house is in Pluduno.

I still like the older houses best!  This house is in Plancoet. It even had a nice little vegetable garden beside it.

We drove through Dinan on the way back.  Jason and Cara were there with us.  It is another ancient city with remnants of the original city walls. 

Patrick had suggested that we drive down to La Cale, a seafood restaurant on the Rance River, and have dinner there, so we got there about 6:15…of course, they don’t start serving until 7:00, so we just had a glass of wine while we waited.  We watched the tide as it came in and lifted the boats from the mudflats until they were floating again.  Leon had seafood with sauerkraut…who would have thought about that combination!  I had grilled sea bream and vegetables.  We had the traditional Breton dessert, kouign amann, sort of a heavy puff pastry cake with some squiggles of vanilla custard and raspberry coulis. We ate it right up before I thought about getting a photo of it.   The restaurant was something like you would find around Beaver lake…good food, but very informal.  The background music was all 60s, 70s, and 80s music in English…Tom Jones, Doris Day, etc.  We got tickled about that.

  We were laughing at Helen today because when she does not know the name of a highway or street that we are on, she just says "driving on Road."

We have yet to decide where in Brittany we will venture tomorrow.