Last year I read the book,
All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, which is partially set in St Malo, France. When we decided we wanted to visit Normandy and Brittany, I knew that I wanted to see St Malo. We stayed at the Hotel San Pedro three nights - on the 4th floor.
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| There were 70 steps to our room. The elevator was big enough for our suitcases. |
We arrived at night, by ferry, from Jersey. St Malo is a walled city, surrounded by a river and the Atlantic Ocean. To get in the city, you actually have to go through one of the 5 or 6 city gates. Although it was pretty much a shambles after the allied invasion of World War Two, it has been reconstructed as it was before the war. It looks just as I imagined from
All the Light We Cannot See.
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| This is one of the oldest houses in St Malo. |
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| We walked the city wall. Views of the city, and the ocean were wonderful. |
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| View of the St Malo wall from the beach. |
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| We had an amazing mussel dinner. |
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This is the town swimming pool. When the tide comes in, all you can see is the diving board. When the tide goes out, the pool appears, with fresh sea water. We saw lots of people swimming laps.
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One day we took a ferry across the river from St Malo, to the resort town of Dinard.
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| We suddenly felt like we were on the Riviera. |
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| Dinard also has a seawater swimming pool. |
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| While St Malo is a walled city, Dinard has houses built right on the edge of its cliffs. All the homes are open to the sea and invaders. |
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| We walked a long way on the path along the bottom of the cliff where we could see parades of lovely old mansions. |
And that is St Malo and Dinard. From there we flew to Cambridge to see our son, Syvart.
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