Saint-Malo
We arrived in Saint-Malo, a city I had personally looked forward to since I read the book “All the light we cannot see” some years ago. Saint-Malo is located in Brittany and the old walled city of Saint-Malo is almost surrounded by the ocean. The city has beautiful ramparts all around, and with nice streets filled with shops, bars and restaurants.
This is also a place where the tide changes a lot, so when you go to the beautiful beaches, islands or forts outside of the ramparts, you better be prepared for the return of the water.
Staying inside of the ramparts in the old city was quite expensive, so we found ourselves a nice place a short walk out from there. Outside of the old city seemed quite dull and not all that interesting, so we spent most of our time in the old city along with a lot of other tourists. Sadly too many tourists, and the place more felt like an experience than a city where local people lives and go about their business.
We had crêpes and galettes, pancakes filled with stuff, where crêpes are more a dessert, galettes are made with buckwheat and are with eggs, ham, bacon and so forth. In Brittany this food is everywhere and can be bought for a very good price as a menu with one salty and one sweet and a cup of cider.
We spent two days in Saint-Malo which was sufficient, it did not fully live up to my expectations, more like a tourist trap. But we did go to the beach and had a refreshing swim, wander the streets and the ramparts, visit the old Fort National on one of the small islands around the city – and of course find the place where Marie-Laure lived, Rue de Vauborel number 4.
La Rochelle
The weather near the northern coast was turning rainy and cold, so we decided to leave and drive some hours south to La Rochelle in Novelle-Aquitaine region on the west coast of France.
The drive down through Rennes and Nantes to La Rochelle took around 3,5 hours and it almost kept pouring down the whole way there.
La Rochelle is located in a bay with peninsulas and small islands. It is also where settlers left for Quebec in the new world. We checked into our Airbnb, a nice apartment in the top of an old building, with a nice view, just a few minutes from the old market.
As we arrived the weather cleared up, and the sun came out. When we arrived we went out for a run – actually a pretty nice way to see a city and to get a little bit of exercize after a long drive. When we got back, I realised I´ve forgotten the adapter for the power socket.. In France they use ground which comes out as a male pin in the socket.
Alas, I continued the run to get a new one.. We had Thai food at Restaurant Galanga, pretty good food, and had a quiet night.
Next morning, I had a meeting, that’s why the adapter was so important, and afterwards we went downtown to the old port (Vieux port) and took a very touristy tour in a big ferris wheel, and headed to the beach. The water wasn’t very nice probably because of the ocean floor being clay and muddy.
Caribbean vibes on Île-d’Aix
Just a 30 mins drive from La Rochelle there is a small island Île-d’Aix, which Napoleon used as a fort against pirates and such. In the proximity of Île-d’Aix is also a quite known fort, “Fort Boyard” which was originally used as a fort because of the range of the canons, the fort provided coverage for the bay. Later the fort was a prison, but nowadays it is known from tv – in Denmark for a program called “Fangerne på fortet”.
Île-d’Aix is a small island, and it is primarily bikes that is used for transportation among the visitors. You get a kind of Cuban vibes from the place, with the colonial style houses and small bars. We spent most of the day there, biking around seeing old fort remains and eating delicious moules frites at a mussel producer La piermathant, definitely a recommendation.
After a good night’s sleep were are moving further south, involving wine, a stay on a castle and more.
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