Living La Vida Loca

We made our way to Saint Malo from Trieste. Saint Malo was one of the French towns designated as a fortress under the German Atlantic Wall program, and its prewar defenses were expanded considerably before the Allied landings in Normandy during June 1944. As part of their invasion plans, the Allies intended to capture the town so that its port could be used to land supplies. While there was some debate over the necessity of this in August as the Allied forces broke out of Normandy and entered Brittany, it was decided to capture rather than contain Saint-Malo to secure its port and eliminate the German garrison.

We decided to splurge and stay in an incredibly lovely, seaside hotel the Thermes Marins, and it didn’t disappoint…but we had quite an adventure getting here from our time in Italy.

I’d advised Andrew that check any bags on the very short airline transfer was a bad idea. I lost that argument.  It became abundantly clear as we raced through the Amsterdam/Schipol terminal that our checked bags would not make it through to our Rennes destination in time. Our arrival gate could not have been farther from the new boarding gate! Grrrrrr! The airline did give us a moderate allowance to buy some clothes in the interim – and we did as it was only one day in St Malo before our trip would start. Luckily our bags arrived the night before the tour began – just in the nick of time.

St Malo is a sedate and lovely city that would be a great place for seniors to retire. With a pleasant and scenic paved waterfront strolling path that fronts some incredibly preserved homes, we enjoyed our one day taking in the sea, sand and seagulls. The path ends at Old St. Malo – a walled city now filled with many shops and restaurants for tourism. But the setting has retained the centuries old flavor – quite grand.

Walking in Brittany

Our walking tour began in Saint Malo where we met up with two young and very energetic guides, two other couples who were traveling together, and a woman traveling on her own. We enjoyed getting to know the group – most were a little younger than us, and a couple who were retired physicians actually kept an eye on Andrew as we navigated some of the rockier terrain and climbs.

Overall the walk was very doable for us as was the pace…we didn’t really mind taking up the rear and enjoying the scenery! Brittany trails provided beautiful seaside landscapes with a bit of rain and wind thrown in – but nothing to keep us from moving forward.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Our stop at the end of our first walking day was overlooking a working oyster farm. It was interesting to see the complex of catchers and trucks that pick up the bounty. These slimy sea creatures are not my cup of tea but for those in our group who love them the guides prepared a tasting. 

Most days we all stayed in a group as we walked and kept each other in sightline. One of the days Andrew and I lagged a bit behind at a more leisurely pace and took a wrong turn. We could not see our group up ahead and decided to turn around. As we did so, one of the guides can bounding up to us – he’d somehow realized we’d been astray – it tunred out that another subset of the group took a different wrong turn up ahead! It took some doing to get us all reunited but a good laugh was had by all.

One other very cool spot we stopped at along the coast was an outcropping of rock that was carved with many human faces and bodies. Apparently a local deaf-mute spent many years creating this menagerie nd it has become a preserved tourist area. We found Andrew’s doppleganger!

Next stop – the Normandy coast and wartime history come to life.