Monday, August 1, 2011

St. Malo, au revoir France

We left Pontorson on Sunday and had one last look at Mont St. Michel over the salt grass marshes. The road to St. Malo was easy and filled with roadside stands for local vegetables (especially garlic) and the famous oysters from the isle of Cancale in the bay of Mont St. Michel.


The wheat harvest has been in high gear in this region with large harvesters going up and down the road all day. We greatly admired this delightful haybale artwork in a field along the road.


We got to St. Malo and headed to the old city near the ferry terminal to the Channel islands of Britain. The old town was destroyed in 1944, but rebuilt with the same plan and style of buildings. The cathedral was not seriously damaged and is similar to the cathedral at Mont St. Michel is a combination of styles. It has Norman, Gothic, and Renaissance elements.





St. Malo is a beach town and the beaches are right outside the fortified walls.





The pool area shown above is a way to retain a swimming area when the tide goes out. The tidal change is quite large and one can walk all the way to the far island when the tide is out. The high tides fill the pool every day. St. Malo had a great assortment of shops, restaurants and bars. One could really have a swinging good time at this bar!


This morning we caught the 8:00 am ferry to Jersey and have left France. France is a beautiful country and we enjoyed traveling through it very much. We also met and made some great friends. Thanks to Leo and Steph for wonderful hospitality and advice. A special thanks to Bernard and Helene for their hospitality and a much needed respite from the rigors of the road.

2 comments:

Daniel said...

The cathedral photos from this post and the previous one are awesome! Badly making me want to go back to Europe.

Dave and Belinda said...

Hey Daniel, the cathedrals and abbeys are very impressive pieces of architecture, and they are filled with art. They are always worth a visit. In France they became quite common. We had a little joke going, " another village, another medieval church". Love, Dad and Belinda