Getting Mellow in St. Malo

Two weeks ago, Friday, Melanie and I hopped out of bed bright and early (5:15 AM), Ubered to Montparnasse station, and then boarded a high speed train heading west.

After a three hour trip through the French countryside, on an absolutely beautiful day, we arrived at our destination, a walled city on the west coast of France called "St. Malo".

Tall granite walls surround St. Malo, which was once a stronghold for privateers (pirates approved by the king).

We encountered a small snag once we reached the train station. There were no taxis in sight! There was a taxi line with about a dozen people in it, but no cabs. Anywhere.

No worries, we'll just get in line and wait. Ten minutes later a cab appeared... dropped someone off... and then LEFT again. Still 12 people in line. Not promising. I tried Uber but there were no little car icons visible on the map.

Okay, time for plan "C". Our hotel was only about a mile away, and it was beautiful out, so we decided to just walk to the hotel. We didn't see a single cab the whole way.

We checked in at the front desk and went straight up to our room.

Our ocean view room had a nice deck, with a table and two chairs. We enjoyed watching the waves! So relaxing.

It was still pretty early in the day and we were in the mood for some oysters! My friend Steve told me about a small town he and Deborah once visited called "Cancale". They are known for their fresh oysters, so we hopped on a bus, which took us to another bus, and about an hour later we were in the heart of Cancale.

We thought Cancale was just a pier and some oceanside restaurants.... but the bus dropped us off in the middle of a decent sized town.  From where we were standing we couldn't see, or even hear, the ocean. And once again, there were no taxis anywhere to be found.

I checked Google Maps on my phone and after a short consultation with the missus we headed down a side street towards the ocean.

Unfortunately, we found ourselves at a dead end, overlooking the turquoise colored water far below us. When we looked to the right we could see exactly where we needed to be, but how in the hell were we going to get down there?

That's the pier off in the distance. It was so close, yet so far away.

Melanie noticed a walking trail heading off to the right. Hmm. Might be worth investigating. I scouted on ahead and it didn't seem too bad.

Due to the taxi shortage we were out of other options, so off we went. The trail went down... then back up again... then it twisted around and went down some more.

This part of the trail wasn't too bad. It got worse.

There was some bickering, which turned into arguing. We nearly got divorced, twice, but we finally made it to the pier. Then a sudden realization hit Melanie, "How are we going to get back UP the hill to catch the bus???" We checked around and found that while there are cabs in Cancale, they never come down to the pier. (They don't want to just ferry people up and down the hill all day.)

Of course, if we wanted to be driven all the way back to our hotel in St. Malo... they would be happy to drive down the hill for that. One of the restaurants agreed to call a cab for us after lunch and we were good to go.

We were pretty tired so we sat at the restaurant and ordered some seafood and two diet sodas. (We desperately wanted some beer, but it was Friday and we don't get to cheat on our diets until Saturday.)

My seafood tower came with fresh oysters, langoustines, crab, whelks, mussels, clams, and more! 

The seafood was very good, but the oysters were sort of salty and not that great. We were a little disappointed, after hearing so many great things.

We were both pretty full but I convinced Melanie to walk over to the pier to buy some oysters from one of the vendors there. They were super cheap! I ordered six fresh oysters and I think the total was less than 5 euros! We took them over by the water and sat down. They were MUCH better than the other oysters. So fresh, sweet, and just a little bit briny. After we finished each one, as is the tradition, we chucked the shells down to the beach below.

The tide was out, exposing some of the oyster beds. (And you can see all the shells covering the beach.)

The cab driver showed up a little early and took us back to St. Malo. The bus would have been a lot cheaper, but the trip home was less than 30 euros so I don't think we did too bad.

Back at the hotel we rested on our deck and enjoyed the sounds of the ocean, seagulls, and people playing on the beach.

This was the view from our deck. It was getting late but there were still people at the beach.

The tide was out so we could see a trail leading out to an old sea fort. Melanie was dead tired, and she had aggravated her knee on our earlier hike, but for some reason she really wanted to see it. So back out we went.

The great military architect Vauban built Fort National in 1689 to protect Saint-Malo's port.

There was apparently a tour of the fort, but it was ending for the day just as we arrived. I knew from some earlier research that this place was once used for public executions. The seigniory of Saint Malo convicted many criminals to death by fire, and later hanging, here.

After the German occupation during WWII, allied aircraft bombed St. Malo and the fort. The Germans filled the fort with local citizens to prevent this, but the bombings continued and much of the fort and city were destroyed. They were later rebuilt using the original plans.

For some reason, Melanie was really affected by the fort. She said the sense of history was palpable and she refused to speak above a whisper.

That night we ordered room service and ate on our deck while we watched the golden sun dip below the horizon.

We shared a vegetable soup, and a fish soup, while watching the sun set. It was a pretty good day!

We had wanted to see the incredible Mont St. Michel on Saturday, but it was overcast and threatening rain. Also, we were pretty stiff and sore from all the walking and hiking we did the day before, and of course it was CHEATURDAY. (Our favorite day of the week.)

After a little debate we decided to see Mont St. Michel another time. We walked over to the walled portion of St. Malo to get some lunch. From the pictures we expected a medieval city with cobblestone roads, crumbling buildings, and a lot of pirate-themed stuff. In reality, St. Malo is a charming little village, full of an eclectic mix of shops and restaurants.

There was so much food everywhere we had a hard time picking a place to eat. After a lot of exploring we settled on a restaurant called La Bisquine.

Melanie and I ordered a French dish we've been hearing about ever since we arrived in the country: "moules-frites". The restaurant offered 3 different preparations, but we chose the traditional one with white wine. The mussels were awesome! So glad we ordered these, and we will certainly be ordering them again.

Moules-Frites (mussels and fries) is a popular French dish that originated in Belgium. Delicious! 

After lunch we wandered around the city a little bit more and picked up a souvenir for our memory niche. Then we went back to the hotel and hung out on our deck, sipping wine and snacking on some French delicacies. (Okay, we actually had Pringles, candy, and some cheap Scotch... but that didn't sound very classy.)

That night the storm was on us so we walked across the street to a seafood place there. We had heard mixed things about this restaurant and the reviews were right. It was only "okay".

Sunday morning the hotel called a cab for us, and we headed back to the train station. It will be fun to return to St. Malo when we visit Mont St. Michel. Hopefully sometime next year!