Saint Malo and the Rance

Beautiful Saint Malo. I’ve written about it several times on this blog. It is one of those places that is almost perfect just the way it is, and has been for hundreds of years. That is until WWII when it was completely destroyed by bombs from both sides. The city was rebuilt from the rubble between 1948 and 1960. Now it stands as it ever was.

Saint Malo is the setting for All the Light We Cannot See, a recent movie, and popular book by Anthony Doer, who was inspired when visiting the city himself. It makes such a perfect setting and of course its history is full of adventure.

When I speak of Saint Malo, I mean the ancient walled part of the city which is self-contained and without any new building. Of course the modern city is much bigger now but this walled historic section is very much set apart.

The port of Saint Malo is just below the city walls. It is an active maritime harbor with large ships departing and arriving (as well as pleasure boats of every size). When we lived in Saint Enogat during the 2020 lockdown, our Breton friend Bernard told us about a website where we could monitor the sea traffic. It was very exciting to watch as large vessels came around the point heading out to sea. We could track what the cargo was, who was aboard by name and rank, where the ship was headed and when it would reach its destination, and what the return journey would be. Watching the ships coming and going from our living room windows, binoculars in hand, was one of our favorite pastimes.