St. Malo, 2015

We had visited St. Malo at least twice before, in 1989 with Rebecca and Rachel, for a walk on the beach, and then again in 2009, just passing through, stopping overnight at a marina aire. Vicki read All The Light We Cannot See this summer, and she wanted to spend a little more time in St. Malo. So we drove up from Dinan and spent most of the day there, doing what tourists do in St. Malo: viewing the ramparts, walking the ramparts, walking out to the tidal isalnd Grand Be, viewing the beautiful bay and its many islands, shopping, and, of course, eating. Old St. Malo was pretty much destroyed in WWII but rebuilt completely and faithfully in the succeeding decade. One has to look very hard for evidence of the artillery and naval bombardments it suffered.

Marina view

Truly a walled city, the "city of the corsairs," of old

The tidal island Grand Be

Bay view from Grand Be

Ditto

St. Malo from Grand Be

Ditto

Ditto again

Rebecca, Rachel, and I walked out onto the tidal flats in front
of those buildings, in 1989

Thus, collecting shells

Ramparts closer-up

Low tide view of Grand Be

Up on the ramparts

Ditto, ditto

Islands in the bay, with Cape Frehal beyond

Street scene

Old buildings

Thus

Not so old markets

Street scene

Ditto, restaurants as far as the eye can see; even for France,
St. Malo has a lot of restaurants 

Ditto

Ditto again; I had had plenty of seafood in recent days, so we
had galettes for lunch

Dinan's Basilica Saint-Sauveur

Friends and relatives will be glad to know we do go to church nearly every day in Europe, sometimes several churches. In Dinan we looked in at a former convent and a newer (non-Medieval) parish church. But the one that really got our attention was the Basilica Saint-Sauveur, another of those wonders where Romanesque is on the south side and Gothic is on north; or vice versa. With some exceptions and other items of interest.

Nice Romanesque porch...

Thus

South side, Romanesque, where maybe something got started
but not finished, or started and blocked off...

North side...actually just an aisle, but a big architectural statement

Knave view

Elevation, sort of

Chancel

Not entirely clear what happened here, but the
red line through the bottom image is a bit disturbing

This is how they clean the high windows in a
parish church like this; I wonder what they use
at Amiens...a helicopter...maybe a Holy Drone?

The windows at this church are all modern; but
 we liked them: they told the relevant Biblical
stories and not some artsy-fartsy abstractions

And they threw some great light

Thus

Thus

Thus

Thus

And thus

There were also some fearsome gargoyles

And a funny face or two

Another interesting old church

Dinan

So from Barnanez we turned about and drove the 96 miles to Dinan, certainly our longest day of driving apart from the run to Amsterdam for refrigerator repair. At Dinan we parked at the aire at the Port--actually just the river now--and then did the uphill hike to see the beautiful Medieval city. Lots of half-timbered, as you might expect. It was a very good day, however, exploring the upper city and then dining at a restaurant on the river.

The port and the Gothic bridge

OK, the next 20 or so pix will be of the half-timbered buildings
all over Dinan...with a street scene or two

Dress-up

View from the ramparts: our camper is on the right, shaded; a
tour boat glides by

In the square, a band and a 2-year-old

Vicki has just given her a coin to put in the hat (Mama helped)
and she is clapping...

Amazingly, by 7PM all the tour buses leave, and it's a seeming
ghost town

Except down on the port, where everyone seems to eat and
promenade

And admire more interesting houses