Tide Down in Saint-Malo

Our Saint-Malo visit concluded with the highest Spring Tide of the year last night at 8.40pm. Again, it was a little undramatic but hopefully the following photos give some idea of the huge tidal range here – second only in the world to the Bay of Fundy in Canada!

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imageimageimageI hope you appreciate the effort involved in producing these pics as we had to walk 3 miles to town and back for low tide, then again later on for high tide. I’m not as fit as I was you know…

As we were preparing to leave the Camping de la Cité d’Alet this morning, we noticed a small sign pointing up the hill which said Memorial. What a surprise when we wandered up there, we found – now part of the campsite – not only a touching war memorial to the American fallen of the liberation of Saint-Malo, but a set of wartime bunkers used in the defence of the town. It was quite a shock to imagine the carnage which once took place here in a place where children were now playing and families cooking breakfast. Bullet-holes could clearly be seen in the concrete, and although overturned, in one photo you can see an actual gun used to shoot actual shells at actual people. It sent shivers down my spine.image

imageimageOn a happier note, we found a fantastic must-see attraction in Nantes,on the Loire (all will be explained in our next post) so we’re heading that way in the morning. At the moment we’ve stopped in a free aire in Messac (our last stop in Brittany) for the night. It’s very quiet apart from the French motorhomers arguing with each other over the use of services. Johnny Foreigner just doesn’t get the concept of queuing I’m afraid. We’re beside a marina which joins the Vilaine River – one we met in both Redon and again in Vannes. As it’s Sunday, everything is closed so it’s home cooking and an early night I think.

 

About Ken Tomlinson 217 Articles
Semi-retired biker, blogger and world’s best grandad. Doesn’t take life too seriously. Discovered motorhoming in 2015, sold up and downsized to fund more travels. Now with added Yorkshire.

11 Comments on Tide Down in Saint-Malo

  1. Really enjoying your blog guys! So pleased you are having a great time. I look forward to reading more !

    ps. All good at your house

  2. Can’t quite make it out, is that the lido on the beach in St Malo? Before the tide rolled in of course! What a difference

  3. I had never heard of St Malo until a couple of weeks ago. My father passed away 2 weeks ago and he had written a little about his early life on his computer which I have just been reading. My grandfather had been in the 8th Belfast Heavy Anti-Aircraft Artillery regiment and had been sent to France during the first failed attempt to take it by the British. According to my dad’s writing, he was then evacuated out of France from the port of St Malo back to England to provide defence for London & Coventry during the blitzes. Ironically his own house in Belfast took a direct hit during the Belfast Blitz in 1942 and was destroyed. Luckily my father had been evacuated to relatives in the countryside and as it was an Easter weekend, my grandmother was visiting him, so no-one was hurt. Although my grandfather survived the war finally being in Africa, India and Burma fighting the Japanese, it is the war memorials like this that I long to visit once we get our motorhome rolling. Thank you for pointing out this location.

    • Thanks for sharing those personal memories Alan. Wherever you go in France there are reminders. In St Jean de Luz last week we came across a decaying concrete WW2 bunker still guarding the beach. No plaque, no information, it was just being slowly overgrown with vegetation.

  4. Love the Johnny Foreigner bit about not queuing, ski-lifts during the French school children’s holidays is the place to be to see it at its worst and it’s not always the children !

    Keep up ze blog

  5. I just found your blog and I noticed on the memorial that my uncle’s name is on the list under Company K. My father told me his brother was killed in the liberation of St Malo.

    • Hi Carol thanks for getting in touch, that must have been a shock to see your uncle’s name there. We almost didn’t see the memorial ourselves. I’m so glad that the memory of those brave men lives on, and I hope you can visit there one day.
      Kind regards
      Ken

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