The town of Saint-Michel is half an hour’s drive from Saint-Malo. This is where the famous Emerald Coast of France begins. The rugged coast: rocky or beachy, yachts, boats, really emerald sea….
For those who in their childhood were attracted by the adventures of corsairs and the vastness of the sea, St. Malo will seem a living illustration of adventure books. It was from here that these intrepid adventurers set out to conquer the Atlantic, the Americas….
Using the patronage of the king, they annexed to France several Pacific islands, which are still its overseas possessions. Loaded to the top of the ships docked in the bay of St. Malo, and the sailors themselves were transformed on the shore from pirates to exemplary bourgeois, erecting for themselves solid and elegant houses.
One of the striking features of St. Malo is the unity of style. There is not and never has been a division into slums and the center. Corsair wealth allowed the original construction of stone houses, demonstrating prosperity and well-being. Even today, walking along the broad wall that has protected the city for centuries, one can imagine the life of the maritime adventurers enjoying life here after long absences. The city has been restored after World War II to what it once was, and you are transported to a very different time….
Walking along the walls, you’ll understand why many French people prefer the Emerald Coast to the Côte d’Azur: the combination of gentle beaches, powerful cliffs and the emerald, sparkling sea already make this comparison possible. And if you add the numerous small rocky islands scattered here and there on the sea, and on some of them fortresses, quite corresponding to the illustrations of fairy tales, you will love Brittany once and for all. But that’s not all: on these emerald waves, between the islands and fortresses are scattered colorful sailboats – the whole sea is dotted with them, as if in front of you a skillfully embroidered carpet….
You can swim, walk along the beaches and rocks. But, walking along the shore, do not forget that in Brittany the difference between the tide and the ebb is up to 14 meters. Walking along the sand to the island where Chateaubriand’s tomb is located, be careful: the path that led you here is about to disappear under water. So feel like a local for a short while, commensurate with the ocean and its cycles!
You can have lunch in local restaurants with appetizing Breton dishes and beer, or somewhere near an oyster farm, by the sea…
