Brittany 5: Cancale, Saint Coulomb and Saint Malo, Breizh.

Wednesday 15th to Friday 17th May 2024

We finally made it to Brittany on day 6 of the trip, or Breizh as the Bretons call it. We have slowly made our way to Saint Malo, up the eastern coast, then across the north of the peninsula.

Wednesday: Cancale

The seaside town of Cancale is famous for its oysters, which are farmed off-shore in the bay.

There is a motorhome aire above the town, just a 10 minute walk away, but we chose to not stay over, so we parked on an adjacent area which is used for coaches and other larger vehicles (the car-park has a height barrier).

Whilst there is nothing remarkable about the town, it is a pleasant enough place and I did find some things worth pointing my camera at:

Thursday: Saint Coulomb

We stayed over on both Wednesday and Thursday nights at a free aire, a little way out of the village of St. Coulomb. It is an absolutely beautiful spot with several excellent beaches and headlands with footpaths to walk around. There is also a large commercial holiday site with static holiday homes, but despite this the beaches were nearly empty.

…almost empty! This chap had just been for a swim. We had not realised, but this part, of this particular beach is for naturists. Good job I did not have my long lens with me.

Inevitably there are still reminders of WW2. This German pill-box has a commanding view over the beach.

No services on the aire and room for just 16 vehicles. It was almost full on Wednesday night and completely full on Thursday night, when almost the last vehicle to arrive was a converted lorry, which dwarfed all the other motorhomes, even a huge German one which had parked behind us.

Friday: Saint Malo

We identified that the “Park and Ride” catered for overnight stays in motorhomes, for just 7.50 € for 24 hours. There is also a motorhome service point just outside.

St Malo is a city with a very long history. We caught the P&R bus (bus ticket included in the parking charge) to the “Intra-Muros”, which is the old part of the city, contained within high fortification walls. This sits on the seaward side of the commercial harbour, but there are many such places along the river estuary, including the ferry terminal.

One of a number of tall ships in the harbour. This is a replica frigate corsair of 1745, built in 1997. The buxom figurehead is a rum-looking lass with her sword and eye-patch.

We took a walk around the walls before exploring the shopping within the Intra-Muros. The high vantage point of the walls gave us a good view of both the surrounding area, including the harbour areas, and within the city with its huge, high status residential buildings and shopping area.

Our walk along the walls took us past several island off-shore forts and a tidal swimming pool where youngsters were jumping off the diving board.

Where the walls are most exposed to the sea, there are hundreds of tree trunks in the sand as protection from the waves:

The cathedral church of St. Vincent, sits right in the centre of Intra-Muros. The whole area is quite compact and built-up. There are even shops built up directly against the cathedral walls.

As with many such buildings, it suffered badly in World War 2. Parts of the church have however survived since the 12th and 17th centuries.

The stained glass, is of course 20th century, but it is impressive.

Interestingly, St Vincent, the patron saint of Saint-Malo cathedral, is from Zaragoza, Spain. Saint Malo on the other hand, is from Wales.