Sunday, September 17th, 2000 St. Malo...walked the entire wall!
Up by 9 am, we went to St. Vincent’s church for a High Mass after breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast room was packed with guests, so different from the day before when there were only a few of us. Many of the guests are from Britain.
After church we walked the entire length of the wall. People were actually in their bathing suits and in the water. We had jackets on most of the time. There is a swimming area surrounded by a concrete barrier in the ocean in front of a large hotel. It even has a rail and a diving platform on the far side. As we watched the tide go out, the rail emerged from the water until it was completely on top. Later we saw a photo of the area with the tide very, very low. Because of this manmade pool the hotel was able to still provide a swimming area for their guest inside of the barrier!! As we neared the other side, the sand reef was totally visible so that you could now walk to the Fort National built by Vauban under Louise XIV. We didn’t go into the Fort, as they wanted a fee for that also. But our feet stayed mostly dry during the walk. The tide must have dropped nearly fifteen feet for that to have happened.
After our lunch of bread from breakfast, we went to the Museum of St Malo, which opened at 2 pm. Mostly just very old things. Nothing of WW II history. Back at the hotel we downloaded photos into the computer and rested until time for dinner.
The restaurants close after 2 pm and don’t reopen until 7 pm for dinner...not just here but in most of Europe. Rather late in Jim’s book! Went down to another one recommended by Nicholas at the hotel. It was called Le Florentin. Owner was very friendly, Mother was German/Swiss and his father was American. He spoke English very well. The food was excellent, split a wonderful salad and each had our own pizza. Along with a carafe of blanc wine, we had a great dinner! Home by 9:25 pm we sat the alarm for 7 am to get an early start to Rouen tomorrow.
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