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Published: October 4th 2012
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We’re settling nicely into our morning French lessons with Claudine and Yves! They do, however, tend to prevent us from getting out and about early!
We drove to
Fort La Latte (on the
Côte d’Emeraude – Emerald Coast) thinking it would be a quick visit, but it was such a great place we ended up spending quite a bit of time. Built in the 14
th century, atop the cliffs of a rock outcrop, high above the sea it was designed to be impregnable – and so it was. Later, it was converted to a military post by the legendary military engineer, Vauban, for Louis XIV in the 17
th century. The secret to its success was the fact that the rock outcrop was separated from the mainland by two natural chasms. These were incorporated into the defensive design of the fort with each fitted with a sturdy drawbridge (a third drawbridge, now gone, isolated the Keep). In addition, there was a decoy entrance that appeared to be vulnerable to a sea-borne approach but in fact lured would-be attackers on to the treacherous rocks. Consequently, no attacker ever got past the second drawbridge. The fort has been in private hands since the
late 19
th century and successive owners have contributed to the restoration.
From there, we drove to the next promontory,
Cap Fréhel which houses one of the largest expanses of moorland in Europe and is an important nesting site for migratory seabirds. There are two lighthouses here: the older decommissioned one was constructed in 1685 by the architect-engineer who worked for Vauban. The newer and taller lighthouse was built in 1950. It was very windy!
After one failed attempt, we found
sandwichs (and, as always, cakes!) in
Notre-Dame du Guildo, where the lady in the
boulangerie was quite amused at our attempts to speak French! We then found the BEST place for a picnic – down by the river, opposite an old castle, looking out at all the boats stranded by the low tide.
We drove around the coast, through what seemed like endless resort towns, some lower key, some quite upmarket. We ended up in
Dinard – a resort town that was very popular with the English in the early 20
th century, where we had hoped to catch the ferry to
St Malo. Being a Saturday, the main beach area was ultra-busy, but the
Promenade du Clair de Lune on the opposite side proved to be a very pleasant place to saunter, with excellent views across the river to
St Malo. We changed our minds about the ferry as it stopped running too early for us, so drove to
St Malo instead. Once again, our cunning plan to arrive in busy places late in the day paid off and we were able to get a free park quite close to the walled town!
St Malo was founded by the Welsh monk
St Maclou in the 6
th century, when he built a church on the site of the former Roman city of
Alet. It is now famous for its 18
th century
Corsairs – government sponsored pirates – who made the town rich by pillaging English ships. About 80 percent of the old city was destroyed during WWII but it has been rebuilt. As you can see by the photos, the bit we liked best was the 2 km walk around the 17
th century ramparts (again, designed by Vauban).
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