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St. Malo is in north west France, on a peninsula between the sea and the Rance estuary. Further estuaries run between woods and fields to both west and east. The port of St. Malo was the home of the more adventurous French privateers, buccaneers and explorers and was built by the privateers as a fortified island, and the old town is well worth a visit.
The surrounding country is beautiful. There are good sandy beaches, resorts and plenty of activities to see and visit. The small towns and villages are very attractive. Across a bridge over the wide estuary is Dinard which was developed as a holiday centre by the British early in the 20th Century. Further south Dinan, a fortified hill town and castle, is delightful but also reminds us that this was once the border between Brittany and Normandy, Brittany and France, the English and the French and was fought over for many years so the area is now farming land scattered with the remnants of great castles.
The sea and beaches are on three sides of the house at La Malounière des Tranchandières. To the east is Cancale, one of the centres for oysters. A pretty village, with long beaches and many small bistros and restaurants. There are good roads away from St. Malo and communications with the rest of France are easy, but it also easy to get in and around the same area. Despite this, there is not the same built up area that is often seen round other towns and the area remains a land of country farms, hills and streams and the sea and beaches never more than a few kilometres away.
The privateers of St. Malo were not exactly pirates but licensed raiders who gave a proportion of their profits to the king. So powerful, strong and rich were they, that in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries many built country houses a few miles outside St. Malo, close enough to get across the country to their ships but far enough to be out of the mess and smell that once pervaded the historic town centre. These mansions are unique to the St. Malo area and are known as “Malouinières”. Most were built between 1680 and 1740.
You can get to St. Malo either by air, to Dinard from Birmingham, Stanstead and other places in the UK, or by fast hover foil from Poole and Weymouth, and other places on the south coast.
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