Hotel Anne de Bretagne Saint-Malo

two types of rooms

by voisbreton about St Malo Anne de Bretagne hotel

Anne de Bretagne hotel was easy to reserve on the internet, but when we reached, the staff told us we had only paid for the booking and taxes!
They first put us on a second floor on the otherside of the main building. I have bad asthma. I realized that they could have accommodated us in a room reachable by lift. I did ask for one. They first told me the hotel was full, but eventually found a room reachable by lift. My poor sife had to fetch all our luggage on the second floor and drag them down to the lift.
The room was alright for the night. We "déambulons" through the closed cicyt and found restaurants galore, maily serving crêpes qnd pizzas/
On the whole a nice enough accommodation for the night. I could speak French, so I got what I wanted easily. But a chap who tried a phone card could not understand what the staff told him. I translated that basically the hotel telephones were too old to function with a card! The facilities are in the enclosed city within the walls within easy distance of flocks of restaurant and near the beautiful St Vincent cathedral which is worth a visit.

Great Sandwiches

by rexvaughan about Le Lion d'or

This is one of many restaurants in the Intra-muros and does a lot of business. It is not overly large, but has a large terrace which was covered against the cool rain and was quite pleasant. While there were a number of tourists there, the food was quite good. We started out to have a light meal started with a kir for my wife and a pastis for me. Then on to Croques which were accompanied by a small but delicious salad topped with nuts, sunflower seeds and a nice and light balsamic vinegarette. The "light" went out the window with dessert. My wife had rhum raisin ice cream and I had a Normandie apple pie topped with whipped cream. Since we were so near Normandy and Calvados, I had apple tart, pie, etc. four days in a row. This one did not disappoint. All the food was delicious and beautifully presented.

Visit the Eglise of St.-Vincent

by hquittner

The ex-Cathedral of St. Vincent stands near the center of the walled town. The south transept was blown away during WWII and has been replaced as well as other damages (such as the old stained glass). The West Front is in a severe Renaissance style (1713). Note the lateral windows which are repeated along the nave aisles when they were built in the 16C. The Tower (15C) is visible all over town. The nave has heavy pillars and attached columns with early Gothic vaulting from the 12C as are the aisles. The choir is 13C with a flat apse with beautiful trefoil triforium arches in the chancel.

Hotel de Ville-City hall and castle

by Beckhanne

The entrance of the city hall is situated beyond the Saint-Vincent's gate opposite the tourist office and near the casino. We didn' t visit the castle nor the museum of history of Saint-Malo housed within. Hope to do that next time.

Corsair City

by rexvaughan

"Fortified for a reason"

The old city of St. Malo, the "Intra-muros" is a 44 acre fortress. The rampart walls are 20 feet thick and date from the 14th C although there was some updating in the 18th C and some rebuilding after the city was bombed in WWII. Their location on a tip of the Brittany coast almost mandated sea going activities. The city is named, of all things, for a Welch monk who fled (I don't know why) to what was then called Aaron Rock. Evidently the folks here are somewhat independent as in the late 16th C they declared the city an independent republic with the motto, "Neither French nor Breton, but a Coursair am I." In looking for a good definition of "corsair" I concluded it depended on your perspective. The French king at the time would have called them wonderful as they brought a lot of booty to him. The English would call them pirates, as most of the booty was from hijacked British vessels.

"Symbol of the Corsair City"

Robert Surcouf was an 18th C Corsair captain who first went to sea at age 13 as a ship's boy. By his very early 20's he was already a captain. One of his most famous coups was in 1795 when he had captured 3 English vessels then met and English warship with 150 men and 26 guns. Surcouf had only 17 men and 2 guns so he resorted to trickery. Hiding his men on the boat, he pretended to be alone on the ship until the ships were close, then they jumped on and took control of the British ship. By the time he was 36 he had become one of the richest men in St. Malo, so he retired. This statue stands at the northern tip of the ramparts pointing toward the sea.

"Tremendous beaches"

The beaches of St. Malo are huge - stretching for miles. In the top photo on this page you can see a small beach beside the ramparts and here is one that seems to go on without end. This photo was in the morning at low tide (the beach all but disappears at high tide). We strolled a while and did a little shell picking. This beach is what we looked out on from our hotel. Great spot!