I fell in love with a city this summer. Well, more of a town really. A walled town to be exact. It's called St. Malo on the northwest coast of France. I traveled with my friend Joy and stayed for a night before taking off for Guernsey island in the English Channel (another post on that to come). St. Malo is a perfect mélange of French and English culture.
My French professor suggested this town after telling me it was one of her husband's favorite cities in the world. I admire her--so I had to go.
We left from Paris on the train and arrived at the St. Malo train station in the torrential downpour. We attempted to find our hotel on a map, decided on getting a taxi, which was an experience.
Before going to France, people told me the French were rude. I didn't find that anywhere except in that taxi cab. I tried in my best French to tell the man we were looking for l'Hotel Ferry Emeraude. He thought I meant the ferry. I didn't. Lots of cursing in French (most of which Joy understood..) and many wrong turns and after way too many euros spent, we arrived in our tiny hotel room, signed up for a too expensive breakfast and took off for a walk in the rain.
We didn't stay within the walls of the town (we are cheap college students), but we did take a walk on the wall and enjoyed the exquisite views. We meandered through those slim cobblestones streets, dipping into shops of beautiful handmade items. The linens were amazing. If I had an outdoor patio set, I would have bought that yellow table cloth with matching napkins. Someday!
I never imagined the northwestern coast of France to look so tropical or the water to be so blue.
We had fish n chips for dinner, bought some necessities for our room and explored a little more.
In a few words, St. Malo was picturesque, quaint and simply charming.
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