St. Malo, tickets and such

 

St. Malo has two main characters:  the writer, Beauchamps, who insisted on being buried on petit ble (?) and Jacques Cartier, an explorer.  White men, of course.  There are people of color here, but very white compared with Paris, which was delightfully mixed.  I notice these things now. 

We took a boat tour out to see the forts. The commentary was in French and I did not understand very much, it was brisk and bracing and I had a sense of what it might have been like over the centuries, particularly during the War when the Germans occupied this place, dug tunnels and were almost impossible to dislodge.  10 days of bombing destroyed 80% of the buildings, which were then painstakingly rebuilt. The resiliance of humans is quite amazing.

The tides are extremely high!   You can walk to two small islands when the tide is low. We were there when the tide was not quite at the lowest point so only got to the first island. The walkway to the second island is still underwater. WE will go today.

Paris metro:  buy 10 pack of T+ tickets for all lines (bus, etc).  My phone data plan worked very well - Airalo. I bought 10 Gig for ~$20.