The Gallo-Roman settlement was converted to Christianity by a bishop called St Malo, who was returning from Wales in the 6C. Later, more and more people inhabited the area and soon it became a fortified city and was a key defence against the Norsemen. As it is near the sea, it was a paradise for seamen as well as pirates during the medieval times. The most famous person from St Malo was Jacques Cartier, who founded Canada in the name of the France King. Canada, in the native tongue of the Indian meant village. That is the reason why I often saw Canadian flags flying in the city. St Malo declared itself republic and enjoyed 4 years of independence. As the saying goes, “Ni Francais, ni Breton, Malouin suis” (Not French, not Breton, I am a Malo man). I was reading the history of St Malo from the guide book on the train ride. This is one of the most highly recommended tourist attractions I have heard ever since I arrived at Rennes. And I was told the panoramas are fantastic and hence I was all geared up with my camera.
I arrived at St Malo train station at 0845am but I had to find my way to the fortified city as it wasn’t in sight. Before coming here, I had checked that there would be a coach leaving for Cancale at 0950am and the time of the return trip is at 1pm. My plan was to go to Cancale in the morning and then come back to St Malo in the afternoon. As I approached the city, I saw the Office of Tourism and went in to buy some postcards. I also asked the lady where can I take the bus to Cancale and she said berth 12. I went to check the timing for the coach and found that the timing for the next coach was at 1140am. There was no 0950am coach. Hence I decided to tour St Malo until near noon. I went down to the beach and it had been a long time since I was near the sea. The sun was barely up, and the air was chilling but fresh. There were joggers along the beach with the city walls as the backdrop. After that, I went up the city wall and began to walk around the city. The town is surrounded by walls, like the town in the movie Truman Show which was built in a dome. And inside the town, there are restaurants, salons, schools, shops, etc. From the city wall, I could also see the sea stretching out to infinity and a few islands. I could even walk to some of the islands during low-tide.
I came down the wall and walked among the streets. The interior wasn’t spectacular at all. It is just like any other medieval towns that I had been to. It is the exterior view that is worth mentioning. However, there is no way I could take a full picture of the entire city unless I am on a helicopter. That was why I bought the postcards. I spent quite a lot of time inside the city not because I wanted to admire the buildings, but to find the dessert “Kouign Amann”, recommended by Mathieu. He said this is a famous dessert in Bretagne. The only clue he gave me was that the shop is yellow in color. So I went to every yellow restaurants or eateries I could find and looked at the menu outside. None had the word “Kouign Amann”. Soon I came to the Cathedral of St Vincent and decided to go in but told myself not to stay too long as I had seen enough churches. As usual, I was attracted by the stained-glass windows but this one was really different. It had a round window above its centre altar and it is actually a kaleidoscope. The various colors on the window were reflected onto the ceiling. Suddenly, the organ at the 2nd level played a “Phantom of the Opera” kind of music. I took out my digital cam and recorded a minute of the music.
I went out of the city to the jetty. It was a long jetty stretching far out to sea and I could see the “Brittainy Ferries” cruise going pass. It was gigantic. At the edge of the jetty, I could almost touch the cruise liner. Behind me was an extensive view of St Malo. This was as wide a view as I can get. There is actually another location a few km away where I would be able to have a clear view of the entire St Malo, according to the guide book. After spending half an hour there enjoying the sea breeze, I made my way to the bus stop. By then, I had already taken off my coat as it was quite warm. When I reached the bus stop, I realized that the bus only comes at 1140am from Monday till Friday. On Saturday, it comes at 1220pm. Damn! This was the 2nd time I made this stupid mistake. If I knew the bus would come at 1220pm, I would have walked further to another place called Port National. Well, I guessed I could only do that when I return later. So I went back into the town to look for Kouign Amann.
It was really a tough search for that dessert because there were so many yellow shops around, I didn’t know if the food is to be found in a cafeteria or a restaurant or simply those sandwiches stalls, and I didn’t even know what it looks like. At 1210pm, I decided to give up and head back to the bus stop. It was then that I stumbled upon a sandwich stall labeled “Kouign Amann Chaud”! What luck! It wasn’t the one Mathieu was talking about because it was blue and white in color. Still I went and asked for one Kouign Amann. “Un Kouign Amann sil vous plait.” (One KA please) She told me it cost 1.80 euros. I always have trouble catching the numbers in French, like time, date, price because their way of numbering is a bit more complex. For example, 80 is actually 4x20 to them and so they would pronounce as “Quatre-Vingt” where “quatre” is 4 and “vingt” is 20. So I would always be 3 seconds slower before I dig out the coins. When I took the KA, it was so hot that I almost dropped it, although it was wrapped with paper. Then I remembered the word “chaud” means “hot”. I quickly took a picture of the shop and ran to the bus stop.
Luckily the bus hadn’t arrived and I still got time to take a picture of my KA. It was very tasty, a kind of pastry spread with butter, honey and I guess malt sugar (the mai ya tang). However, it was a very very small piece. Soon after I finished the dessert, the coach came. The driver asked me “vous allez ou?” (you go where?) and I just said Cancale. Don’t be stupid lah, ZX, the bus is bound for Cancale, it is written clearly on the bus stop. I really disliked taking the coach because it forced me to speak French. Taking train is much easier. The driver then asked me specifically where in Cancale and I just said “je ne sais pas” (I don’t know). How the hell would I know? I just said “manger, oyster?” (‘eat oyster’ but in French oyster is actually called huitre as I learnt later in Cancale) Almost giving up on me, the driver showed me his route plan with all the destinations. And gosh there is Cancale this and Cancale that, in the end I just chose Cancale La Houle because I found that word familiar. So I bought the ticket and took a seat.
During the ride, I was reading the guide on Cancale and saw that “La Houle” was one of the attractions. Lucky me. When the coach reached La Houle, the driver looked into his rear mirror and gave me a nod. I smiled at him and alighted. Cancale is really a beach resort and is more “into” the sea than St Malo. Along the coast, there were numerous restaurants, all selling seafood. On one of the customers’ plate, I saw a gigantic crab with dry ice around it. For most of the other customers, they were having oysters. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to eat in one of those restaurants so I carried on walking and saw a few oyster stalls on the beach. I went to one of the stalls and again had a hard time getting what I wanted as the female owner spoke only French. Although this place is a tourist attraction, it is mainly for people from other parts of France, not other parts of the world. I guess only the French would know that Cancale is famous for oysters. But in the end, I got myself 5 big oysters and half a lemon. I bought the cheapest one of course, just 1 euro per oyster. There are 2.8 euros and 3.3 euros ones but they all looked the same to me. Anyway, I was just trying for the kick of it. Not really a gourmet expert. Even back in Singapore, I seldom eat such seafood, esp. hum, oysters, mussels, etc. So eating 5 raw oysters in a go is a lot to me already. By the way, that half a lemon cost 40 cents.
The oysters come in different sizes and I can see that she chose some of the bigger ones for me. Maybe she found me cute (she is as old as my mum by the way). Then she used a knife and opened them (not fully of course), and placed them on the tray. She pointed to the beach and told me I could eat over there. As I was walking on the beach, I saw oyster shells all over the place and on the steps, there were people having oyster feasts! Some of them would bring their own beer while others brought French loaf. When I opened the first oyster, the meat inside looked like a big fat slug and I wasn’t sure if I dare to eat it. It looked so raw, I mean it is raw. I squeezed a lot of lemon juice just in case I can’t “tahan” the rawness. But in the end, it turned out to be very delicious! It was sour because of the lemon and salty because of the seawater. Yes, I forgot to mention. These oysters were freshly harvested from the sea. One really cannot get any fresher oysters than those. The most enjoyable part is not the taste (I am not very particular with food actually) but the ambience of the surrounding. I was at the beach, with seagulls flying above, waves crashing against the nearby rocks, sunny weather, relaxing sea breeze and the fishy smell of the seawater. After the oyster feast, I went to check out the city centre.
There was really nothing much about the city centre and hence I went back to the bus stop. I was stunned by what was written on the bus stop. The next coach going to St Malo would be at 535pm!!! And it was only 2pm then. This not only meant that I would be stuck in Cancale for 3.5 hrs, I would not have enough time to visit those places that I missed in St Malo in the morning. The troublesome part about taking coaches is that their timetable is not available on the internet as they are small companies providing service between small towns. I decided to do a little excursion to Point du Grouin, quite a distance out of Cancale. It was written in the guide that one can get a good view of the coast from the cliff there. So I walked on and on following the map and was out of Cancale. But that was where the map in the guide ends also. I dared not venture further as I was walking along the highway (pretty dangerous) and I was afraid that I might get lost and missed that 535pm bus. So I turned back. Along the way, I actually wanted to hitch-hike because it seemed like the road would lead to St Malo. But the cars were zooming by me at great speed. Hence, after 2 hrs of walking out and into Cancale again I was back at the beach. By then, I had already taken my sweater off. It was almost as hot as in Singapore and people were sun tanning on the beach.
I had 1.5 hrs left but there was nothing else to see. So I just sat on one of the benches looking at families having fun on the beach. After half an hour, loneliness crept in as I saw couples strolling along the shore, children running after their dogs, parents pushing the prams, etc and all the while I was sitting there alone. This trip would have been perfect if I hadn’t got stuck in Cancale for so long. Initially I was pretty excited to be near the sea. But that 1.5 hrs of waiting at the beach made me sick of the place. And the sun was real hot and I was very thirsty. The worst thought came to my mind. What if that 535pm bus didn’t arrive? I wouldn’t want to spend a night in those expensive hotels. Luckily, the bus came and I was happy to be on the way home. However, it might not reach St Malo in time for me to take the 622pm train, which I guessed was the last train. But staying in St Malo for one night is much better than staying in Cancale.
At the next stop, 2 Japanese women boarded the coach and apparently, one of them could speak French. They were engrossed in their own conversation in Japanese, so I didn’t go over and talk to them. There were just me, the 2 Japs and 2 French on the coach. It wasn’t also my style to suddenly strike a conversation with strangers although I wanted to know them, not because they were chio (they weren’t in fact). When the coach arrived at St Malo, the driver turned and asked the 2 Japs where they wanted to go specifically. I had already told him I wanted to stop at the train station the moment I boarded the coach. The driver asked “Le Gare?” (the train station?) and the 2 Japs seemed not to understand him. So I asked them would they want to stop at the train station and they said yes. Since I had opened my mouth, I moved over and sat next to them and asked “Nihon-jin deska?” Then I introduced myself and got their names too. The prettier one was called Miyoko and the soso one was called dunno-what-ko. (maybe Mopiko hahaha) However, I didn’t talk to Miyoko at all because she can only speak Japanese while that Mopiko can speak a little English and substantial French. It was very funny for a Jap to keep speaking French to me so in the end I asked her “parlez vous anglais?” (you speak English?) and so finally we could communicate well.
She said she is working in “Paalee” which wasn’t the correct pronunciation for Paris in French. But still, she could speak better French than I do, just that her pronunciation is a bit off, probably because she doesn’t speak much English. When we reached the train station, there wasn’t any follow up actions from me and I bid them goodbye. Mainly because they already bought their tickets while I haven’t and my train was just 5 min away from departure! Luckily the queue wasn’t long and when it was my turn, I tried using French to buy the ticket to Rennes. Then the guy asked me for my reduction card and whether I was buying a return trip or single trip. I frowned when being asked so many questions and he then asked “you speak English?” haha, so much for trying to speak French and in the end the transaction was done using English.
Although I had an unhappy incident of being stuck at Cancale, overall the trip was still quite fruitful because:
I finally have been to the famous St Malo!
I took a few good pictures of the city
I got to eat the Kouign Amann although it wasn’t from the shop Mathieu told me
I got to enjoy the sun but in the end I got a slight sunburn on my face. My face was hot and red when I went back
I had 5 big juicy oysters
I took picture of a chio bu eating oysters with her fat friend
I got to practice some French
I talked to 2 Japanese women. Should have asked them for their emails…
I arrived at St Malo train station at 0845am but I had to find my way to the fortified city as it wasn’t in sight. Before coming here, I had checked that there would be a coach leaving for Cancale at 0950am and the time of the return trip is at 1pm. My plan was to go to Cancale in the morning and then come back to St Malo in the afternoon. As I approached the city, I saw the Office of Tourism and went in to buy some postcards. I also asked the lady where can I take the bus to Cancale and she said berth 12. I went to check the timing for the coach and found that the timing for the next coach was at 1140am. There was no 0950am coach. Hence I decided to tour St Malo until near noon. I went down to the beach and it had been a long time since I was near the sea. The sun was barely up, and the air was chilling but fresh. There were joggers along the beach with the city walls as the backdrop. After that, I went up the city wall and began to walk around the city. The town is surrounded by walls, like the town in the movie Truman Show which was built in a dome. And inside the town, there are restaurants, salons, schools, shops, etc. From the city wall, I could also see the sea stretching out to infinity and a few islands. I could even walk to some of the islands during low-tide.I came down the wall and walked among the streets. The interior wasn’t spectacular at all. It is just like any other medieval towns that I had been to. It is the exterior view that is worth mentioning. However, there is no way I could take a full picture of the entire city unless I am on a helicopter. That was why I bought the postcards. I spent quite a lot of time inside the city not because I wanted to admire the buildings, but to find the dessert “Kouign Amann”, recommended by Mathieu. He said this is a famous dessert in Bretagne. The only clue he gave me was that the shop is yellow in color. So I went to every yellow restaurants or eateries I could find and looked at the menu outside. None had the word “Kouign Amann”. Soon I came to the Cathedral of St Vincent and decided to go in but told myself not to stay too long as I had seen enough churches. As usual, I was attracted by the stained-glass windows but this one was really different. It had a round window above its centre altar and it is actually a kaleidoscope. The various colors on the window were reflected onto the ceiling. Suddenly, the organ at the 2nd level played a “Phantom of the Opera” kind of music. I took out my digital cam and recorded a minute of the music.I went out of the city to the jetty. It was a long jetty stretching far out to sea and I could see the “Brittainy Ferries” cruise going pass. It was gigantic. At the edge of the jetty, I could almost touch the cruise liner. Behind me was an extensive view of St Malo. This was as wide a view as I can get. There is actually another location a few km away where I would be able to have a clear view of the entire St Malo, according to the guide book. After spending half an hour there enjoying the sea breeze, I made my way to the bus stop. By then, I had already taken off my coat as it was quite warm. When I reached the bus stop, I realized that the bus only comes at 1140am from Monday till Friday. On Saturday, it comes at 1220pm. Damn! This was the 2nd time I made this stupid mistake. If I knew the bus would come at 1220pm, I would have walked further to another place called Port National. Well, I guessed I could only do that when I return later. So I went back into the town to look for Kouign Amann.
It was really a tough search for that dessert because there were so many yellow shops around, I didn’t know if the food is to be found in a cafeteria or a restaurant or simply those sandwiches stalls, and I didn’t even know what it looks like. At 1210pm, I decided to give up and head back to the bus stop. It was then that I stumbled upon a sandwich stall labeled “Kouign Amann Chaud”! What luck! It wasn’t the one Mathieu was talking about because it was blue and white in color. Still I went and asked for one Kouign Amann. “Un Kouign Amann sil vous plait.” (One KA please) She told me it cost 1.80 euros. I always have trouble catching the numbers in French, like time, date, price because their way of numbering is a bit more complex. For example, 80 is actually 4x20 to them and so they would pronounce as “Quatre-Vingt” where “quatre” is 4 and “vingt” is 20. So I would always be 3 seconds slower before I dig out the coins. When I took the KA, it was so hot that I almost dropped it, although it was wrapped with paper. Then I remembered the word “chaud” means “hot”. I quickly took a picture of the shop and ran to the bus stop.Luckily the bus hadn’t arrived and I still got time to take a picture of my KA. It was very tasty, a kind of pastry spread with butter, honey and I guess malt sugar (the mai ya tang). However, it was a very very small piece. Soon after I finished the dessert, the coach came. The driver asked me “vous allez ou?” (you go where?) and I just said Cancale. Don’t be stupid lah, ZX, the bus is bound for Cancale, it is written clearly on the bus stop. I really disliked taking the coach because it forced me to speak French. Taking train is much easier. The driver then asked me specifically where in Cancale and I just said “je ne sais pas” (I don’t know). How the hell would I know? I just said “manger, oyster?” (‘eat oyster’ but in French oyster is actually called huitre as I learnt later in Cancale) Almost giving up on me, the driver showed me his route plan with all the destinations. And gosh there is Cancale this and Cancale that, in the end I just chose Cancale La Houle because I found that word familiar. So I bought the ticket and took a seat.
During the ride, I was reading the guide on Cancale and saw that “La Houle” was one of the attractions. Lucky me. When the coach reached La Houle, the driver looked into his rear mirror and gave me a nod. I smiled at him and alighted. Cancale is really a beach resort and is more “into” the sea than St Malo. Along the coast, there were numerous restaurants, all selling seafood. On one of the customers’ plate, I saw a gigantic crab with dry ice around it. For most of the other customers, they were having oysters. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to eat in one of those restaurants so I carried on walking and saw a few oyster stalls on the beach. I went to one of the stalls and again had a hard time getting what I wanted as the female owner spoke only French. Although this place is a tourist attraction, it is mainly for people from other parts of France, not other parts of the world. I guess only the French would know that Cancale is famous for oysters. But in the end, I got myself 5 big oysters and half a lemon. I bought the cheapest one of course, just 1 euro per oyster. There are 2.8 euros and 3.3 euros ones but they all looked the same to me. Anyway, I was just trying for the kick of it. Not really a gourmet expert. Even back in Singapore, I seldom eat such seafood, esp. hum, oysters, mussels, etc. So eating 5 raw oysters in a go is a lot to me already. By the way, that half a lemon cost 40 cents.The oysters come in different sizes and I can see that she chose some of the bigger ones for me. Maybe she found me cute (she is as old as my mum by the way). Then she used a knife and opened them (not fully of course), and placed them on the tray. She pointed to the beach and told me I could eat over there. As I was walking on the beach, I saw oyster shells all over the place and on the steps, there were people having oyster feasts! Some of them would bring their own beer while others brought French loaf. When I opened the first oyster, the meat inside looked like a big fat slug and I wasn’t sure if I dare to eat it. It looked so raw, I mean it is raw. I squeezed a lot of lemon juice just in case I can’t “tahan” the rawness. But in the end, it turned out to be very delicious! It was sour because of the lemon and salty because of the seawater. Yes, I forgot to mention. These oysters were freshly harvested from the sea. One really cannot get any fresher oysters than those. The most enjoyable part is not the taste (I am not very particular with food actually) but the ambience of the surrounding. I was at the beach, with seagulls flying above, waves crashing against the nearby rocks, sunny weather, relaxing sea breeze and the fishy smell of the seawater. After the oyster feast, I went to check out the city centre.There was really nothing much about the city centre and hence I went back to the bus stop. I was stunned by what was written on the bus stop. The next coach going to St Malo would be at 535pm!!! And it was only 2pm then. This not only meant that I would be stuck in Cancale for 3.5 hrs, I would not have enough time to visit those places that I missed in St Malo in the morning. The troublesome part about taking coaches is that their timetable is not available on the internet as they are small companies providing service between small towns. I decided to do a little excursion to Point du Grouin, quite a distance out of Cancale. It was written in the guide that one can get a good view of the coast from the cliff there. So I walked on and on following the map and was out of Cancale. But that was where the map in the guide ends also. I dared not venture further as I was walking along the highway (pretty dangerous) and I was afraid that I might get lost and missed that 535pm bus. So I turned back. Along the way, I actually wanted to hitch-hike because it seemed like the road would lead to St Malo. But the cars were zooming by me at great speed. Hence, after 2 hrs of walking out and into Cancale again I was back at the beach. By then, I had already taken my sweater off. It was almost as hot as in Singapore and people were sun tanning on the beach.
I had 1.5 hrs left but there was nothing else to see. So I just sat on one of the benches looking at families having fun on the beach. After half an hour, loneliness crept in as I saw couples strolling along the shore, children running after their dogs, parents pushing the prams, etc and all the while I was sitting there alone. This trip would have been perfect if I hadn’t got stuck in Cancale for so long. Initially I was pretty excited to be near the sea. But that 1.5 hrs of waiting at the beach made me sick of the place. And the sun was real hot and I was very thirsty. The worst thought came to my mind. What if that 535pm bus didn’t arrive? I wouldn’t want to spend a night in those expensive hotels. Luckily, the bus came and I was happy to be on the way home. However, it might not reach St Malo in time for me to take the 622pm train, which I guessed was the last train. But staying in St Malo for one night is much better than staying in Cancale.
At the next stop, 2 Japanese women boarded the coach and apparently, one of them could speak French. They were engrossed in their own conversation in Japanese, so I didn’t go over and talk to them. There were just me, the 2 Japs and 2 French on the coach. It wasn’t also my style to suddenly strike a conversation with strangers although I wanted to know them, not because they were chio (they weren’t in fact). When the coach arrived at St Malo, the driver turned and asked the 2 Japs where they wanted to go specifically. I had already told him I wanted to stop at the train station the moment I boarded the coach. The driver asked “Le Gare?” (the train station?) and the 2 Japs seemed not to understand him. So I asked them would they want to stop at the train station and they said yes. Since I had opened my mouth, I moved over and sat next to them and asked “Nihon-jin deska?” Then I introduced myself and got their names too. The prettier one was called Miyoko and the soso one was called dunno-what-ko. (maybe Mopiko hahaha) However, I didn’t talk to Miyoko at all because she can only speak Japanese while that Mopiko can speak a little English and substantial French. It was very funny for a Jap to keep speaking French to me so in the end I asked her “parlez vous anglais?” (you speak English?) and so finally we could communicate well.
She said she is working in “Paalee” which wasn’t the correct pronunciation for Paris in French. But still, she could speak better French than I do, just that her pronunciation is a bit off, probably because she doesn’t speak much English. When we reached the train station, there wasn’t any follow up actions from me and I bid them goodbye. Mainly because they already bought their tickets while I haven’t and my train was just 5 min away from departure! Luckily the queue wasn’t long and when it was my turn, I tried using French to buy the ticket to Rennes. Then the guy asked me for my reduction card and whether I was buying a return trip or single trip. I frowned when being asked so many questions and he then asked “you speak English?” haha, so much for trying to speak French and in the end the transaction was done using English.
Although I had an unhappy incident of being stuck at Cancale, overall the trip was still quite fruitful because:
I finally have been to the famous St Malo!
I took a few good pictures of the city
I got to eat the Kouign Amann although it wasn’t from the shop Mathieu told me
I got to enjoy the sun but in the end I got a slight sunburn on my face. My face was hot and red when I went back
I had 5 big juicy oysters
I took picture of a chio bu eating oysters with her fat friend
I got to practice some French
I talked to 2 Japanese women. Should have asked them for their emails…
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