Brittany: St. Malo, Mont Saint Michel, France 2014

St. Malo is a city on the N.W. coast near the Channel islands and a moderate ferry ride or long swim from England, and therefore a favourite destination of Brits - quite a lot of whom are just plain too boring to go any further from home.  It was Britain on and off through many wars and some probably think they still have shares in it.

The main feature for visitors, except for taking a place on the sea and relaxing, is the vast old 14th C. walled city.  I have never seen any walled city in this fine condition so I think it has been greatly rehabilitated, but also it was massive and powerful even when it was new.  In the center photo you can see the walkway which almost encircles the town and the wall in the side show extends nearly to the right side of the photo.

Part of the reason I want to show this image is a great story.  As you travel the coast cities, you see the massive forts build over centuries to fend off pirates and foreign navies.  The occupants worried about ugly invaders coasting in using the dark nights and scaling the walls to invade.  St. Malo's solution was a 10 p.m. curfew and at 10:01 to let loose 12 hungry and terribly unpleasant English mastiffs.  They were so effective that the entire population became exhausted with them after a decade and the poor fellows were abolished by means of poison.

Inside the walls, there are now many hotels, restaurants, and hundreds of shops.  The cathedral of St. Vincent was born about 1160 AD and has beautiful additions up to the Renaissance.  I was there at 11 on a Sunday morning when the only mass of the day was being said.  There was a sign saying a mass was in progress and visitors should stay out.  But I looked through the open door and there were no more than 10 people attending the mass in that monumental church.  I believe all the great cathedrals in France are now the property of the French government and seeing them empty of adherents constantly illustrated to me why that must be so.

St. Malo is often the preferred city nearest to Mont St. Michel (bottom photo).  The photo cannot give you any idea of scale.  But if you look at the bottom, between the clumps of trees,that is a five storey building.  About 1/10th of a pin dot on the stairs of the house would be a human.

It is somewhat of a waste of time if you have just been through many of the 71 chateaux on the Loire and many of the great cathedrals.  For me, the problem is humanity in the thousands.  I believe there were probably about 5,000 humans there writing, pushing struggling to cram thorough the place.  It was insufferable to me and I took the first exit I could find and got out of there.

In this ancient place, I witnessed a modern horror.  They have these coin operated toilets which shower washed after each client and are clean and handy.  But on the Sunday I was there, a person had become trapped (on maybe incapacitated) in one.  The spouse was outside pushing in more coins, then banging on the door shouting Hello, Hello, Hello, and growing ever-more frantic,  When I was young and in Europe  you could trip over the attendants for every possible thing in every possible place.  But today there are none - nowhere - and you cannot find help.  Dreadful situation.

Didja wan somthin or were you jes lookin?