Saint Malo, France

Saint Malo is about an hour's drive away from Mont Saint-Michel. We picked this place because I really wanted to visit Bretagne (or Brittany), and the closest city in Bretagne to Mont Saint-Michel happens to be this.

The ferry port was right outside the city and upon arriving, you'll see the magnificent grey walls surrounding the city. Inside the city is vastly grey as well. The roads/streets are paved with cobble stones, the buildings mainly made of some kind of grey stones too. Its a pretty amazing change of landscape.

It's not easy to get a parking within the city itself so we had to park outside.

View from our hotel window.

That night Wk explored the city by himself - I'll explain why he was alone later.

Some cute bedroom slippers which Wk said he regretted he did not get them. Hello, it's freaking €40???

Sooo... this was why he was exploring alone.

I just couldn't do it anymore! Ugh I wish I had the laughing with tears emoji here, damn.

I was dizzy, exhausted and my tummy was upset the entire day. And Wk thought it's a good idea to take a picture of me while I was knocked out -.-

Middle of that night I had diarrhea more than once, and I actually puked all of my lunch at Mont Saint-Michel (the mussels). Although it's horrible, after all that ordeal I was feeling so much better!

The next morning, we woke up early and took a stroll in the town.

Then we walked up to the ramparts (top part of the wall surrounding the city) and went around the entire city. Pretty obvious I was feeling much better by then! Hehe :D

As usual, my face like that. Lol.

Ok history time!

Saint Malo used to be notorious for housing privateers and pirates. Privateers are basically like pirates, but the difference is privateers are authorised by the government to do their thang in the sea - for the benefit of the country. They raid ships which are at war with France, their payment is they get to keep everything they get from that ship of course. During WWII the city was almost destroyed. It was then rebuilt in the 1950s.

INYOFACE selfie

I believe that's the Fort National (behind Wk), which was reachable at that time we were there because the tide was low. But sibeh scary leh you never know when the tide will rise, and the walk is damn far! So obviously we didn't go there *kiasi

Hiao, makeup-free, just recovered from sickness face XD

Ok slight intermission. Talk about our hotel.

This was the cheapest hotel that we've booked in our entire trip. Apparently it's 3 stars? Frankly, it felt more like 2. But I'm not complaining for the price we paid. It's nothing special but it's decent.

We were given a double bed which isn't huge but at least it's not like the one in Mont Saint-Michel where they just push 2 single beds together to make a double bed, which wasn't very comfortable to be honest. Overall, everything's sufficient. Location is great too, not too far from the entrance so access to the parking was around 5-10 minutes walk.

Hotel Du Louvre Saint Malo

2 rue des Marins

35400 - Saint-Malo

02 99408662

After checking out we continued to explore the city. Don't you think the city looks nicer in day time than night time?

The reason I really wanted to visit at least a part of Bretagne is because I have heard its the place for the best crepes and galettes (buckwheat crepes). It's also known for their Guerande salt, mostly used to make salted butter and salted caramels.

Kouign Amann is a specialty of Bretagn. It's a round crusty pastry (they call it Breton cake but frankly it tastes more like bread), with layers of butter and sugar folded in similar to puff pastry.

Galettes Bretonnes/Sable Bretons are French/Breton shortbread salted butter cookie. Far, is a pudding made with plums. I didn't tried it but looks like Portuguese egg tarts to me.

I didn't buy the cookies from this place, I bought it from another Bretagne specialty shop and they were delicious! I'm sure they would have tasted just as delicious from any shops. However I have an advice on buying these cookies. Do not ever buy those that are packed in tin boxes like this:

Picture credits: http://www.lapesee.com/produits-bretons/sp%C3%A9cialit%C3%A9s-bretonnes/biscuit/

Picture credits: http://www.tempetedelouest.fr/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/boite-sucre-biscuits-breton-faience.jpg

If you wanted to keep the box (which is quite pretty), yeah why not but don't expect to get good cookies inside. Mine was soggy :( I'm guessing these cookies are packed into these boxes LONG time ago, the packaging was also not air tight.

For good cookies, get the ones packaged in air tight, transparent plastic so you can actually see what's inside. These are usually fresher and will be crispy and delicious. We got these and have them in the car throughout our entire trip. They're also cheaper to buy since they don't come in those fancy tin boxes. Unless of course it's what you want.

So I did get one of the Kouign Amanns to try because they are in EVERY patisserie (pastry shop) and boulangerie (bakery)!

My verdict? Meh. It's very chewy and crusty, and on the denser side. Didn't taste very buttery as well. Maybe it's just this one that we got that's not the best. I wasn't going to get another one because this was actually quite filling.

For lunch, once again I did not do any research prior as I slept early the night before and we spent most of the morning exploring the city and buying stuff. So random restaurant it is!

Cannot remember what this was called but I think I ordered one of the galettes (savoury buckwheat crepes) in Bretagne style. It had some greens, an egg, sausage, bacon and potatoes.

Mussels in curry sauce

We also ordered some shrimp, served with cocktail sauce. I wanted to try the crepes since Brittany is famous for their crepes. And we ordered the mussels in curry sauce because at one point we smelled curry when we were strolling the streets and both of us suddenly missed curry lol.

Both the mussels and galette were quite disappointing. Do not ever bother with any type of curry in France, just don't. The galette was not bad, but I felt like there was too much topping that the galette was lost underneath all that! Oh well, maybe I shouldn't have went fancy and order this and just stick to ham and cheese only.

The shrimp however was really good. Fresh, sweet and juicy. Seafood is a specialty in the town simply because it is surrounded by water. The word "Fruits de Mer" is everywhere, which means seafood platter.

We didn't note down the name of the restaurant but I wouldn't bother with recommending anyway.

That pretty much concludes our time in Saint Malo. After that it was a torturous 4.5 hours drive to our next destination and upon checking into our hotel, we were greeted by this bed: