North

We left at 0842 and returned nine hours later. I had eight stops planned along the côte d'emeraude starting at Cap Fréhel and ending at the granite rose cliffs. It was always going to be a long day. 

Cap Fréhel

The day started foggy, which can make cliffs and ocean interesting, so I wasn't worried. And Cap Fréhel did not disappoint as our first stop. It was early and only a couple other people. There was a good wind coming up the cliffs. 

There was an interesting sea formation with nesting gulls leaning into the wind. 

Then we drove on to the next five stops, none of which were near in comparison to Cap Fréhel. We hopscotched the coast, driving through tiny cliff side towns, down narrow streets that seemed to lead to nowhere, to come upon a parking lot and a tiny trail. 

One stop had some promise but we ended up cutting our list short and driving to the rose cliffs, which were still an hour away, thinking, they better be good. 

And they were amazing. 

The cliffs are for real pink!

And the water so blue. We stayed for at least an hour; the granite coast is quite large and the formations so unique in both shape and coloring. 

It's as if someone stacked huge pink boulders with softened edges on top of each other to see how long they would stay in place. 

So that was a big day. We were pretty exhausted and hungry by the time we got back but felt the trip well worth it. 

My original plan for the following day had been to get up before sunrise to go to Mt. Saint Michel, but sleep won that battle. We stayed in for the morning, then took a walk into Dinan near the marina.

Since Saint Malo was only a 30 minute drive (I was so done with driving), we decided to go in the evening when traffic was light. I'm so glad we did. 

Bridge to island gets covered by the tide leaving people stranded by the current until the tide goes back out

As one of the last strongholds during WWII, the walled city was heavily bombed. I wasn't sure what to expect, I thought there would be more of the original town left, but it's mostly all been rebuilt, except for the battlements, they seem to be the original.

We walked all along the top of the wall, and the beach surrounding the city. The tide was quite low and it was very peaceful. It's hard to describe but there is a worn charm to the place. I think it would feel very different at the height of tourist season. 

So far we are finding this little slice of France to vary greatly in it's geography and microculture. Heading to the western end of Brittany we find even more of this local difference.