Weekend trip to Normandy and Brittany

January 23, 2017

by apaparis

APA headed to Normandy and Brittany on Saturday for our first weekend trip!

Departing at around 8am on Saturday morning, we drove the 4-5 hours to St. Malo – a medieval village in Northwestern France that looks out onto the English channel. The walled city is notorious for a history full of pirates and corsairs. Today, St. Malo ushers in thousands of tourists with its beautiful buildings and taste of the past. Luckily for us, we visited in the low season and it seemed like more French were there than any other nationality. (Oh, and a lot of dogs!)

Though plenty of St. Malo was destroyed during WWII bombings – that was our fault, whoops – the city was rebuilt using original materials, such as granite, and offers visitors a strong idea of what the city looked like hundreds of years ago.

After a lunch of crepes and galettes – the regional speciality – we completed a walking tour and enjoyed some free time to warm up over chocolat chaud. We ended the day with some more crepes and some quality time on the beach.

The next morning we were bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 7:30am for our drive to Normandy. The original buildings on Mont St. Michel were created in the 8th century – you can still visit them too, as they’re the remnants of the Roman church that now forms the basement of the current structure. For an architecture nerd, Mont. St. Michel is fascinating. There are so many different architectural styles that reference different periods – Romanesque, Roman, and Gothic.

We’re back to reality on this Monday morning with schedules full of classes and one-on-one language lessons… until next time, Bretagne & Normandie!