Every design for Saint-Malo

Saint-Malo is the city of corsairs, a walled port on the Channel coast of Brittany that grew rich on raiding and overseas adventure, and the starting line of the Route du Rhum, the single-handed race that sets off from here for Guadeloupe every four years. It lies on the right bank of the Rance estuary, on the stretch of shore known as the Côte d'Émeraude.

What lingers after a visit is the sense of a town shaped by the tides. The old city stands on what was once a granite island, tied to the mainland only by a sand spit called le Sillon, later built up into the dyke and road that carry traffic today. Offshore, the Fort National, the Grand Bé and the Fort du Petit Bé break the horizon, and the Tombeau de François René de Chateaubriand draws a steady stream of visitors. The Allies bombed the town heavily in 1944; the Château de Saint-Malo and the Statue de Robert Surcouf stand as reminders of everything it has come through. In 1967 the commune merged with Paramé and Saint-Servan, more than doubling its population.

For the Malouins, the walls rising out of the sea are the surest sign that the journey is over and they are home.