2nd grade class trip 3rd day

Saint Malo is a walled city on the coast and has a long history of pirates and earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. I visited with Annick and Stephane before we moved here, like 30 years ago, but have no recollection of it and was happy to rediscover this picturesque city.

Here's our guide, explaining this 3 masted ship called "étoile du roy" the "king's star". It's a reproduction used for films like "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "the 3 musketeers".....

The shot below is from outside "the walled city", when we first arrived.

Preparing to pass through the gate.....

And we're in!

The stairs down to the public toilets:)

That's a lot of square meters of terrace dining.

All of the granite cobblestones have carvings on them. They are either, numbers, initials or symbols. That's how the stone masons would get paid. That was their signature.

Some amazing buildings that weren't destroyed during WW2.

A fuzzy far away shot of some guys playing "pétanque", French lawn bowling.

I love this shot of our guide...

I should quit my day job and become a photographer:)

The city's "emblem" is a "stoat" or "ermine".

I love the blue door and reddish vegetation.

So the history behind these British Bulldogs.....

From the 12th century until the 18th century famished "guard dogs" would be let loose in the city to roam the streets to help prevent pirates, corsaires and all around no do gooders from stealing and commiting crimes. At 10pm, the church bell rang for a full 5 minutes and everyone was required by law to be inside for the rest of the night. The curfew is no longer applied today but the bell still rings every night at 10pm.

Jazzy jazzy fisherman with his net.

Our guide, Thomas, kept the kids occupied during a break by playing this game. I don't remember exactly, but had something to do with jumping forward or back depending on which word he said. "sea, earth, air = mer, terre, air, in French they all rhyme hence the game is a bit tricky if you aren't paying attention. There's also a seagull involved, hence the kids sqawking. Loved it.

Lunch break.

We visited this privately owned "museum". The owner of this "domain" I guess you'd call it, was also our tour guide. A super knowledgeable guy, funny and knew how to keep the kids attention. 

                                                         

The front courtyard from the street entrance to the main door.

Here's a shot out of the back of the place. It gives to a smallish courtyard and access to the street behind so cargo could be unloaded and stored in the caves of this building. More on that later.....

The ceilings in this place were so high!

Showing off the arms used on the ships back in the day. And contrary to popular belief and what we see in the movies, when one ship attacked or was attacked by another, it wasn't all bloodshed. The goal was to capture as many prisoners alive as possible to later exchange them for your own. 

The chest belown was like a modern day safe. Mainly used to keep......documents, not money.

                                                         The prices for spices and other imported items, silk, cocoa were set and decided in this building. 

This tall but tiny door led to a ridiculously narrow steep staircase. This staircase led to a tiny room upstairs where merchants would hammer out the terms of their negotiations in private. It was very cool, but too busy looking were I was walking to take any pictures:)

Then from upstairs, we headed downstairs to the basement cellars. There were 8 levels of cellars, we only visited the first level down. The others were below sea level. The pirates would sell there wares and they would be stored until transporting them elsewhere in these caves.

And that was the end of an amazing tour in a very cool historic city.