Our two days in St Malo were great fun. It is a beautiful city with the weather to match - we loved walking the many beaches, soaking up the sun, sand and sea. It was beautifully summery! The Intra Muros (old town) has been so well restored after 80% was destroyed by WWII fighting. It is definitely driven by tourism but we had fun exploring and losing ourselves in the smaller, quieter streets as well as the busier shopping and dining streets. We found ourselves in a cathedral which had a wonderful stillness and peacefulness about it. We found Jacques Cartier's tomb in there, the famous explorer of North America who discovered and claimed Canada for France.

Dotted around the city's shoreline are many small islands: one is the resting place of the famous writer Chateaubriand, and many have military installations originally made to protect St Malo from the English. We visited the main one, Fort National. It is still mostly in tact, although it too suffered damage during WWII and was in fact used to hold local civilian hostages as the Allies drew closer after D-Day. We had to join a tour in French to get inside but it was worth it for the insight and views back on the Intra Muros.

On our second day yesterday we spent time in St Servan, once a separate town, but it was eventually absorbed as St Malo grew and is now a leafy suburb with great markets, shopping strip and isle with views of the Intra Muros.

It was such a nice couple of days soaking up summer. There was something very relaxing about being on the beach, very homey and summery.