It was only a quick stopover on our way to our next assignment. But we did enjoy Rennes.

Parts of it reminded us of Bordeaux, like this landmark building – the Palais du Parlement de Bretagne.

And other parts, were very old indeed. These half-timbered buildings, including the one we stayed in last night, are the few that survived a massive fire here in 1720.

Rennes is not really a tourist city.

Although it is the capital of Brittany with a population of over 220,000, one quarter of that population is comprised of university students. And we saw quite a few of them during our strolls, especially last evening.

Breakfast this morning was impressive – when we got to it. (We had a huge sleep-in as there were no animals to attend to!)

So many sweet things. I am always amazed that the French, women in particular, are not massively overweight.

We caught the train to Saint-Malo.

I was very impressed with this idea we saw while waiting to catch our train. I think it would help many parents manage the amount of time children spend on electronic devices.

The boy was pedalling at quite a pace to power his phone.

It might help a few adults too. Perhaps even me!

I’d booked us first class train tickets months ago for the 50 minute non-stop trip to Saint-Malo. That was the easy part.

We almost missed the jolly thing – a long story, but it ended well.

Saint-Malo has a famous old city centre, surrounded by walls, which makes much of that area suitable for pedestrians only. We are staying inside those walls, intra muros.

We decided to catch a bus to a stop close to our hotel, and to walk the 800m to our hotel. Dragging bags over old paved streets is pretty difficult. No wonder our suitcases don’t last more than a few trips.

Saint-Malo is a tourist destination.

The place was packed. Its population is around 45,000, but we think there were that many inside the walls this afternoon- until about 5pm when people started exiting the place.

Saint-Malo is a port town. That is actually why we are here. We will catch a ferry to the UK in the morning.

It was once a very important location for privateers.…

.… pirates approved by the King.

We walked around the city, with the thousands of other tourists and located the ferry terminal, about 1 kilometre from our hotel. We passed by some locals playing boules.

They take it seriously – the fellow on the left is holding a tape measure. The big guy in the centre of the photo was sure he’d won, but in actual fact, the decision went to the lady.

Mick spotted this shop as we headed back to our hotel, which doesn’t compare a patch on last night’s by the way, as we needed to rest our feet.

We also spotted dozens of places to eat tonight, but we both agree we’ll go somewhere close.

It’s been a big day.