St. Malo
Today has been a busy day. We have travelled up to the port city of St. Malo in the Ille de Vilaine region of Brittany. Tomorrow morning we are meeting a brother in Christ who is travelling over from England to spend a week here. We had a little sorting out to do as we are stopping out for the night and needed to prepare. We drove today because its a good couple of hours journey and the ferry docks at first light in the morning, about 8:15 am.
We are at the tail end of a storm so with it being a high vehicle, especially with the roof boxes on, we experienced a fair amount of buffeting en route, it was a little eyebrow lifting at times, over a couple of high bridges, my prayers and thanks be to God came a little faster.
Once here, it was easy to see why many people fall in love with the little city of St Malo. There is a walled city at the very headland jutting out on a peninsula sheltering the different harbours from the raging sea. But it has beautiful soft beaches as well as hard granite rocky faces. Docked at the harbours are lines and lines of sailing yachts, there is old galleons moored near sophisticated catamarans. Inside the high thick walls of the city lies an abundance to see and do.
There’s the Cathedral of st Vincent, the church of St Benoit, there’s a castle with it’s huge cylindrical towers , another church, the church of St Sauveur and there’s a chateau, all beautiful structured architecture built within the fortified walls.
Oh and just on the outside of one of the northern walls, there’s a fort, that can be accessed when the tide is out.
It’s absolutely incredible, there is so much in this small area , but it doesn’t look or feel cramped. These days the majority of the old buildings are now shops, banks and restaurants.
The Christian influence here isn’t just easy to spot, it was obviously central to a lot of the history of this once world leading powerful port, the brigands that sailed from here a temporary nuisance to the good name of Malo.
The evangelizing monk, Aaron, St Malo`s original inhabitant, chose this spot for his hermitage.
All I can say is, this Aaron chose well.
One of the things that was brought back to mind today was regarding my communication with God, meaning my prayer requests, and to “keep a short account. “
Regarding if I “don’t let my bill run up”. If I sin, I can go to the Father , for He is faithful and just to forgive us.
By keeping a short account, it also means that there is nothing in the way when you may need a quick prayer to make sure you get over the bridge safely, then you get to see a beautiful protected city.
God Bless