Information AboutSaint-malo |
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région= Bretagne | département= Ille-et-Vilaine ('' Sous-préfecture '')| arrondissement=Saint-Malo| canton=Chief town of 2 cantons| insee=35288| cp=35400| maire= René Couanau | mandat=Current| intercomm= Communauté d'agglomération du Pays De Saint-Malo | longitude=| latitude=| alt moy=| alt mini=0| alt maxi=| hectares=3,658| km&2=36.58| sans=50,675| date-sans=1999| dens=1,385| date-dens=1999}} Saint-Malo is a walled Port city in Brittany in northern France on the English Channel . It is a '' Sous-préfecture '' of the Ille-et-Vilaine '' Département ''. Saint-Malo has 50,000 inhabitants, but that number can increase to up to 200,000 in the summer tourist season. With the suburbs, the population is about 135,000. History Saint-Malo during the Middle Ages was a fortified island at the mouth of the Rance River , controlling not only the Estuary but the open sea beyond. The promontory fort of Alet, south of the modern centre in what is now the Saint-Servan district, commanded approaches to the Rance even before the Romans , but modern Saint-Malo traces its origins to a Monastic settlement founded by Saint Aaron and Saint Brendan early in the 6th Century . In later centuries it became notorious as the home of a fierce breed of pirate-mariners, who were never quite under anyone's control but their own; for 4 years from 1590 , Saint-Malo even declared itself to be an independent Republic , taking up the motto "not French, not Breton, but Malois". The Corsairs of Saint-Malo not only forced English ships passing up the Channel to pay tribute, but also brought wealth from further afield. Jacques Cartier , who sailed the St Lawrence river and visited the sites of Québec City and Montréal - and is thus credited as the discoverer of Canada , lived in and sailed from Saint-Malo, as did the first colonists to settle the Falklands – hence the islands' Argentinian name, ''Las Malvinas'', from the French ''Malouins''. Saint Malo was the site of an Anglo - French summit which lead to a significant agreement regarding European Defence Policy . British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac stated that "the {Link without Title} Union must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and a readiness to do so, in order to respond to international crises". Sites of interest Now inseparably attached to the Mainland , Saint-Malo is the most visited place in Brittany. Sites of interest include:
Miscellaneous Saint-Malo was the birthplace of:
See also External links
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