:For the community, see
Saint Malo, Louisiana
('''Sant-Maloù''' in Breton; '''Saent-Malô''' in Gallo) is a walled
Port city in
Brittany in northwestern
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 included, the population is about 135,000.
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 Aleth, 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 . Its name is derived from a man said to have been a follower of Brendan,
Saint Malo .
Saint-Malo had a tradition of asserting its autonomy in dealings with the French authorities and even with the local Breton authorities. From 1590–1594, Saint-Malo declared itself to be an independent
Republic , taking the motto "not French, not Breton, but Malouins".
Saint-Malo became notorious as the home of the
Corsairs , French
Privateers and sometimes
Pirates . (In the nineteenth century the city's "piratical" notoriety was portrayed in
Jean Richepin 's play ''Le flibustier'' and in
César Cui 's
Like-named Opera Derived Therefrom .) 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
Saint Lawrence River and visited the sites of
Quebec City and
Montreal — 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' French name ''Îles Malouines'', which gave rise to the
Spanish name ''Islas Malvinas''.
The commune of
Saint-Servan was merged, together with
Paramé , and became the commune of Saint-Malo in 1967.
Saint Malo was the site of an
Anglo -
French summit in 1998 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".
Saint-Malo has one of the highest concentration of sea food restaurants in Europe. It is famous for its local oysters from the nearby village of Cancale.
Now inseparably attached to the
Mainland , Saint-Malo is the most visited place in Brittany. Sites of interest include:
Saint-Malo was the birthplace of:
- Jacques Cartier (1491-1557), Explorer of Canada .
- Jacques Gouin De Beauchene (1652-1730), Explorer of the Falkland Islands
- Pierre Louis Moreau De Maupertuis (1698-1759), Mathematician and Astronomer
- Bertrand-François Mahé De La Bourdonnais (1699-1753), sailor and administrator
- François-René De Chateaubriand (1768-1848), writer and diplomat
- Marc-Joseph Marion Du Fresne (1724-1772), Explorer
- Robert Surcouf (1773-1827), Sailor , Trader , Ship-owner and Corsair
- Hughes Felicité Robert De Lamennais (1782-1854), priest, philosophical and political writer
- Louis Duchesne (1843-1922), historian, French academia.
