The Emerald Coast: Gateway to Brittany

The Côte d'Émeraude, stretching from Cancale to Cap Fréhel, serves as many visitors' introduction to Brittany. The name captures the extraordinary color of the water here, a jewel-like green that shifts with tide and weather. This coast balances accessibility with wildness, offering both elegant resort towns and dramatic natural landscapes.

Saint-Malo rises from its granite island like a ship of stone, its ramparts intact after centuries of siege and storm. This is a city that produced the corsairs—state-sanctioned pirates who terrorized English shipping in the name of the French crown. Their grand houses, the malouinières, dot the countryside, built with prize money and designed to display wealth while maintaining defensive capabilities. Today's Saint-Malo carefully balances its tourist appeal with authentic maritime culture. The rampart walk offers spectacular views, but step into the back streets and you'll find fishmongers selling the morning's catch, sailors preparing for the Route du Rhum transatlantic race, and locals speaking Breton in waterfront cafés.

Dinard, just across the Rance River, tells a different story. Discovered by British aristocrats in the 19th century, it became France's premier seaside resort, its Belle Époque villas a fantasy of turrets, bow windows, and elaborate gardens. The contrast with working-class Saint-Malo, visible across the water, created a unique dynamic that persists today. Dinard represents Brittany's ability to adapt to outside influences while maintaining its essential character—the villas may be British in inspiration, but they're built of good Breton granite.

Cancale, to the east, has dedicated itself to a single product: oysters. The beds visible at low tide have been cultivated since Roman times, producing oysters with a particular flavor—iodine-rich, slightly sweet—that reflects their unique environment. The port bustles with the rhythms of aquaculture: tractors hauling boats at low tide, workers sorting oysters by size, restaurants shucking thousands daily for eager consumers. This is industrial-scale production that maintains artisanal quality, a balance that defines much of Brittany's approach to the modern economy.