Oh dear. St-Malo has decided it’s time to replace its weathered brise-lames (breakwaters), some of them over 200 years old. The first ones were erected in the 17th century after a devastating equinoctial high tide. If you know anything about St-Malo, you know that its breakwaters are iconic—think Deauville and its famous boardwalk or Holland and its windmills. What on earth are Instagram photographers and tourists going to take pictures of once the old (photogenic) wooden poles are gone?
On the upside, the city will sell some of the oldest ones and perhaps break others up to sell to woodcarvers, nostalgic locals, and tourists. Hey, some of us are old enough to remember the lucrative industry that sprang up around chunks of the Berlin Wall.
One local tweeted that he had grabbed one to put in his garden.