
Photo: Francisco Gonzalez/Flickr
As the sun descends towards the horizon, the water level starts to rise, and before you even realize what’s going on. it completely floods the beach and starts pounding away at the concrete waterfront. Over the course of six hours, the water level can rise by more than 13 meters, at a pace that some locals compare to a person walking really fast. To make sure no one gets caught by the high tide, lifeguards make sure that no stragglers remain on the soon-to-be-flooded beach every evening.
Those wooden piles we mentioned before? They are the breakwater designed to absorb some of the massive power of the waves and protect the town. But even so, the water splashes impressively against the waterfront almost every evening, drawing large crowds curious to witness nature’s power. And while the spectacle is definitely something worth experiencing, there is a reason why the promenade is lined with signs that read “DANGER!”.
The ocean puts on a show in Saint Malo all year round, but the tides are particularly high around the equinoxes, in March and September, and when there is a full moon. If these conditions happen to coincide with a storm, things can get pretty dicey for anyone caught in the open. Waves dozens of feet high sweep over the wooden breakwater, smashing into the waterfront, with huge splashes washing the most exposed buildings.
Fortunately, these dangerous conditions coincide on rare occasions. When that happens, authorities make sure to close up the promenade and the most exposed streets of the town. The people living in those buildings closest to the water apparently have thick, four-layer windows that can resist large splashes of water.
Videos of extreme waves washing over the Saint Malo waterfront often go viral on social media, and for good reason. It’s a spectacle unlike any other, one that attracts over two million tourists to the French town every year.