St. Malo - Tides

At the risk of sounding like an absolute moron, I had no idea that tidal change could be as dramatic as what I saw in St. Malo.  Sure, I knew that there is a high tide and a low tide, but since I had never witnessed anything extreme I just never fathomed it possible that there could be such differences every day in the level of the sea.

Here's a glimpse into what I mean:

Low Tide in St. Malo

Stranded boats.

Lots of beachfront.

The people up against the wall know what's coming, I guess.

Cool rocks with all kinds of sealife are exposed.

There's even a makeshift swimming pool filled with ocean water.

Remember this photo later.  Note how there is land in between the beach and these two islands.  At this point in the day, you can walk to the islands.

In fact, here is the "bridge" you can cross to get there.

However, when the tide comes in, the bridge quickly seeps back into the ocean.  It's weird to watch people walking over it when the tide is coming in because they literally look like they are walking on water.

Until obviously, they can't walk on it anymore...

and then it just looks like water.

High Tide in St. Malo

Yes, those are the same two islands from before.  The ones to which you could easily walk.

Crazy, huh?  Nature is pretty cool.

People who don't pay attention to the changing tides

Here's the story of a group of people who weren't quite up to speed on the whole "if you stay on the island too long you will be stuck there" situation of St. Malo.  In this frame, you see them approaching what is still just barely a bridge.  They TOTALLY could have crossed it when they got there.  Would their feet have gotten wet?  Yes.  Would it be a little freaky?  Maybe.  Would it have been better than being stranded? Absolutely.  However, they took way to long to discuss their options and...

in the end decided to turn back.

Where they waited in freakishly cold wind until they waved down some kayakers.  I'm not going to lie, I was kind of hoping they would have to stay there overnight and learn a really good lesson.

But instead the kayakers went for help.

And about an hour or so later, a rescue boat arrived. 

As they were whisked back to solid ground (on a boat I felt was a little too small), the crowd watching this debacle, including yours truly, finally dispersed to find some other form of entertainment.  The moral of the story is if yo ufind yourself in St. Malo, you don't want to be the entertainment.