des Ecrivains | Saint-Malo – Mont-Saint-Michel Bay

Literature of our Destination

François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848)

A writer and precursor of the Romantic movement, he led an active political life, becoming successively Minister and then Ambassador. Buried on the Grand Bé islet

Chateaubriand’s birthplace at 3 Rue of the same name, in which he was born in 1768, is now a three-star hotel: the Hôtel de France et Chateaubriand. As you approach, you will discover a commemorative plaque and an explanatory desk. Inside the Musée d’Histoire de Saint-Malo, you can also admire the portrait of Chateaubriand painted by Anne-Louis Girodet.
The monumental work of the writer and politician from Saint-Malo is, without doubt, the Mémoires d’outre-tombe. The first books recreate his childhood among the Breton nobility in Saint-Malo and at the Château de Combourg, where he moved with his family in 1777. In his works, he describes his childhood in Combourg as gloomy, but the small town of character was nonetheless an immense source of inspiration for his memoirs. Combourg, the cradle of Romanticism, is still very much a part of the writer’s life, and there are several tourist itineraries to help you retrace his history.
Chateaubriand asked to be buried on the island of Grand-Bé. Near the cliff, facing the sea. At low tide, it is possible to reach the tomb, listed as a historic monument.

©Statue De Francois Rene De Chateaubriand Combourg Alexandre Lamoureux 717|alexandre lamoureux

©Tombe De Francois Rene De Charteaubriand Ilot Du Grand Be Saint Malo Smbmsm 403

©Statue Chateaubriand Dol De Bretagne Smbmsm 2302

Eager to write your memoirs!?

Our notebooks featuring Chateaubriand are on sale in our offices, at €9.50!

Colette

Colette (1873-1954), the sulphurous novelist, Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1920, President of the Académie Goncourt in 1947 and the most photographed writer of the 20th century, did not fail to make her presence felt in the Malouine region.
From 1910 to 1924, the woman of letters spent her summers in a seaside villa, hidden in the greenery on the edge of the Touesse beach in the Commune of Saint-Coulomb. The wild and enchanting setting of the Colombian coast inspired several of his novels, including Le Blé en Herbe. This love story is set in a holiday home on the Malouine coast. Colette was undoubtedly greatly inspired by her own holiday home, the villa Roz Ven, to set the scene for her work. Although the property is a private estate, you can catch a glimpse of it on a walk along the GR 34.

©Dunes De Roz Ven St Coulomb Alexandre Lamoureux 8590|alexandre lamoureux

©smbmsm Lire Parc De La Briantais Saint Malo

Antony Doerr

Antony Doerr was born in 1973 in Ohio, USA. This American writer has made a name for himself with several works, including the novel Toute la Lumière que l’on ne peut voir, which won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 2015.
In Toute la Lumière que l’on peut voir, the reader is partly immersed in Saint-Malo, under the German occupation. We follow the destiny of Marie-Laure, a young blind refugee from Paris, and a member of the Wehrmacht, an electromagnetic transmission genius. Two different lives blossoming thousands of miles apart, which the Corsair city will bring together. In this work, the city is described in detail, and you can even buy a leaflet to follow in the heroine’s footsteps within the city walls.

Olivier Adam

Writer and screenwriter Olivier Adam, born in the Paris region in 1974, lived in Saint-Malo for around ten years in the 2000s, with his partner and two children. He drew on this period and his life in Saint-Malo to write his novel Des vents contraires, published in 2009, in which he tells the story of a lonely father and his two children who decide to return to his hometown, Saint-Malo, to try to rebuild his family’s life.