Saint-Malo blends an old fortified and walled town with a big working harbor and a nice pleasure harbor.  The town has a long history, and the fortifications and war history make it particularly interesting.  Walking the enclosing wall gives great views both into the old city and out over the harbors, breakwater, broad sandy beach, and nearby islands.   Tourists (there are many) have nice choices for eating and viewing, and the brave can swim, even in October, from sandy beaches, perhaps striking off toward the islands.   Americans don't flock to the Brittany coast (beyond Mont Saint-Michel, perhaps) the way they do to Normandy, but the recent novel, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, might have introduced many Americans to the town; certainly the novel would have piqued the interest of any reader.   It is the compelling, but wrenching, story of a blind girl who lives in Saint-Malo during the German occupation and its destruction by the Allies in 1944.  It is a rewarding "read"; Doerr is a fine writer, and he uses Saint-Malo almost as though it is another character.   The novel, incidentally, won the 2015 Pulitzer for fiction.

The swimming pool's walls are hidden at high tide.

Drive-by shooting in Brittany:

And Normandy