Le Grand Bé - Chateaubriand's Tomb

“Everything in my life was difficult, even my tomb,” confided François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), writer, diplomat, great traveler, and major figure of French Romanticism. After a life marked by travel—explorer in America, ambassador to London, Minister of Foreign Affairs—he had expressed as early as 1828 the wish to be buried on the islet of Grand Bé, opposite Saint-Malo, his birthplace.

Twenty years later, his close friends accompanied his coffin, singing Breton hymns and ballads, including one he had composed himself in his youth. In accordance with his wishes, no name appears on his tombstone.

Grand Bé is accessible all year round… only at low tide.