François-René de Chateaubriand, the youngest of ten children, was born in 1768 in what was then the Hôtel de Gicquelais, a townhouse tucked inside Saint-Malo's walled city. He went on to become one of France's most celebrated writers, a diplomat, and a minister, widely regarded as a founding father of French Romanticism.

The house itself is now the Hôtel de France et Chateaubriand, but a narrow street behind it leads to the original courtyard. There you'll find the family's motto carved above the door: "Mon sang a teint les bannières de France" — my blood will dye the banners of France. Chateaubriand died in Paris in 1848, but his final wish was to be buried facing the sea. His grave on the tidal island of Grand Bé, accessible only at low tide, is still there.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace his life from this birthplace courtyard to that clifftop grave, connecting the man to the sea-battered city that shaped him.