Dinan and St. Malo

Thursday, October 9, 2014

This morning's destination was Dinan, about 30 minutes inland from St. Malo, and known as Brittany's most perfectly preserved medieval town.  Unlike many area towns, Dinan was untouched by bombing during World War II and its old historic center is actually old. We planned our visit to take advantage of the fact that Dinan's weekly market is held in the town's main square every Thursday morning. We strolled among the vendors' stalls, with their offerings of everything from fresh produce, cheeses, breads, clothes, leather goods, hardware, and everything in between.  After scoping out some likely lunch and dinner ideas, we set off  to explore the town on foot.

The center of the old town is a warren of narrow streets, lined with buildings whose upper storeys lean toward each other above the lanes.  The original tax code assessed a property based on the square footage of the ground floor, so merchants kept those areas small and built out the upper floors.  That, and the original half-timbered construction, give the old town a very distinctive, medieval look and feel.  We wandered the cobbled streets down the hill to the city walls, sections of which are open to walkers.  The views into some of the town's  backyards, over the rooftops, and down to the small Rance River port area, far below, were lovely.  After a stop to see the modern stained glass windows in the old St. Saveur Church, we headed back to the market to pick up some cheese, something for lunch, and paella (from a vendor's three-foot-plus diameter pan) for tonight's dinner.
We returned to the church, and the English Garden behind it, to enjoy our savory pies (thin double crusts with luscious vegetable and cheese fillings) on a bench atop the adjacent city wall.






We headed back to St. Malo to spend the afternoon inside and atop the walls of the old city.  It was sunny and very windy as we walked atop the ramparts that encircle the old town, which has been carefully restored after almost total destruction in Allied bombing raids in 1944.  It was low tide and many people were on the long and wide beaches below the ramparts.  Several "sometime islands" are accessible by foot when the tide is out; they include military fortifications, as well as the island where the French come to visit the grave of writer, scholar, and statesman, Chateaubriand, whom they revere.  We walked along the beach a bit, too, in search of photo ops, rather than as pilgrims.  Back atop the ramparts, we finished our windy circuit and then wandered around the streets of the old town before heading back to our digs to enjoy today's wine, cheese, and paella finds while watching the tide roll in outside our window.

For the benefit of any Canadian readers, I should also mention that Jacques Cartier is a local hero in St. Malo.  It was from here that he set sail to discover/explore/claim (the choice is yours) Canada for the French; he is buried in the Cathedral of St. Vincent and widely honored here.

We'll spend a bit more time in Brittany tomorrow morning, before moving on to Mont St. Michel, in neighboring Normandy, but it's obvious to us that we've barely scratched the surface of this province's richness.  Its gorgeous beaches make it a popular summer destination for the French and nearby Brits alike, but it offers so much more.  Wish we had more time to explore it some more...

N.B. If you'd like a better view of Tom's photos, click on any one of them to enlarge it and see thumbnails below, so you can scroll through enlargements of each picture.