Dinan and its environs in Brittany

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There are various historic signboards placed around town to inform the visitor. There was one next to the church depicting what the original castle complex looked like and it was nothing less than quite impressive.






















Here are a few pictures of the buildings and grounds of the Haras National.

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On the way back home we took a little detour through the beachside resort town of Le Val-André just to see what it looked like and it was a nice little resort place with a great beach.




Arriving home it was time for the nightly fire ritual.




The plan for today was to visit Dinard and then explore the coast between it and our base back in Erquy. We've both been to Saint-Malo but not Dinard. As much as I already knew that Saint-Malo was more appealing to me than Dinard I felt I had to discover it and see for myself so I could say I did it. The weather today was pretty mixed. Mostly gray and overcast with periods of light rain. But then there were other times of brilliant patches of blue sky between gray clouds that let through brilliant beams of sunlight and made a really dramatic shadow and light effect, accentuated by the low winter sun.

We picked up the D786 heading east. There are a couple of scenic stretches when the road borders bays and estuaries.












Along the route we were taking the Michelin map showed an icon for a megalith so I guess you know what that means. It was sort of vaguely marked so we had to figure out which road to take to find it. I pointed the Mrs. To a road on our right leading up a hill.



There were some pretty orchards and pastures there but no megalith signs so we went back to the main road and continued, keeping our eyes peeled for a megalith sign. Despite the fact that she was driving the Mrs. was paying attention while I was looking at the map and her sharp eyes spotted this sign at the side of the road.



An allée couverte is a type of dolmen (large stone burial chamber) with a long corridor and often two to three separate chambers inside. There was a little parking lot but as usual no sign pointing which way to go and it was up to you to assume that you should take the path leading away from the parking lot.




After about 100 meters the path forks left and right. And there are no signs. Luckily we saw a couple returning down the path to our left so we (smartly) assumed that they were coming back from the dolmen. We turned left and continued and then followed the path left again into an adjacent field where was saw the dolmen.

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Back to the car and down the road entering Ploubalay.






We arrived in Dinard and parked on a residential street a few blocks from the downtown and adjacent to the port. There is promenade along the bay starting in the port so that's where we began our stroll.




You can see Saint-Malo across the bay in the left of the photo below.



Here it is in close-up.










Below you'll see some of the seaside villas for which Dinard is renowned.

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Dinard was a small fishing village at the beginning of the 19th century. It began to look like a resort in the mid 19th century coincidentally with the arrival of train service and the ensuing bathing enthusiasts who followed. Property development reached its height in the1870's through the actions of Count Rochaïd Dahdah, who was to be the developer of the resort.

More and more villas, hotels and tourist facilities were built and changed the way the town looked. By 1889 Dinard became the place to see and be seen by national and international high society. It was considered France's top resort at the time, playing host to the aristocracy and nobility of the times, famous members of Europe's royal families and personalities from industrial, trade, political, literary and artistic circles.

The lasting legacy of this era is the majestic villas that dot the coastline. Their architectural eclecticism makes them today protecded by a Zone de Protection du Patrimoine Urbain et Paysager (Protection zone for architectural urban and landscape heritage sites).











We had arrived at La Pointe de la Malouine to do our stroll the famous neighborhood of seaside villas. Until 1865 the Pointe was a vast promontory when the Duc d'Audiffret Pasquier bought the six hectares of the point and constructed a château, called La Malouine. Due to its exceptional view points the terrain attracted developers and in 1879 Auguste Poussineau acquired the château and its grounds and launched a vast operation of creation and promotion through subdivision of the land (lotissement), succeeded in 1910 by his son Gustave. And there you have it. Oh yeah, the château was destroyed during WWII. Forgot about that.

Dinard has an excellent website and on-line there is a downloadable brochure to guide you on a walking trail through this neighborhood. It is very thorough and will describe in detail the history of some of the most famous houses you will see on the walk. Here is the link to the pdf doc for the brochure. It only seems to be in French, however. You can also trace the link back to the home page to get more info about Dinard.

www.ot-dinard.com/uploaded/malouine%20finale%208p.pdf

There's also a pdf doc to the other peninsual at the east end of the bay with lovely villas and beautiful walks and here is the link.

www.ot-dinard.com/uploaded/plaquete%20moulinet.pdf

What the heck, here's the link to the home page of the Dinard tourist office website.

www.ot-dinard.com/index.php?secteur=2&rub=52&parent=2#null

As usual, if you spend some time digging into the tourist office website you'll find lots of info on things to see and do and how to plan a vacation or a visit. Before I continue I'll just say I'm not going to recount the names and history of the houses I'll show you since you can find out all about them in the brochure. Let's go have a look at some big fancy houses.

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After having our fill of the lifestyles of the rich and famous we went back into town to fill our stomachs.




There are villas scattered all over town and not all of them are Belle Epoque era, such as this art deco residence in town.




We headed right to the main plaza by the beach in tourist central to select our touristy restaurant and found the most touristically located tourist restaurant we could find and took our seats. I don't often remember much about dining experiences but I remember the food was decent, prices were reasonable (I'm cheap, remember), I liked the atmosphere and the service was friendly. We ordered a menu which included a 1/2 pichet of wine and got a 1/4 pichet instead and we didn't even notice. Our waiter noticed this walking by and immediately brought another 1/4 pichet and apologized. Then a guy next to us ordered a desert but after a few minutes the waiter noticed he hadn't touched it and asked if there was anything wrong. The client explained no, that he made a mistake in ordering and thought he was getting something else. So the waiter asked if he would like another desert instead, to which the client politely refused, because he wanted to make sure the client was happy with his desert. So the service here was honest and I liked the waiters. My desert was kind of comical though. I ordered the tiramisu. Apparently they have their own house recipe which consists of a cup of blueberries covered in cream. I didn't care. I liked it anyway. And I liked the restaurant. I'd go back. Back into the car we headed west along the coast.










At the outskirts of Dinard we arrived in one of its little burroughs. It was much more calm and quaint than central Dinard and had some stores and things and a nice beach.








One of the little towns we passed through on our way was Saint-Briac, a former fisherman's village and a sea resort of inspiration for artists. It's a charming little place with lovely views but we just drove through and had a look since we wanted to see the coast in two neighborhing towns before dark. In hindsight I wish we had paid a visit because I know it's a charming little place with a historic old town with narrow alleys and clustered around a 17th century belltower. It's also reputed to be on one of the most scenic bays in Brittany, between river and sea with remarkable tides. As usual, the tourist office website is loaded with great info and it's even got a good English version so here is the link.

www.tourisme-saint-briac.fr/decouvrir.php

I only got a picture of the 19th century Château du Nessay.




I found a website with some good aerial photos of the château and village.

www.linternaute.com/mer-voile/littoral/photo/le-littoral-breton-vu-du-ciel/chateau-du-nessay-saint-briac.shtml





Note the rainbow below.



Now that I know I want to see Saint Briac I guess I'll just have to come back here again.

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Our next stop was a little peninsula with a town called Saint-Jacut-de-la-Mer. I loved this little town. A cental street cuts through the center of the old village with little cul-de-sacs lining it at right angles and the whole place is developed with charming old stone Breton houses. Saint-Jacut has deep connections to early Christianity in the region as an abbey of the towns namesake was founded here in the 5th century and is still here today, albeit without the 5th century buildings.




















On exiting the old village we arrived at The Abbey of Saint-Jacut-de-la-Mer.




And from there we drove to the scenic coastline at the end of the peninsula.

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After Saint-Jacut we made a quick detour through Saint-Cast-le-Guildo to have a look but didn't stop since it was getting dark. I felt a fire coming on.




Our last full day was a day devoted to countryside driving to charming villages. Our destination was a region west of us known as Le Trégor, roughly the area around Tréguier. It's about 25-30km east of the better known Côte de Granit Rose. To make time we took the main roads, making a couple brief stops until we arrived at our starting destination of Tréguier. One of our little detours took us through the village of Lanvollon.

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Our good luck streak with the weather finally came to an end on this our last full day of vacation, pretty much gray and occasionally rainy skies. It put a damper on my ability to get any good landscape photos but it didn't put a damper on our mood since we knew we would be visiting some lovely places so there was that to look forward to.










A little further on we noticed an icon on the map for a ruin with the word ''Temple'' writen next to it. We had no idea what to expect but if they marked it on the map it must be good. And who doesn't like a scenic set or ruins? We pulled into the tiny village of Lanleff.








And ahead on the right we've got our temple, and an unusual looking one at that.






What we were looking at was called The Temple of Lanleff, a circular chuch in the Romanesque style. Early archaeologists, intrigued by its circular form, mistook it for an ancient temple in honor of idols or the sun. It was in fact dedicated to The Virgin Mary. Nowadays experts believe it was built in the late 11th or early 12th century in imitation of The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

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Here we have arrived in Tréguier.




Tréguier is situated at the head of an estuary river and we parked next to the riverfront port. It was lunch time and we were hungry and there was a crêperie right next to where we parked so we went in. I think I remember we liked our crêpes and the place was in an old building with a fireplace and nice atmosphere. After lunch we started our stroll to see what we would see.




















The cathedral in Tréguier is counted among the most beautiful in Brittany and dates from the 12th to 15th centuries.

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Tréguier is another Petite Cité de Caractère and it certainly was living up to its billing during our walk. It's the historical capital of the Trégor region and I'll now give you a link to the regional tourist website for this area where you can learn about some of the villages and places of interest in the area. And it is also in English and another example of how great tourist office websites can be.

www.tregor-cotedajoncs-tourisme.com/en/attractions/


We didn't bother with a stop at the tourist office but if you go there you can get a map of the town that will outline the tourist trail and point out the various buildings, monuments and attractions. A number of noted Breton writers and artists have connections with Tréguier but none that most people have ever heard of. If you're smarter than me (good chance of that) then you might have heard of them. If you are planning a vacation in this region it makes an excellent base. The town is lively and large enough to have ample services, restaurants and amenities for tourists yet still retains the feel and atmosphere of a village. And it is very centrally located to have at equal distances the scenic Côte de Granit Rose (about 25-30km to the west) and the equally scenic but less famous Côte de Goëlo starting 13km to the east in the lovely port town of Paimpol. Finally, it is well positioned for exploring the charming inland villages and countryside. Dinan and Saint-Malo are still within driving distance at 1-1/2 hours and just under 2 hours respectively.

Tréguier was founded in the 6th century by Saint Tugdual, one of the seven founding saints of Brittany. Little is known of him, other than through legend, but after his arrival an agglomeration crowded around the monastery he founded and he was consacrated Bishop of the area in 542. He was the first Bishop in a historically important episcopal seat in Brittany up until The Revolution. Because of him the town was an important stop on a pilgrimage trail. The village was destroyed and abandoned during viking raids in the 9th century commanded by the famous viking Hasting, who spent the better part of 4 decades sacking and pillaging his way through some of the most famous places in France and Spain. The list of places this guy sacked and pillaged is long and impressive. He must have been fun to party with.

Later in history Tréguier suffered the typical ravages of The Breton Wars of Succession, The Hundred Years War and The Wars of Religion. Like in Dinan, a bunch of other stuff happened after this but I only like the parts of history with ancient legends and vikings so I'm stopping here. If you want to learn more about the history of Tréguier and what the town has to offer in terms of services and amenities then you can check its official website:

www.ville-treguier.fr/patrimoine-treguier/


There's a famous old traditional song about Tréguier called Sur le Pont de Tréguier. When the Mrs. was a young girl she used to annoy her parents with her incessant singing of this song which she had learned at school. Now she annoys me with it. Anyway, the lyrics recount a story where a girl is crying on a bridge and a young man asks her what is wrong. She explains that she dropped her ring in the river and would reward him with a kiss if he brought it back. The young man dives in the river and spies the ring. With a smile she encourages him to dive deeper, causing the young man to drown. From a distance the father of the young man watches the scene unfold and cries that this is the third son he has lost to this woman. And you thought the fake gold ring scam in Paris was bad? At least an unsuspecting tourist will only lose a couple of euros if they get suckered by that trick. Nobody drowns.

Let's continue with the visit.


















With our visit to Tréguier complete we got back into the car and headed into the country to begin our exploration. The next village we came to was La Roche Derrien, another Petite Cité de Caractère and here is its website, with the usual great information (but in French only):

www.larochederrien.com/

Like just about every town in this region it was sacked by Jean Montfort during The Wars of Succession who in turn was eventually defeated by Bertrand Duguesclin. Then other stuff happened. We arrived in the village and parked near the church, which dates back to the 13th century and is noted for its organ which came from Westminster Abbey.




It has several half-timbered houses dating from the 15th and 16th century. After this time it became the practice to construct buildings in stone.

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Below we see the Chapelle du Calvaire, which was built on an old feudal motte which was once the site of a donjon.




In the 19th century La Roche Derrien had developed a slum down by the river, known as Penn ar Pont, that was inhabited by a somewhat notorious population of ragpickers. Their quarter was reputed to be a veritable Court of Miracles.

They had their own language, called tunodo (Breton slang), and their own traditions and rituals. Their music led the uproars at the doors of the church during weddings and christenings. They wore a uniform of canvas trousers and blue jackets and would organize themselves at the bridge in a group of 100 men and attack all strangers who passed by. Not surprisingly, they had little contact with the rest of the population. The ''colony'' was engaged in the industry of rags. In the morning they would scour the country looking for rags, bones, scraps of skin mole and rabbit, bones, pig bristles, pony tails etc. They more or less gathered anything they found because that meant prestige in their community. They were proud of where they lived and didn't let anyone forget this.

However, they performed a useful economic role in recyling waste (nothing went unused) and because they traveled the countryside they also spread news and therefore usually found a welcome place at a table at mealtime.

La Roche Derrien was the birthplace of one Narcisse Quellien, a biographer of Breton customs, languages, folklore and traditions and he is considered sort of the father of the defense of Breton culture and heritage. In Paris he became the soul and backbone of The Celtic Dinner, a group of Celtic scholars who gathered in the capital. In 1902 in Paris he was run over and killed by a car driven by Agamennon Schliemann, son of the famous archaeologist who discovered Troy.

On Tuesday evenings at 5:30PM in the summer there are guided visits of the town if you'd like to discover more. I would imagine the tours are in French, however. You can stop in the town hall, however, and pick up a brochure to guide you through the tourist worthy places in town and also get a map to lead you on a pleasant walk into the pretty nearby countryside.














Since it was a gray and rainy day I didn't take pictures of the countryside but only of the villages we visited. The next tiny village we visited was called Runan. The attraction here is its parish enclosure church, which you can learn more about on the link to the regional tourist office websites:

www.pontrieuxcommunaute.com/Runan.asp

www.pontrieux.com/1-47-Runan.php

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Our final village visit of the day brought us to Pontrieux, yet another ho-hum Petite Cité de Caractère and a Ville Fleuri, which you can learn about by clicking on the link to the tourist office website:

www.pontrieux.com/

I'm feeling really lazy and don't feel like recounting all the history and things to do in Pontrieux so maybe instead I'll use the village as an example of how to search a town website and find out about what to see and do. You could browse the website and do this yourself but I'd like to illustrate it a bit more graphically. Maybe on your visit you'd like to sample some artisanal chocolate:

www.pontrieux.com/1-147-La-Ferme-Chocolat.php


How about canoeing or kayaking on the river (there's also badminton, tennis and paintball)?:

www.pontrieux.com/1-138-Canoe-Kayak.php

You can even do a quick guided tour on the river past the 50 restored lavoirs (old wash houses):

www.pontrieux.com/1-150-Promenades-en-barque.php


How about a little tour by horses pulling a covered wagon?:

www.pontrieux.com/1-152-Promenades-en-caleche.php


Or how about a little tour of the valley on a steam engine train? It runs in the summertime between Paimpol and Pontrieux:

www.pontrieux.com/1-153-Voyage-en-train-a-vapeur.php

Do you need a place to eat?:

www.pontrieux.com/1-42-Ou-manger-.php

Lodging anyone?:

www.pontrieux.com/1-67-Gites-2-3-personnes.php

Wanna learn how to speak Breton, or take a Breton dance course?:

www.pontrieux.com/1-155-Danses-Bretonnes.php


My point is that even the smallest towns worth visiting will have a tourist office website and it will be full of useful info to help you enjoy your visit. Speaking of visiting the town, let's do that.

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It was getting late so we called it a day and started heading back home. We were a bit hungry so just for the heck of it we decided we'd make a detour to the seaside fishing town/tourist resort of Saint-Quay-Portrieux. It was too dark to take pictures so all I got is this one of the harborfront.




And a photo of our delicious apple flambée in calvados crêpe with melted chocolate and a nice cup of Japanese tea.




And then home to the evening fire ritual.




The next morning it was time to pack up and head back to Paris. Before we left Erquy there was one last site we visited that we had been passing by all week. Just on the outskirts of Erquy is the Château de Bienassis.



The château dates from the 15th to 17th centuries. We couldn't visit since it is only open from June 20th to September 18th but apparently it is well preserved and maintained and in addition to the château you can visit its gardens, chapel and stables. Here is a link to the château website:

www.chateau-bienassis.com/index.php

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So that's the end of our vacation. Before I go I mentioned earlier that I was going to provide some tips for you in exploring this area so I guess I'll do that. Before I get into the specifics of this area I'll give you some general tips that will prepare you for exploring any region in France. I'm assuming everyone reading this is aware that they should get guidebooks for whatever region they plan on exploring. I like The Michelin Green Guides but choose whichever one(s) you like best. I must admit I haven't used a guidebook in ages. Before I go on vacation I do very little if any research. I pretty much rely exclusively on my Michelin maps to determine what places I would like to visit. These are the most important tool in my vacation toolbox. Once I've picked places from the map that look interesting I follow that up by googling tourist office websites, which by now you should realize contain a wealth of very specific and detailed information. If I find something I like I may do further general google searches but I think you get the idea. Another thing I do to see if a town/attraction might be worth visiting is google searches and look for photos of that town/attraction. If you are a regular poster on travel forums then you've probably seen me post my standard response about Michelin maps but for those who haven't seen it here are a few paragraphs to help prepare you to explore any region in France.

Get your hands on the Michelin maps. You want the ones of the scale 1:200,000 (regional maps) or 1:150,000 (departmental maps, more detailed, cover slighty less area) for whatever regions you visit. A nice feature of the 1:150,000 maps is they show the starred attractions in the corresponding Michelin Green guidebooks. The Michelin maps have icons for all kinds of historically/touristically interesting things such as châteaux, ruins, churches, abbeys, scenic view points, caves, Roman sites, megaliths, designated scenic roads and many other things. Usually when I'm exploring various regions in France I just look at the map and I am able to plan interesting and scenic drives just reading the map. For instance, I usually look for a designated scenic road, which are highlighted in green, and I especially look for towns with the historic church and/or château icon. I also try to make sure the route goes through as many small villages as possible. Usually putting all these things together I find interesting and scenic drives without even knowing where I am going and with no assistance from a guide book. Often these places are never mentioned in guidebooks and remain completely unknown to many tourists.

You can buy the Michelin maps from their website and here is a link to the page that shows all of the maps of France: tinyurl.com/4bt96ev

You could also buy them here in France but then you can't do research beforehand. The maps can be bought here in many places such as bookstores, news stands, magazine stores, larger supermarkets, department stores, hypermarkets and in the full service rest areas on the autoroutes, just to name a few.

You need good guidebooks for whatever region in France in which you will be traveling. I like The Michelin Green Guides. If you need restaurant info then get The Michelin Red Guides, which cover restaurants.

And speaking of Michelin, you can go to the website viamichelin.com and get info on drive times and distances, toll and fuel costs and suggested routes (i.e. scenic routes). The drive times given do not consider stops (fuel, food, bathrooms) nor do they consider bad weather and traffic.

Here is some other general advice for you. You should google some of the town/tourist office websites for any towns you may want to visit. You will find loads of info on these websites including hotel/accommodation and restaurant info as well as what to see and do in the area. Occasionally the websites have English versions. In doing a google search enter the name of your town followed by the words "site officiel" or "office de tourisme" and this will bring the town to the top of your search. Another thing I like to do to see if a town may be worth visiting is enter the town name in a google search followed by the word "photos".

So that is the standard advice I often provide on travel forums to help people prepare themselves. Now let me get on to specific advice about exploring the area near Dinan. I will also explain how you use the Michelin maps to assist you. When you notice a place on the map that is labelled in bold lettering this means one of/or two things. It is likely indicating that this place is a capital of its administrative district. But it can also be an indication that a place might be of interest to visit. The reason being that if it is an administrative capital it is probably of some importance and has also probably been an important place for a long time. Meaning there's probably a lot of old stuff there and probably some significant history as well. The bold lettering might also be an indication of population size but sometimes it is truly just highlighting a place of interest. I've seen many places on the map indicated with bold lettering that are neither an administrative capital nor particularly populous. This is not a foolproof method for finding an interesting place so make sure you do appropriate google searches to be sure. But it is part of a multi-step approach to find an interesting place.

In regards to tourist office websites it can be said that any place in France that is worthy of tourism is going to have a website. I explained earlier how to google a tourist office website for any particular town. Often times the smaller towns don't have their own websites but they are listed on the regional tourist office websites. If you look at your map and see a smaller town indicated with bold lettering and next to the town name is the letter C inside a circle this is indicating that the town is the chef lieu de canton (chief place in its district). Chances are good that once you google this town it will have links to info about all the neighboring towns that are worth a visit.

Here is a photo from my Michelin Atlas. Notice the town called Matignon and you'll see it is a chef lieu de canton.



Notice the megalith icon I highlighted in yellow; That is the allée couverte we visited on our way to Dinan. Notice also the designated scenic roads highlighted in green in Saint-Jacut-de-la-Mer and Saint-Briac-sur-Mer. We drove on all of those roads.

So I googled the tourist office website for the town and here it is:

www.pays-de-matignon.net/

One thing I noticed is that many tourist office websites in this region have English versions, probably due to the number of visitors they get from the British Isles. But in the website above you'll notice there are links to all the touristically interesting towns you can find within a 10-15km radius from Matignon. Really, you've got to dig into the websites and you'll just find so much incredibly useful info. I'm amazed at how infrequently tourist office websites are mentioned as good sources of travel info on the travel forums.

I'll turn my attention now to actual tourist offices, another vastly underutilized travel ressource. The first thing I do when I go any town or villages is head to the tourist office and at a minimum get a map of that town so I know where I am going. The local maps usually indicate points of interest and may even have a designated tourist trail. However, I usually scour all the free brochures and pamphlets on offer. Often this info is available in guidebooks and on the web but just as frequently I find a ot of obscure stuff that's not in guidebooks or on the web. Especially useful can be maps of hiking and biking trails. If I'm interested in one of those activities but I see no brochures I ask at the counter. Since sometimes they might charge a few euros for these maps they are not on display. And if you have any sort of general questions about food, lodging etc. just ask.

When I arrived at Erquy I went to the tourist office and got a bunch of brochures but the best thing I got was the Carte Touristique de Bretagne (Tourist Map of Brittany). The map covers all of Brittany and has a plethora of icons designating all kinds of places to visit and what kinds of activities are available. Here's a picture.




Here's a close-up of the area around Dinan. Notice all the icons.




Here's the legend for the icons.






So to sum up, my entire vacation was planned with nothing more than the Michelin map and the Brittany Tourist Map and I did no research for my trip prior to arrival. Of course I live here and it's easy for me to travel like this so I would suggest before you spend lots of money traveling to France that you still get your guidebooks and do your research. But I like traveling spontaneously so this style suits me well.

Let's get on to some of the important website links that will assist you in planning your vacation in this area. I suppose a primary concern of most people is what will the weather be like. Here is the link for the regional Brittany weather service. Just click on ''Prévisions'' and select which department in Brittany you would like to research.

www.meteo-bretagne.fr/

Weather comes with no guarantees and I can tell you from experience that weather prediction in France, especially northern France, is pretty much just a guess. You're likely to be as accurate flipping a coin. If you check 5-6 weather services it's quite possible you'll see 5-6 slightly differing forecasts. I pretty much ignore any predictions more than 2-3 days in advance.

Okay, here is a list of tourist office websites you'll find useful in planning your vacation.

Here are some regional/departmental websites.

General Brittany Websites:

www.brittanytourism.com/


Côtes d'Armor:

www.cotesdarmor.com/


Val d'Arguenon:

www.valdarguenon.fr/


Côte de Granit Rose:

www.cotedegranitrose.fr/


Côte d'Emeraude:

www.terres-emeraude-tourisme.com/


Île-et-Villaine:

office-tourisme-bretagne.ref7dir.com/office-tourisme-ille-et-vilaine.htm


Morbihan:

www.morbihan.com/


Finistère:

www.finisterebrittany.com/


Now I'll focus on tourist office websites in the region I explored. I'm covering a pretty broad area more or less from Fougères in the east to the Côte de Granit Rose in the west.


Cities:

Rennes: www.tourisme-rennes.com/


Fougères: www.ot-fougeres.fr/accueil


Dinan: www.dinan-tourisme.com/

www.paystouristiquedinan.com/images/PTD_2009.pdf


Dinard: www.ot-dinard.com/


Saint-Brieuc: www.baiedesaintbrieuc.com/


Guingamp: www.ot-guingamp.org/


Saint-Malo: www.saint-malo-tourisme.com/


Lannion: www.ot-lannion.fr/



Here are some websites for some of the more notable places.


Mont-Saint-Michel: www.ot-montsaintmichel.com/index.htm?lang=en


Lamballe: www.lamballe-tourisme.com/


Paimpol and the Côte de Goëlo: www.paimpol-goelo.com/


Tréguier and its environs: www.tregor-cotedajoncs-tourisme.com/


Perros-Guirec and Ploumanach: www.perros-guirec.fr/


Here are some websites for some chef lieu de canton, which will also include nearby towns.

Jugon-les-Lacs: www.jugon-les-lacs.com/en/home.html


Antrain:http://www.tourisme-paysdantrain.com/web/


Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier: www.ot-fougeres.fr/accueil/decouverte_de_fougeres_et_son_pays/carte_du_pays_de_fougeres/st_aubin_du_cormier


Combourg: www.combourg.org/


Dol-de-Bretagne: www.pays-de-dol.com/


Pontorson: www.ville-pontorson.com/#


Matignon: www.pays-de-matignon.net/


Saint-Cast-le-Guildo: www.saintcastleguildo.fr/

www.saintcastleguildo.fr/documents/guide-touristique-saint-cast.pdf


Moncontour: www.tourisme-moncontour.com/


Here is some info about the ranking system of interesting towns and villages in Brittany. The best way to find charming towns and villages in Brittany is to understand that there is an official ranking system of historically/touristically interesting towns/villages in the region. Searching the websites mentioned above will yield loads of info about such places. Here is a rundown of the ranking system:

ville d'art et histoire – village of art and history
ville historique – historic village
petite cité de caractère – small town of character
commune du patrimoine rural – rural patrimony village
plus beau village de France – one of the most beautiful villages of France

To find some of these places on the internet here is a useful link:
www.cites-art.com/les-petites-cites-de-caractere/visiter-les-petites-cites-de-caractere

Or you can try these:
petite cité de caractère:
www.frenchentree.com/france-brittany-tourism-leisure/displayarticle.asp?id=8051

plus beau village: www.villagesdefrance.free.fr/

ville d'art et histoire: www.vpah.culture.fr/france/france.htm

That is all I have to say so you are now all free to go. Goodbye.

[Belladonna]

;D Just when I had been thinking "Gee i wish Bruce would do a report" here it is - YAY! Spending a -17 degree day (sorry American friends, don't know how to convert to Fahrenheit ) bundled up reading your report and enjoying the pictures makes the cold a little more bearable . And thanks for including the pictures of the maps - very helpful and useful for future planning

[Jody]

Thanks
Bruceand Veronique, enjoyed the report and pictures. Itbrought back many lovely memories of the tmes we have spent in Brittany

[janetnj]

Thanks Mr/Mrs FMT. What a great report.

I don't think I would have climbed that tower at Fort-la-Latte. I got queasy just reading about it.

Can't wait to read about your next adventure.

[frenchmystiquetour]

Belladonna - Hope the report kept you nice and that you're now well prepared for your future trip to Brittany.

Jody - Always happy to bring back good memories. I'll keep trying to bring back more.

janetnj - Even I felt a bit uneasy climbing the tower. See you again after my next adventure.

[Belladonna]

thanks Bruce. It is now -40 degrees here with the wind and your report can only do so much so I am considering setting my furniture on fire ;D. WHY DO I LIVE HERE??