Bretagne -- A visit to Dinan and St. Malo

When we planned our trip to Paris, we knew we wanted so see a couple of other places because this would be the only chance Mom and Pop would make it to France.  Going to Normandy was a given.  Because we had so much fun on our trip to Ireland, I thought it would be nice to visit Brittany (Bretagne in French).  This area has a common Celtic ancestry like Ireland and Scotland and many people still speak the Breton language in addition to French.  I found another personal tour from the same company I used for the Normandy tour (Link Paris).  We took the train from Paris to St. Malo -- the TGV train which can reach speeds upward of 175 mph.  I'm not sure if we went that fast or not, but it was very apparent that the scenery was moving by pretty fast.  Our driver/guide Mark met us for the day's touring at the St. Malo train station.  There were two other people with us.

Atop the rampart in St. Malo--overlooking the English Channel

St. Malo is a port city on the English Channel.  Multiple ferries run between St. Malo and Portsmouth, England.  The old central part of St. Malo is walled--surrounded by ramparts in a roughly octagonal shape.  At one-time, St. Malo was an island, but a permanent causeway connection was constructed in the 19th century.  The city was almost 80% destroyed during the liberation of France in 1944.  However, the City was painstakingly rebuilt with what the locals called a "heritage-conscious reconstruction design."  Indeed it was difficult to see what was original and what was "new" as it was blended very well.  We walked along the top of the wall around the city and then wandered it's narrow cobblestone streets.  St. Malo is very tourist oriented these days (not just with us Americans) as many French and other Europeans come here for vacation and/or own second homes here.

Standing in the Rue du Petit Fort in Dinan

The other stop on our Brittany tour was the city of Dinan.  Dinan's architecture is very medieval as it traces its roots back to the 11th and 12th centuries.  Because it is further inland than St. Malo and not considered of strategic importance during World War II, it was spared the damage of the war and the architecture is original and well-preserved.   The River Rance runs through Dinan and we entered the city on foot at the river and steadily walked uphill on narrow cobblestone streets admiring the great architecture.  One of the features of buildings is that the footprint of the first floor is smaller than the upper floors, which create overhangs.  This was due to the buildings being taxed on the square footage of the main floor--so they made them smaller.

Mark gave us overviews of each town and suggestions for what to see, but then we were on our own to explore which we liked.  We could take our own pace to explore, stop and browse in the shops, and soak up the ambience.  The crowds were few -- unlike the hustle and bustle of Paris -- so it was nice to get a break and enjoy the French countryside.