A Dani in Dinan: Playing Tourist in Bretagne

Last week, I was hit very suddenly by that pesky ailment called the Travel Bug. In order to cure said disease, I made the spontaneous decision to purchase a bus ticket headed north to a city in Bretagne called Dinan, and from Dinan take another bus to St. Malo on the coast. While Dinan does not belong to my beloved département of Île-et-Vilaine, it looked really, really pretty on the tourist website, and my friend-down-the-hall Antoine is from the area and told me it was quite lovely. 

Dinan is north and west of Rennes, whereas St Malo is north and east of Dinan!

Also... St. Malo = ocean. And oceans are awesome because they have lots of cool fish in them. 

So.... why the heck not???

My bus left the main gare at 11 am Friday morning, so around 10 o'clock I left my university residence hall by myself with a tiny REI daypack stuffed with two days' worth of snacks, my transit tickets and a copy of Des Fleurs Pour Algernon (translated from the English original and just as beautiful a story). I also treated myself to the biggest coffee I have had in Europe since landing in Ireland in August. 

Woah!! Who would have guessed that you could find a tall-sized drink in this country?!?!

I arrived in Dinan around 12 pm after spending the ride reading Des Fleurs Pour Algernon and watching endless fields of corn pass by outside the window. The afternoon sun casted orange tones on the sleepy, fairytale-like town that I could not believe was real. Everywhere I looked, I found beauty -- Dinan is a city that is timeless, and yet, at the same time, heavily influenced by a rich historical past.

 

Looking out over the Rance. 

Slowly, I made my way up the hill into the center city, where I first explored the Chateau of Dinan, a magnificent structure that was first built in the fourteenth century and since then has become a museum and historical monument.

A damp, eerie tomb built into the batiments of the Chateau. 

I spent much time in Dinan climbing tight, winding staircases such as this one. 

View from the top of the Chateau.

After leaving the Chateau, I spent hours walking through the cobblestone streets of the city. 

My new friend, the model.

At the top of the infamous Rue de Jerzual. 

A conglomerate of crêperies and restaurants in center city. 

 After a while, I decided to stop in a local café to eat this magnificent creation: 

Tarte au caramel beurre salé avec des noix. Yum. 

Eventually, I decided to climb up the clocktower in the center of town to see the view. 

Tour de l'Horloge. 

Climbing up the stairs to the clock... 

The tower, unsurprisingly, did not fail to give me the view I was looking for. But great views don't seem to be in short supply here, anyway.  

The rest of the day was spent exploring the two main churches in the city, walking along the Promenade de la Duchesse Anne, people-watching in the English Garden, and taking a quick jaunt in the neighboring hills. As it was getting to be later in the evening and I had to find my hostel before the night fell, I slowly made my way back down the Rue de Jerzual, through the main archway, and followed the river to my hostel situated a fair distance into the woods. 

I spent the evening swapping travel stories for hours with Eddie the Irishman, an incredible 65-year old man who has basically traveled the entire world and who was staying at the same hostel for the night. This week was the end of his six-month tour of Europe, and Tuesday he was headed back home to Dublin. 

After saying good night to Eddie the Irishman, I fell asleep under a massive pile of blankets (four, to be exact) with jeans and a jacket on... and I was still freezing. I guess that comes as no surprise, considering the hostel used to be an old water mill and hardly has what we would consider modern insulation!!

Saturday, September 27th

I left the hostel bright and early to catch my bus to Dinan, the morning mist still clinging to the trees and the river as still as glass.

 

Just as I emerged from the top of the Rue de Jerzual, the sun climbed its way over the hills and shone down on the rooftops of the city. The only semblance of human life in the road was the sound of the local inhabitants unlocking their windows to let in the fresh morning air and the soft smell of freshly baked bread drifting from the nearby bakery. 

In our modern, industrial lives, I find that it is very rare to happen upon those places where your soul feels utterly at peace, as if you could stay in that one place and simply be content forever. Unattached from the noise and bustle of contemporary life, Dinan was a little piece of infinity in a world that always seems to have a schedule, a place to be, a chore to do. It is poetry in a landscape of "how-to" guidebooks and technical manuals, a city of tranquility, inspiration and romantic notions.

(When I returned home late Saturday evening, I told my friend, Antoine, how beautiful I thought his hometown was. He laughed, shrugged, and told me, "I spent my whole life there. I'm used to it!"

I shook my head and responded, "That's impossible.")

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By 10 in the morning I had made it to St. Malo, a lovely tourist trap situated on the English channel chalk-full of..... the English!

Charles Trenet's song La Mer immediately comes to mind. 

Aww thanks, I love you too, old stone wall!

While I was not as taken with St. Malo as I was with Dinan -- like I said, tourist-y -- it was still a beautiful city. Home to celebrated navigator/pirate Jacques Cartier, St. Malo played an important part as naval base and trading center in the past. 

A massive seagull attacking Fort National... oh wait. 

After exploring the city, walking along the battlements, eating a fabulous gateau de Breton and looking at seashells in the Monde du Coquillage, I decided to leave city center and kick back at the Grand Aquarium. 

Surrounded by screaming children, I took my time looking at all of the bizarr-o creatures and learning the different names of fish in French. 

Sting rays are awesome. 

Un requin!

Méduse!!

After an hour and a half at the aquarium, I hopped on the train back to Rennes.... and voilà!! Happy for me, I survived my very first weekend of traveling alone in Bretagne.

It was so nice to be able to get away for a while. Since arriving in Rennes, I've had little time by myself, and my trip to Dinan and St. Malo gave me the opportunity to check back in with myself and do a bit of soul-searching (hooray for travel clichés!!). Plus, my ability to just say "screw it" and get out of town on the weekends is about to go away... I was just assigned a 20-minute exposé (presentation) on the year 1848 in France and its historical relevance that I have to give in three weeks. In French. 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. 

I haven't even had to do a 20-minute presentation in ENGLISH, let alone French. 

And the anxiety begins.

No matter, I am planning on taking as many weekend trips as possible during my time here to explore all the major locations in Bretagne and the rest of France, so stay tuned for other travel posts and future updates on my life abroad!

With that, I say bonne soirée to you all! Have a great week. <3

D