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Published: October 4th 2012
Street in the old part of Dinan
Looking up to La Tour de l'Horloge (the clock tower)For the first time ever, our B&B hosts sat down with us at breakfast. Claudine and Yves were genuinely interested in hearing about us and were also very interesting in themselves. What's more, they were very happy to help us improve our French, for which we were very grateful. Claudine is a retired teacher of English so the lessons were of the highest standard!
We spent the morning exploring the old town and walking the ramparts. Unfortunately, it started raining (for the first time since Paris!) so we took shelter in a
Créperie and were forced to eat
crépes and coffee!
We had already decided to leave our visit to
Le Mont St Michel to the later part of the day to avoid the massive crowds. This proved to be a good plan, as nearly everyone was leaving as we arrived. There is a free shuttle bus service from the HUGE carpark in
La Caserne – which is the closest you can get by car. We decided, however to take the 20 minute-walk so we could enjoy the spectacular views of
Le Mont from the approach road. You enter the walled enclosure into the village at the base of
the
Mont onto the
Grand Rue. This once lovely narrow road, lined with 15
th and 16
th century buildings, climbs upwards towards the small
Église Paroissiale St-Pierre. It’s such a shame then, that it has been spoiled by the over abundance of tourist shops that line it. Once you get past the shops, however, the place really is amazing. It began as a small hermitage consecrated to the Archangel
Michel in 708 AD, and developed into a major pilgrimage centre in the 11th century. It is an extraordinary feat of mediaeval engineering, as the abbey was built above rather than on top of the mount, resting on four giant pillars; the village grew around the base later. The only disadvantage of arriving at the end of the day is that the Abbey itself was closed to visitors. Still, we’d rather that than being jam-packed in with the hordes – and there was still plenty to see. A little foot-sore, we decided to hitch a ride with the shuttle bus back to the car.
Claudine and Yves had recommended a few restaurants in
Dinan, so we decided to try one.
Le Léonie was the closest to ‘home’. The food seemed to
us to be modernised versions of traditional
Breton cuisine, which we really liked (although Ali dodged the tripe stuffing in her rabbit!).
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