Written by Rod.

The journey to Dinan was largely uneventful, though there was the occasional very heavy shower. However, the last 600 metres or so, in Dinan’s streets, choked with cars and copious Christmas foot traffic, took some patient negotiation. Still. We made it and were soon very comfortable in our apartment. After the fireworks (see previous post), we found a Creperie just around the corner from our place and enjoyed a quick and easy dinner.

Dinan is actually west of Dover yet is an hour ahead, being on continental Europe. So, the sunrise is quite late. Consequently, we sleep in. We try to do some washing, but the machine is not keen to bring it’s A game. We keep trying to do different cycles to dry our clothes, to little avail. As a result of all of the above, we are not out to explore the delightful streets of Dinan until midday. We head to the visitor’s centre just in time to find it is closed for lunch and will reopen in 90 minutes. No matter; we push on to the Chateau de Dinan, which is basically next door. Again, there is no access for an hour or so. Never mind – there is plenty more to see on foot and it is a lovely day for a walk. (So far we have been pretty lucky with the weather.)

 

We follow the ramparts around some of the border of the Centre Historique, taking in some breath-taking views and encountering equally breath-taking vertical drops.

The path following the ramparts leads us to Basilique St. Saviour, a Roman Catholic church from the 12^th century. It is a beautiful town to wander around.

Back in the apartment, we play some Yahtzee. I only mention this because Belinda manages 3 yahtzees in the first game for a score of 509!

Another good night’s sleep, though it must be mentioned that the church bells do stir one’s slumber at regular intervals from about 7 am. This time, we are on the road by 10 am, on our way to Le Mont St Michel. This monumental construction (Abbey/Monastery/Great halls/ordinary souvenir shops) sits atop an island just off the coast, about an hour’s drive from our digs. It looms out of the distance, dominating the horizon, a long way out.

After we park and walk (about 3 km) to the entrance, we can’t help but take another photo every few hundred metres; it’s so impressive. It’s an energetic walk up several winding stairways to the entrance, but it’s well worth the effort.

It’s a labyrinthine collection of rooms, arches, vaults, crypts and terraces. The view from these terraces is just as stunning as the view of the structure.

We complete our visit with a lovely lunch at (yet another) Creperie. By about 3 pm we hop on a (free!) shuttle bus back to the car park, where we find a queue of about 100 tourists waiting to hop on the shuttle to head out to the island. We congratulate ourselves on our early arrival.

Back to our apartment to prepare for Christmas day and wait to see if Santa can manage to find Hamish and reward him for being such a good boy! He’s prepared for success though, as his stocking was packed weeks ago.