Dinan

Travel Guru Rick Steeves really says it best…

”In France, if you have time for only one stop in Brittany, make it the ancient riverfront city of Dinan. It’s about four hours west of Paris by train and one from Mont St-Michel, but it seems a world away. You’ll awake to the sound of roosters.

Dinan’s hefty ramparts bundle its half-timbered and cobbled quaintness into Brittany’s best medieval town center. While it has a touristic icing — plenty of crêperies, shops pedaling Brittany kitsch and colorful flags — it is also clearly a work-a-day town filled with locals who take pride in their Breton culture. Music stores, for instance, sell more Celtic music than anything else. It’s hard to imagine that this music was forbidden as late as the 1980s. In fact, in the recent past, a child would lose her French citizenship if christened with a Celtic name. The animosity started in 1491, when Brittany’s Duchess Anne was forced to marry the French king and feisty Brittany was forced to become part of France. Today the locals — many with red hair and freckles — are free to wave their flag, sing their songs and speak their language (there’s even a Breton TV station and radio station).

Dinan isn’t about museums, castles or other must-sees. The attraction is the town itself, delightfully preserved because it escaped the bombs of World War II. To go local, try the specialties: galettes (crêpes) and cidre — alcoholic apple cider served in bowls.”

We did go local and had cider in bowl, oysters, and lots and lots of mussels! This area of France is gorgeous and one that I would like to spend more time discovering.

Doesn’t it look like Harry Potter would hang out here?

We loved the leaning buildings and the cobblestone streets.

Mussels in Beer!

Cider of Dinan and Mussels!!! Yum!!!!

Cider!

The sweet port right outside of Dinan