France
Lanvallay

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    • Day 13

      Dinan an der La Rance

      May 5, 2023 in France ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

      Schnell waren wir startklar und auch die Ausfahrt aus St. Malo ging trotz einigem Verkehr ohne größere Probleme gut voran. Nach gut einer Stunde Fahrt und wieder einigen engen Sträßchen waren wir gegen 12 Uhr am Campingplatz "Municipal" in Dinan angekommen.

      Da wir im Ort zu Mittag essen wollten, liefen wir bald los in die Stadt. Unser Campingplatz Betreiber hatte uns gleich mit kleinen Stadtplänen und mündlichen Informationen versehen, wie wir am schnellsten in das historische Zentrum des Städtchens gelangen versorgt und so waren wir auch schnell - durch einen kleinen Park - an der stark befestigten Stadtmauer angekommen.

      Es fing an zu regnen und wir hatten gleich Glück, denn nach wenigen Metern fanden wir ein kleines Lokal für das Mittagessen. Das Restaurant "La Duchesse Anne" erwies sich als absoluter Glücksgriff. Der Chef des Hauses hatte einige Zeit in Deutschland gelebt und gearbeitet, sprach ganz gut Deutsch und noch besser Englisch und so konnte er uns exzellent in der Getränke und Essensfragen beraten. Wir speisten vorzüglich Spargelsuppe, Frittierten Fisch, Hühnchen mit Kartoffeln und Gemüse und Pudding mit Vanille Sauce, tranken dazu den leckeren Hauswein und zum Abschluß einen Café und Calvados. Super lecker!

      Danach liefen wir durchs mittelalterliche Dorf und bestaunten die tollen, teilweise aus dem 1. Jahrhundert stammenden Häuser. Absolut sehenswert und eine klare Empfehlung für eine Besichtigung und einen Besuch bei einem Aufenthalt in der Bretagne.

      Nach einiger Zeit liefen wir die nochmals sehenswerte Gasse mit teilweise 30% Gefälle hinunter zum Fluss Rance, wo wir einen erneuten Regenschauer in einem kleinen Café abwarteten. Danach gings wieder einen kleinen, felsigen Weg hinauf in die Stadt und zurück zu unserem kleinen Campingplatz.

      https://www.komoot.de/tour/1106865199?ref=aso
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    • Day 39

      France, Dinan

      July 16, 2017 in France ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      We left Amiens in plenty of time to have a nicely paced drive to Dinan to meet the host at our cottage between 2.30 and 3.30. What we got was an absolutely bloody nightmare of a drive, not realising that with Bastille Day on Friday everyone, and I mean everyone, in France had decided to hit the road for a long weekend and they all heading in the same direction as us. Every other autobahn and autostrada we have driven on have a very modern and efficient approach to collecting tolls - you either buy a toll pass and stick it on your windscreen and get zapped as you through under a camera or, as in Germany they're free. Not so in France. Apparently, and i don't know how true this is, the different departments in France couldn't agree on a national system as they were all fearful of loosing money so there are tolls booths at the beginning and end of small stretches of autostrada. You have to pay, or get a ticket for the next stretch at each of these points. An extra two hours was added to our trip. We finally arrived in Dinan and after a bit of confusion (sometimes the GPS is really bloody unreliable) we found the cottage and it is delightful. Right by the edge of the river and close to the Port of Dinan. There is quite a bit of history to this town and we made the decision to sleep in and just explore Dinan on our first full day. Dinan was originally a trade village and an important strategic and defensive post back in the 1500's. It is known for its half timbered houses, well preserved castle wall and castle and keep, abbey and medieval town. It is quite steep (very) leading up from the port through narrow little cobbled streets. It is also very heavily tourist -y here, most from over the water in England. Man they can whinge, but enough of that, I could go for ages on conversations I've overheard and then I'd start to sound whingey. We walked up to the castle, walked the wall, went into the castle, and were lucky enough to be here for the annual Harp Festival. I can see why it never really took off as an instrument. I'm pretty sure there wouldn't have been much heading banging or mosh pits going on back in the day. Had a great lunch at a restaurant serving sea food given we're only about 10k's from the coast just about everyone serves moules (mussels) at the least. Tomorrow we are off to the second most visited attraction in France - the Mont St Michel. We have been advised to get there early to avoid the hordes. Can't wait - this is on my bucket list.Read more

    • Day 40

      France, Mont St Michel

      July 17, 2017 in France ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

      Well, we certainly weren't disappointed. The advice had been to get there early as it is apparently the 2nd most visited tourist attraction in France, and so looking at 50k drive we left about 9am. The forecast had been for a fine day of 27 degrees but when we left it was a very foggy 19. It is quite well organised - you arrive at a large car park with visitors centre and can walk the 2.5k's to the Mont or take a bus type thing or horse and cart. We walked. All the better to take some absolutely stunning photos. We arrived at low tide so got the full vista of the Mont surrounded by sand. And it really is everything I expected it to be. Once you get there it is quite small, all narrow winding cobbled streets leading to a very steep straight up hill walk to the abbey which has had pride of place at the top of the rock since about the 12th century. There is some outstanding art work in quirky places throughout the abbey - I particularly liked the big gold dragons foot gripping the top of one of the battlements, and the large eagle trapped in a stone cloister. There is not much village to speak of, what was there is now a conglomerate of very touristy shops and some food places. Roge spied a lovely looking restaurant on our way in and very fortuitously booked us a table for later. Who would have thought it would get so crazy busy?? It was a good thing we were ready to leave when the crowds were at there worst. The fog had cleared and it had got quite hot by the time we had to walk back to the car - we got a whole different set of pic's on the return trip.Read more

    • Day 41

      France, St Malo

      July 18, 2017 in France ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

      St Malo is a very large fortified town about 30k's down the coast from where we are at Dinan. Dinan is on the river Rance and this used to be a major thoroughfare for transporting fresh goods to St Malo. At our end it is quite small, at the St Malo end, the exact opposite. St Malo is a modern day thriving commercial port, and this sits quite comfortably with the historic part of town. The fortified wall is impressive, dates from the 14thC and is largely still intact, particularly on the seaward side. We had a lazy start to the day, leaving Dinan about 9.30am. It was already quite hot and 31 degrees by the time we arrived in St Malo. This is the hottest day we've had since leaving Lake Como. And, as was the case there, it seems every hot day has to finish in a thunderstorm. It arrived a whole lot earlier though. We were watching it build most of the day and just got tickets for a water taxi to take us across the inlet to another town, Dinard. It was starting to look pretty serious so we made the decision to skip the ride and go onto a Chateau that we had planned to see. Half way there we revised again and went straight home, driving most of the way through it. Luckily for us we managed to see a fair bit of old St Malo - a town now high on my list of great towns. Roge hasn't seemed to mind the early return home - he gets a whole afternoon to watch Le Tour!Read more

    • Day 42

      France: river, village, chateau

      July 19, 2017 in France ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

      Started the day with a nice little trip to the station to book our tickets from Nantes to Paris for Friday. Seemed like it'd be much easier this way and we'd be guaranteed a seat. We have to drive to Nantes, about 2 hours away to leave the car. Hoping it all goes like clock work....buying the tickets did, Roge is a bloody expert at this kind of thing. Back down to the Port of Dinan for a boat ride up the river Rance. An hour and half later we had been through a lock, had seen a really nice little village called Lehon that we plan on visiting and learned some interesting history about the river and this area. Roger had found an interesting looking village only a short way from us (the one we wanted to visited the day of the storm) and so we decided to go there, and then onto a chateau in a nearby town. The village, Dol de Bretagne, is known for its massive and very old Cathedral. I have to say I've seen a lot, inside and out, and this one has to be one of my favourites. I'm not much interested in the activities that go on inside, but the architecture. This one was something else. Originally from Roman times, burnt down in 1203, and rebuilt 3 centuries ago in gothic style, it has two impressive towers. Well, one is impressive. The other tower was never completed as the story goes that the devil dismantled overnight whatever construction work had been done during the day. Interestingly, this Cathedral was also part of the towns defences and has crenelated canon walls. We walked around the town, the usual very old medieval houses, some half timbered. Just lovely.
      Onto the Chateau. I have to say, I was surprised. Didn't find out until we leaving that the Chateau is the Arthurian legendary castle of Lancelot, it rests in Merlin the Wizard's magical forest of Broceliande and guards the mystical lake of the sorceress and fairy Queen Viviane the lady of the lake. And what a Chateau it was. It was built in the 11th and 12th century and had a connection with the Cathedral we had just been too. The Chateau is also famous for being the childhood home of Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand. It was completely trashed during the revolution and left unattended for one hundred years. It remains under private ownership of descendants of the original family and is only open by escorted tour. I had forgotten how boring those tours are when they're all in French. Nonetheless, a very interesting and remarkable Chateau, with a few interesting stories. Apparently back in the day it was the "thing" to include a black cat in the walls of any new section of construction (a living one) to chase out bad spirits. When undertaking some recent reno's they uncovered the mummified body of one poor kitty. The believed some weird shit back in medieval days. The Chateau is in 62 acres of parkland with a magnificent tree lined driveway- I imagine it was heavily forested back then. Would have looked fantastic.
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    • Day 43

      France, Bretagne, coast

      July 20, 2017 in France ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      Since it's our last day here we decided to explore some more of the coast since we're so close to it, and it's so beautiful. We both love a French market and hadn't caught one yet. Dinan's was today so we headed up there early. And I mean up there. We are located right down by the river port and Dinan proper is right at the top of a very steep hill. As expected, the market didn't disappoint, but I have some questions...why can't we get garlic like that in Australia, why do roasting chickens smell so damn good at French market? The market is held in the old town square, surrounded by beautiful old buildings, selling lots of yummy fresh food. I just love it that you can go to a market and get your fruit and veg, meat and fish, cheese. There are no shops selling this produce in towns. Everyone waits for, and shops at the weekly market. From the market we headed west to Cap Frehel. There is an old lighthouse on a very rugged piece of coast. It was quite a walk in and very windy. It was/is a key navigational point for St Malo - the coast is very rocky around here. There is an old lighthouse here from the 1700's next to one built in the 1946 as the one previously had been blown up by the Germans. From there around the coast a few k's to Fort Latte which has been a fortified headland since about the 12th century. For the life of me I just don't get this one. The coast is really rocky here with big cliffs and a beach just around the corner. No invaders would attempt to come ashore at this rocky cliff face, until of course you build a fort and then they all want in. There was nothing to protect. Makes no sense to me. The fort itself was quite interesting, draw bridge, dungeons, privately owned (how does that even happen?), beautifully maintained, great views. Couldn't get a latte!

      We missed visiting Dinard when we were at St Malo so decided to head there today - same bit of coast, just on a bit further. Drove around and around and around, couldn't find a park and didn't see anything that would encourage us to stop so decided to press on to Cancale which we had heard great things about. It didn't disappoint. A beautiful side town with a fabulous selection of seafood restaurants along the shoreline. For those of you who have missed the food photos check out today's lunch photo- I think you'll be impressed. We were. We both liked this place soooo much, could easily come back here for an extended visit. After lunch, straight into a bar with a telly so Roge could watch the last of today's Le Tour. Tomorrow....Paris. Yipeee!!'m
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    • Day 7

      Biketour nach Dinan (Bretagne)

      July 11, 2019 in France ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

      Dinan [dinɑ̃] ist eine Stadt im Westen Frankreichs und Unterpräfektur des Département Côtes-d’Armor mit 14.222 Einwohnern (Stand 1. Januar 2016). Diese bretonische Stadt ist von einem beeindruckenden Ring an Stadtmauern umgeben. Strategisch für den Verkehr zwischen der Normandie und der nördlichen Küste der Bretagne gelegen, wurde Dinan überwiegend auf einem Hügel erbaut. Die Altstadt liegt etwa 75 m über dem Fluss Rance, der nach Norden fließt und zwischen Saint-Malo und Dinard in den Ärmelkanal mündet. Dinan stellte lange Zeit den nördlichsten Punkt zum Überqueren der Rance und ihres breiten Mündungsdeltas dar. Durch den Bau des Canal d’Ille-et-Rance wurde eine schiffbare Verbindung mit der Hauptstadt Rennes hergestellt.Read more

    • Day 2

      Le Loft in Lanvalley

      April 18, 2022 in France ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

      In Lanvalley am Port de Dinan beziehe ich für 2 Wochen diese schnuckelige Wohnung im Dachgeschoss eines - sehr - alten Hauses an der Rance. Meine Hosts sind von England hier her gezogen, was mir bei der Verständigung sehr hilft. Ich verstehe die Bretonen zwar sehr gut, aber sprechen ist ... verbesserungswürdig.
      Der Ausblick aus "Le Loft" auf den kleinen malerischen Ort ist bezaubernd. Ich fühle mich, wie in einen historischen Film gefallen
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Lanvallay, Lanvalae

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