2006 Letter from DINAN: Our next stop after Rennes was Dinan, which is down the road apiece, literally. Dinan is a walled city in Brittany, and according to our guidebooks, a gem including lots of 15th and 16th century half-timbered buildings, and a wall and great for walking around. We agree. We really like Dinan.
Our original intention was to stay for two nights, so we could attend the open-air market on the morning of the second day. But when we found the campground and asked about bus service, we were told there isn't any. On Wednesday, we could just drive into the center area and park in the central square, but on Thursday, the parking lot becomes the open-air market. No place for us.
We did drive into town on Wednesday. Took a very short time from the campground, but it wouldn’t be possible to walk to the market from the campground because the town is up a very steep hill. We’ll just have to go to a market somewhere else.
The old city had a two-mile wall complete with guard towers. We walked down part of the famous streets and enjoyed the wonderful buildings. But it was quite a long way down the hill so Ron went ahead to see if we could get up on the wall at that point. We couldn’t. So we continued our stroll. As we came to the basilica, we found that without climbing any steps, we were on top of the wall and near a tower.
We walked all around the old city in Dinan, enjoying the wonderful buildings. Many also have "hats" over their windows, but many of these are "hats" are shaped like upside down black ice cream cones. Very gothic. The basilica was interesting, the church was ancient and had beautiful colored windows. The ramparts gave us a wonderful view of the city and the countryside. There are more than two miles of ramparts with open guard towers, a castle, and a lot of cobblestone streets. By the time Adelle walks on those streets for a while, she remembers her age!
