Exploring Dinan and its environs in Brittany

Nicely done. I like Brittany alot.
Bruce, I noticed on your site that you are also from Boston.
Thank you.

FMT: Just plain marvelous! Thank you for taking us on your trip to Brittany. I have never been there, and of course, now I must add it to the lengthening list of place to visit in France!

Oh, thank you so very much. You brought back such lovely memories, FMT. We biked from Dinan all the way to Cancale--and I loved every single second of it. Well, there was that one two-mile hill, but other than that...

I have intense food memories too. In Dinan I started eating mussels in butter and cream and I continued almost all the way up to Mont St. Michelle where I switched to agneau de pré-salé.

Also in Dinan, we had our first Ker-y-Pom. How simple and yet how divine. When we came on another stand in St. Malo, we went back twice.

Thank you for your wonderful photos. Such joy you've brought.

FMT, thank you so much for bringing back so many beautiful memories. I love Brittany and I fell in love (okay I am in love with France) with Dinan. I love the Cottage, my husband and I had so many great meals there and I love the walk back to our hotel. Thank you FMT

Beautiful pictures! I've never been to Brittany, but now I would love to go.

As usual a wonderful report, and you are very generous with all the links and information.
We will be near Dinan for a week in May and hope to drive along some of those roads and visit lots of those places.Our first visit to France was four days spent in Dinan with our son and his new wife [we were in the UK for their wedding]just before we flew back to Australia.It was the start of a love of visiting France and we are looking forward to revisiting Dinan and seeing more of the area as we only visited St Malo that time. We enjoy just wandering around and have been known to head down a lane or two following a faded sign to ruins or'la tour'. Looks like lots of opportunities for that!
You must have a great photo library.
Thank you FMT and Mrs FMT!

cigalechanta - Yes, I'm from Boston. And aren't you living in Cambridge?

taconic - You now I can help you plan a trip to Brittany.

AlessandaZoe - Two mile hill aside you must have enjoyed that bike ride. I had my own new romance with a certain traditional Breton food, kouign-amman, which is a Breton bread/pastry that essentially consists of sugar and butter with a bit of flour to hold the dense concoction together. Not for the diet conscious. BTW, do you have a blog site where you keep info about your bike journeys? I answer a lot of biking questions on other forums and I always want to refer people to your posts or blogs about biking but I never know how to find them. They are full of such useful info for people seeking bike tours in France.

cafegoddess - I think it's obvious I share your passion for Brittany. That walk down to the port in Dinan is beautiful beyond words, is it not?

scatcat - You've got all your research material for Brittany now so all you have to do is get your plane ticket. What are you waiting for?!

rhon - How lucky for you. I hope I was able to point out a few (or maybe more than few) places you can visit this May. There were still many places I couldn't get to with only 5 days but I'll mention a few other places you might also include. Just outside Dinan you check out Léhon. South of there check out "a village of books" called Bécherel, also a petite cité de caractère. Near Bécherel are a few commune du patrimoine rural, Saint-Juviat, Tréfumel and Guenroc. To the west is Moncontour, another petite cité de caractère. To the east is Combourg, a Ville Historique and just east of there is another petite cité de caractère, Bazouges-la-Pérouse. Just north of Dinan is Saint-Suliac, a commune du patrimoine rural. And west of Dinard is a little artists town I missed called Saint-Briac-sur-Mer. Use my tips about google searching and you'll find the websites for these places.

FMT: Your report comprises a complete trip plan to Brittany, it seems to me!

All I need to do is get my husband to agree to another trip to France soon! Or maybe to find another traveling companion!

Brittany looked gorgeous in your photos, even in December with most greenery gone. I had wondered how the villes/villages fleuris look in winter, and now I know--the color is gone, but now the stones take prominence. One of the real treats for me in France is noticing how the use of local stone for building gives a different character to the villages in different areas.

Gorgeous, as always! Thanks very much!

FMT..thank you so much for reminding me why we loved Brittany so much in our long ago travels. Your pics are story-tellers. I still do remember the harborside Hotel l'Plage, a lunch of scallops, and the best bowl of mussels..in Erquy, about 30 years ago...and again on a repeat visit about ten years ago!

Stu (also once a Bostonian..Quincy...way back in last century)

taconic - Good luck with DH.

Coquelicot - The first few days when we had sun was when the color of the stone really came out, especially since much of the stone in that area is a pinkish sandstone. It really has a warm glow. You know I love my rocks.

joannyc - And thank you for reading!

Stu - I remember where you're from. The only guy on the forums who is from Quincy (where some of my good friends still live). We ate at the Hôtel de la Plage too one night. I can't remember exactly what we had but it was some sort of seafood plate for two with a fondue and it was quite good. Erquy is a nice little place that not many people know about. Lucky you for having found it.

Another wonderful report, FMT. Your photos are marvelous, and to those you add so much interesting and practical information. Now, in addition to numerous Ile de France spots you have featured, I have to think about adding Brittany to my future travel plans.

I love the picture of the gargoyle with the cat atop.

FMT,

I just want to thank you again for taking the time to write this trip report. It is so informative and the pictures are just beautiful. You are always so sweet.



Do you provide tours in Paris?

Aloha
M

MaineGG- I'm not done giving you places you'll need to put on your itinerary. You better have a lot of time on your hands on your next trip to France.

cafegoddess - That's really nice of you to say so thank you. I do bike tours as day trips in the countryside outside of Paris.

How kind of you to compliment me, FMT. I chuckled because I've been referring people to YOUR posts for information.

I don't write a blog.

Am noting that so many of us have intense food memories from Brittany, right? As a sidenote, it was only in 2011 that I was able to find ker-y-pom recipes online.

I've been doing Google searches for almost a decade, and any inquiries to foodies resulted with recipes for chaussons aux pommes, which is not the same because chaussons aux pommes uses puff pastry. A key-y-pom is more like an old school apple dumpling. And note the difference in the spelling for the apple part--"pom" versus "pomme". That alone tells you it's from Bretagne!

Here is a picture of one from someone's adventure blog:
http://yannatry.blogspot.com/2009/09/st-malo_27.html

Here is a picture of a Ker-Y-Pom stand from some OTHER person's adventure blog:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/79/212004956_e3653cb644.jpg
I'm assuming this was taken in St. Malo because our Dinan stand was on such a tiny street one could not have gotten this picture.

And here are links to two recipes:
http://www.lespetiteschozes.fr/ker-y-pom
http://www.marmiton.org/recettes/recette_ker-y-pom_84207.aspx

The ones we ate looked more like the picture in the first recipe. We did not have chocolate on ours. I just remember BUTTER.

Another thank you, FMT, for making me drool.

Alessandra - It seems butter, sugar and flaky pastry or biscuit must comprise a lot of the deserts in Brittany because that's about all there is in the kouign-amman. The first one I had was just a cheap one I got at the supermarket. Though not much larger than a hamburger I picked it up and I swear it weighed about 1 kilo. About half way into my first bite my teeth almost got stuck and I couldn't even bite all the way through it. Didn't stop me from finishing the whole thing though. The next day I got a good quality one from a bakery and it was much different. Still deliciously rich and dense though. Have a look at this recipe for kouign-amman and tell me if you think it would make a good diet food (50% flour and 50% sugar and butter):

http://www.my-french-house.com/recipes/kouign-amann/

I'm able to answer a lot of general questions about biking but your posts are really good at describing bike tours and you've had a lot of different experiences with the tour operators as well as having done tours in different regions of France. I think yours are some of the most helpful posts anyone looking to do a bike tour in France could read. Look me up if you come to Paris and we'll go for a ride.

I lived on Newbury Street Back Bay,Boston for 40+
years, now in Cambridge

Wow, that's a long time on Newbury Street. I bet you saw quite a few changes over the years. I'm sure you must be happy in Cambridge too.

Your photos are just beautiful....I have been to parts of "your trip"....in late spring...Brittany is
enchanting.....even in winter.....I want to go back & explore more of the region after seeing your report.

Nottingham - You know if you ever need any more tips on Brittany I'm more than happy to help.

What a wonderful trip report; I'm so glad I came across it! Thank you, FMT!

Wow! I was saving this until I knew I'd have the proper amount of time and attention to devote to it - of which your reports are always so deserving.

How lovely. Your photography is really stunning. I've barely scratched the surface in Brittany and that was many years ago. For some reason, it always falls off my radar. Obviously there's no good reason for that!

The only way I ever go to a cold destination in the winter is if there's a fireplace involved. Otherwise, it's a deal-breaker.

Speaking of, I gotta know: did you really take a picture of the fire each night? Because you know you could have used the same one and we would have been none the wiser. Just curious... Thanks, FMT.

You should publish a book of your photos.
Most others deal with the popular tourist attractions.

just got through reading everything. Family and I plan on spending a total of 6 days total in Normandy and Brittany early July. Will TGV from Paris to somewhere in Normandy, rent a car and drive around. A little clueless but now I will include Dinan for the Brittany part.

Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Your report was my entertainment this evening--thanks for posting so many pictures, I so enjoyed reading it all. We did some "where is the megalith" or dolmen searches similar to yours in Ireland.....

Thanks for the great report! It brought back so many wonderful memories of the dual nature of Brittany: the sea and the interior.

I noticed one of your meals was at a Logis de France affiliate. Even if we aren't staying at the hotel,which we do frequently, we keep one of their maps in our car and around lunchtime start looking for the nearest Logis options. We've never had a bad meal and only one that was just "ok"; most are very good, rapport qualité/prix we have found. Crepes and Kig ar Farz, now you're talking home cooking, along with fish soup and Breton Far, plump with prunes. A little cider and Hydromel...I'm salivating just thinking about the simple goodness of it all!

Dinan is one of our favorite northern Brittany towns, too.
My favorite north coast area is Ploumanach.

Did you know that the film, The Vikings, with Kirk Douglas was filmed at Fort La Latte?

The pastry Kouign Amann pretty much started out as leftover bread dough that was rolled out, had a good layer of of butter spread on it, covered with an equal layer of sugar. Fold in opposite edges of dough until they touch, fold one more time. Do the same with the remaining two sides so the butter sugar filling is contained and cannot escape and you have a neat packet. Gently Roll out so as to not let the filling break through or escape (this is easier said than done). Repeat the folding in each direction as above. Fit or gently mold the finished product into a well buttered deep pie plate or cake pan. Let rest a half hour or so. Sprinkle with sugar and bake in a Medium to hot oven so that the butter sugar mix caramelizes as it bakes but doesn't burn.

If you like Kouign Amann, you must have liked the gateau breton and the Breton butter cookies. The best ones are made in Pleyben in the interior(though Pont Aven's on the South Coast run a close second). The whole little village smells like butter cookies and Pleyben has a wonderful Parish Close with church, ossuary and triumphal arch. Those special Pleyben butter cookies can't be found anywhere but locally. MMMMM. I never buy enough according to my husband

Thanks again, for such a wonderful report back.

TexasAggie - Thank you!

YankyGal - I hope I've given you good reason to go back and explore Brittany some more. The fireplace was a must for us on this trip, along with the ocean. And yes, that is a different fireplace pix each night. The Fodorites are too smart to try to fool with the same picture.

P50 - Id be happy to share some tips on Normandy with you. Could you perhaps start a thread and state your question so that I and others can respond? There are many posters here who probably know Normandy better than I do so I think you'd benefit more from the advice of the whole community rather than just myself. If you post a question I promise to respond.

treble - Hunting for megaliths is more fun than being hunted by dogs!

klondiketoo - My oh my you certainly do know your Breton foods, don't you? I think I've at least tried all the foods you mentioned with the exception of hydromel. I had to ask my wife what that was so I'll put it on the list for my next trip.

At Fort-la-Latte they had little signs posted here and there and one of them talked about all the films that had been shot there and I think I recall The Vikings being among those mentioned. Although when you think about it, the Vikings arrived hundreds of years before the fort was built. Hollywood never lets the facts get in the way of a good story.

We're aware of the Logis reputation but we weren't even seeking it out. It just happened to be what was open when we rolled into town. It's always nice when your only option is a good option. Thanks for reading and glad you enjoyed it.

Another great shoot. I spent a fair bit of time in Dinan as a child, staying on a boat in the harbour and walking the streets up to the ex-cathedral. Recently I went back there with my Bro-in-law (Professor in Medieval Philisophy) who opened my eyes to all the little stone features around town.

Love St Malo and Dinard too. I walked Mrs Bilbo around Dinard 3 years ago just looking at the architecture and avoiding the toffee apples.

your report is making me re-think our planned trip in Sept & putting Alsace/Burgundy on the
agenda....now I am being pulled towards Brittany again.....going along the coast past Fort-la-Latte and "down" to the southern coast area.....so much to see!!!!...Have you been along that area???

bilbo - I envy you living on a boat on the Rance in Dinan. I didn't see any toffee apples but maybe they just put those out in the summer time. Thankfully the beautifu architecture is a year round thing.

Nottingham - If by southern Brittany you are referring to the area around the Gulf of Morbihan, then yes, I have been there a few times and you probably won't be surprised that I have a report about a week vacation I took there two summers ago.

http://tinyurl.com/2555vaf

You might also have a look at this thread I responded to on another forum:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187094-i1050-k5039551-A_week_in_July_best_base_to_explore_Brittany-Brittany.html#37748007

This is really one of FMT's most amazing photo reports ever. As I already said during one of his previous reports, I do not have much interest in Brittany, but he manages to prove that I am completely wrong.

After seeing his photos, I have every intention of following in his footsteps sooner or later because he manages to find all of the most incredibly picturesque sites that nobody can resist.

And after he told us about the wonderful fireplaces where he stayed, I have already started picking up firewood.

kerouac - Thank you for the endorsement. Coming from the master of great report writing a compliment like yours is most appreciated.

Astounding photos!

Bookmrking

Wonderful report, FMT and so was your summer report about Brittany! While the coast is magical, the back roads and the stone houses are also fantastic, along with the peaceful terrain and those fascinating empty roads that call to all of us for adventure.

Thanks analogue. There's still a lot in this area I didn't get to so I'll have to go back. So many more empty roads to photograph.