Dinan

During the frequent wars that devastated other cities in the Middle Ages, the merchants who ruled Dinan got rich selling stuff to whichever camp had the upper hand, well aware that loyalty to any side, be it the French, the English, or the Breton, would eventually lead to the destruction of their homes. The strategy worked: today Dinan is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Brittany. Although there's no escaping the crowds here in summer, in the off-season or early morning Dinan feels like a time-warped medieval playground.

Like Montmuran, Dinan has close links with warrior-hero Bertrand du Guesclin, who won a famous victory here in 1359 and promptly married a local girl, Tiphaine Raguenel. When he died in the siege of Châteauneuf-de-Randon in Auvergne (central France) in 1380, his body was dispatched home to Dinan. Owing to the great man's popularity, only his heart completed the journey (it rests in the basilica); the rest of him was confiscated by devoted followers along the way.

Along Place des Merciers, Rue de l'Apport, and Rue de la Poissonnerie, take note of the splendid gabled wooden houses. Rue du Jerzual, which leads down to Dinan's harbor, is also a beautifully preserved medieval street, divided halfway down by the town walls and the massive Porte du Jerzual gateway and lined with restaurants, boutiques, and crafts shops in the converted 15th- and 16th-century warehouses. In summer boats make the 2-hour, 45-minute trip down the Rance River to St-Malo (EUR 26 round-trip), call08-25-13-81-10 for details; or you can head upstream on a one-hour round-trip on an old longboat, the Jaman IV, through a lock to the medieval abbey of St-Magloire, and learn how Napoléon canalized the Rance to enable French boats to cut across to the Atlantic and avoid English warships in the English Channel (EUR 9 round-trip); check www.vedettejamaniv.com. Above the harbor, near Porte St-Malo, is the leafy Promenade des Grands Fossés, the best-preserved section of the town walls, which leads to the castle.