Brittany, Part 1
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Brittany, of which previously we had seen only Mont St. Michel, has turned out to be more interesting, and time consuming than we had expected and as we write this we are still in Brittany and have more to do. In response to popular request, we have broken the journal down into smaller sections. |
21st August 1999
Having been badly held up in traffic approaching Avranches, and realising that half of Europe was caravanning in the area, we decided to find a site early and, for no particular reason, picked Dinan, which we subsequently found out to be a mediaeval village in two parts. An amazing fortified town, full of original half-timbered houses and, down a steep path, the port on the River Rance.
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| On the left above you can see Kate walking up the incredibly steep street from the port just past the Governor's house, which looks as though it hasn't been touched for 500 years. On the right above is the Porte du Jerzual through which all traffic would have passed until the end of the 18th century. | |
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| In Dinan itself - Intra-muros, as they say - there are many well-preserved mediaeval buildings on numerous streets, as you can see above, and almost a complete wall with fortified towers. | ||
Our camp site, La Hallerais, was the poshest so far and we stayed for 13 nights, which for us is a record. It was located on a very steeply sloping site next to the River Rance a short way downstream from the port of Dinan. An incredibly steep, stepped path led down to the river and on one occasion we took our bikes down and rode along the tow path to the port. The return climb up the path decided us that this was a young person's pursuit. The site had a few surprises. We are used to being surrounded by hoards of Dutchmen who seem most numerous apart from the French on all the sites in France we have visited. This time, however, even the French were outnumbered by Channel Islanders. As we later found, the Isles are a little restricting - for us probably claustrophobic - and do not allow caravans. The site had a generous storage scheme, but which required Islanders to use their caravan for a week on site and it seems that many take advantage of it. Seeing so many of them confirmed our wish to see the Islands.
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| One evening, while cooking dinner, we heard a most distinctive sound, like a dragon snorting. On the third occasion, we looked at each other and said "It's a balloon!" and very low it was. In fact, it was almost on top of us. We had never seen a balloon at such a low altitude, except when taking off and landing and, as our site was steep and heavily wooded, we were convinced it was in trouble. It actually seemed to be picking its way between the trees and heading for a touch down in the river. However, it eventually regained height on the other side of the river. The same balloon reappeared every few days and did exactly the same! Clearly, they operate different rules in this part of the world. | |
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Last updated: 18/03/01
