Dinan

Today and tomorrow are really short rides (15-20 miles) as we had to arrange our schedule around the available hotels in Dinan and St Malo, two of the most interesting and thus crowded towns we’ll hit.

Dinan is the best preserved medieval town in Brittany. In the 9th century some monks settled on a hill on the banks of the Rance river. The first Breton king, Nominoe, promised them some land and certain priveleges if they founded a monastery there which would include the remains of some saint. Any saint? Who knows. So these enterprising monks snuck over to an island named Sercq, stole the freaking remains of Saint Magloire, showed up with their prize possession and got their land, thus the region first became settled. What a bunch of wanksters. Perhaps the ten commandments hadn’t reached the shores of Breton by that time.

Anyway the town started to grow. In 1065 William the Conqueror had some skirmish here and torched the defensive wooden enclosures; this event is captured on some Bayeux tapestry. History on tapestry!

In the 12th century the Arab geographer, Idrisi, reported the town was an important trading center and it was now enclosed by stone walls.

In 1283, they added ramparts and the town played a more significant military role. The wall continued to get built for the next 300 years, and reached 2650 meters in length.

In 1488 the French troops defeated the Bretons, but not before the Bretons managed to demolish their church so the French couldn’t use it. That’ll show ‘em. The church was later rebuilt inside the Wall.

A whole bunch of inter-royal marriages occurred in the 1500s and thus ensured that Brittany would become part of France. Voila.

Back to present day…..

After an easy morning ride we got to Dinan and rode around until we found our hotel. It looked empty, April pulled on the doors but they seemed locked, so we went for lunch. We ate at an Italian place for lunch (pizza, lasagna) then tried the hotel again, around 2:30. Still locked but it looked like there was a guy in there. Sure he came to the door and just pulled it inwards and it opened. No skills! It was always opened but the doors pushed in, not pulled out. Feeling slightly sheepish, yet thrilled it was opened, we checked in. Great room, especially in comparison to the box from last night. The Tiger was happy - so I was happy. Will nothing ever change?

Showered, chilled then went for a late afternoon walk. The town was fantastic. Old half-timbered houses everywhere. Great little alleyways. Lots of galleries and restaurants. All cobbled streets. We went to look at the church but had to run out because I had to crap. Ran out and found a public toilet within a minute or so. We’re really getting good at scoping them out, know just where they’ll be. As usual I was much more pleased by being inside of a bathroom rather than a church.

Then we found a perfect café and sat for tea/coffee while watching the world go by. Lots of tourists here. Too many for us. We used to being off the beaten path. This was the most crowded place of the trip so far. It started to drizzle, but we were under an umbrella, the streets cleared and we felt wonderfully isolated, strangely surreal because of the architecture, yet happy and settled.

Stopped at a Moules place for dinner. They had about 20 different moules variations. I had Moules Curry and it was 800gr and served in a cast-iron pot so it stayed hot the entire time. That’s critical. April had an omelette/frites. Then we hit he sack in our nice, clean, quiet room. But not before April told me once again the room the previous day was a rip-off. In fact she showed me her flea bites from the previous night.