cheska15

We arrived in Dinan after three fantastic days in Mont St Michel. I was concerned about our friends ability to walk up to the Abbaye and there was no need. We found the walk quite easy. We are loving this trip.

We are in a hamlet called Lehon and it is lovely 2k walk into Dinan. We are in a lovely roomy apartment, even though we haven’t got internet access. I won’t go too much into the reasons, except the company says there are no issues, the housekeeper says it is very intermittent, and we say it’s zero access. We are using my husbands French phone to connect, and even then it’s limited. Thick stone walls aren’t helping.

It is a lovely 2k walk into Dinan with a very steep walk from the Port into the old town. The town is lovely, although I would like to be here in July. There are quite a few tourists here already, and the restaurants fill up very quickly, we walked all around the town and then had a nice lunch. We then took petite train ride and probably not a good idea after lunch as I may have missed some of the audio. Not sure why we do these little trains as we have usually walked everywhere before hand.
The walk home was very hot. Lovely to have warm weather though.

The plan for today was to visit Cap Frehel ( 50 mins from Dinan)
After stopping for provisions for our picnic lunch from the Boulangerie in the closest town we then drove Cap Frehel. What an absolutely stunning coastline.
The flowers were natives and the red/ gold plant named dodder ( thanks to someone on the Aussie FB page)



The walk along the canal.

Part of Le Abbaye de Lehon

Le Abbaye de Lehon


Dinan

I love a good viaduct

The Dodder plant is a native

Cap Frehel

Tower at Cap Frehel

Native flowers

Cap Frehel

TravelerKaren

Thank you for your posting. We are planning to visit Dinan next spring. Looks lovely.

cheska15

TravelerKaren I have responded to your post. Hope it helps

Moderator1

Added Trip Report tag

joannyc

A good place to stay in the historic section of Dinan is:

Hotel Arvor
5 Rue Auguste Pavis
22100 Dinan
Tel: 33 0 2 96 39 21 22
# of Nights: 3
Non-refundable, prepaid
Standard room- Double
Parking: 10 euros/night not prepaid

They have their own parking lot and it is in the center of everything.

TravelerKaren

joannyc: Thank you for this suggestion. I will check it out. I have valued your feedback in the past on my trip planning!

TravelerKaren

cheska: Thank you for your comments. I did ask some followup questions if you have time to reply. Hope you are enjoying your visit to the area.

rhon

Dinan is the first place we visited in France. We were in the UK in 2004 for our eldest son's wedding, our first overseas trip, and they were heading off to France for a few weeks. They persuaded us to go with them for three nights before we flew home. They had a gite on Rue du Jerzual in Dinan and we were just amazed by it. We sat at the airport and said ' We could do that ' . And the rest is history. We have them to thank for introducing us to something we may never have considered.

Enjoy the area. We returned in 2012 and stayed about 15 kms south of Dinan.

bilboburgler

as a kid I used to sail up the Rance and moor just below the viaduct. That canal is very short ;-)

zebec

Cheska, your Cap Frehel cliffs shot jumped off the page. Great stuff! Maybe a candidate for enlargement, matting and framing?
Have been following every single syllable here, plus TK's thread, to inform our choice-making around a second base (after Vannes or Auray): Dinan or Lehon or Treguier or ?
Mrs Z has just developed foot issues, so wise choices are crucial---no steepness if possible.

Rhon, we've been looking at gites on the same street.
I am done. the follower

ANUJ

We spent a few nights in beautiful Dinan, back in 2019... the TR brings back fond memories.

Coquelicot

cheska, in my opinion Lehon is one of the finds of that area. Staying there would be lovely. But stone walls do make wifi tricky.

We stayed farther out of town but close enough to the canal that we could walk along it in the evening. It's one of the things that encouraged me to find another river to walk along, which turned out to be the Mayenne which also has a wonderful towpath. Cows, large old trees, wildflowers, and a flowing river are a great combination.

One of the things we did when we stayed in the area was drive around to every village fleuri in the area, and there were many. At this time of year they won't be all that impressive yet.

Rhon, so that's how you got hooked on France? I always wondered what your first trip was. Good thing your first stop was Dinan and not some industrial town. You probably didn't start writing trip reports right away, did you? Maybe there are some I missed? I'd like to go back and read every one. You know I'm looking forward to your next one.

rhon

Coquelicot, I did not start trip reports until our fourth trip in 2012. I had good intentions of doing this one as we went so it was ready when we get home but that did not eventuate. So it will be awhile. We have eleven days left and move on tomorrow to our last gite.
the photos of Dinan brought back memories.

bilboburgler

Treguier on the Jaudy used to be lovely 40 years ago

cheska15

On Friday after an hours drive we visited the lovely town of Fougeres. The Clock Museum in a back room at the back of a shop was interesting. There is a Chateau in the town and we didn’t enter as my husband has seen enough of them. Some interesting artwork in the gardens.

Saturday we walked into Dinan and had a lovely lunch. We ran into some people who we had met the night before at drinks, and I was excited to hear my name being called. I felt like a local 🤣
when we had finished lunch I went to the bathroom and my husband waited outside. Went outside and off we went. We got about 200 meters when I said “ how much was lunch” He replied “I don’t know as you paid” . I responded “ I thought you had”. We raced back and apologised profusely. How embarrassing.

Saturday night a few of us from the apartments sat outside talking, and I love hearing people’s travel adventures and about there home towns.

We were up early this morning to ring our daughter. We went and sat by the canal, as we didn’t want to wake up others in the apartments, and we were travelling to Bayeux

Our stay in Dinan was lovely except for the issue of no internet. In all the reviews not one person mentioned the issue. On Friday night the owner of the apartments was staying and invited everyone for drinks. The internet issue was raised and it could be easily resolved by putting a modem in the apartment. Sadly they do not want to spend anymore money. The other apartments could acces the internet, even though it was slow. The owners don’t want me to mention it in my review. I don’t care what they think. My headline will be “ if you need internet stay elsewhere”. It is a shame as it is a lovely roomy place with a fabulous shower, and lovely outdoor space.


The clock museum

Incredible clock.

In the right surroundings this could look lovely

Pretty small waterfall near the cathedral

I think this is the most crooked house I have ever seen.

Interesting artwork in the gardens.

The back view. Bit odd

Lovely facade

Where we had lunch.
We are now in Bayeux and we are very happy to have a big bed and internet.

HappyTrvlr

We had to cancel our trip to Brittany, including Dinan, for this past April due to needed medical care. I am so happy to see your post and photos. We will rebook our trip in the future!

cheska15

HappyTrvlr I hope you can get to Brittany in the near future. It is a beautiful area

TravelerKaren

Cheska: Thank you for your beautiful pictures! We are looking forward to our visit to this area next spring. Continue happy travels in France.