Our First Seaside Adventure

The chilly beach at Dinard didn't
stop these tourists from sunbathing.

Aaron, the navigateur of this year abroad, planned a day trip for us to Dinard and Saint Malo, two cities on the Channel.  We went into the city to catch the Illenoo bus, a very clean regional bus that takes people all over the department of Ile-et-Vilaine for a very reasonable price.  We boarded the train a bit after 9am with four elderly nuns who were giggling like schoolgirls as they prepared for their seaside adventure.  (Aaron's comment before we realized they were nuns was: "Hey, do you think those ladies are going to the casino?"  We did pass a casino on the way to Dinard, but they did not visit it to our knowledge.)

The tunnel leading to the beach.

We started the day as healthily as possible: cereal and orange juice for Aaron, yogurt and fruit for me.  We arrived a bit hungry in Dinard and immediately went for the healthiest treat in sight: ice cream!  I had a delicious boule of salty caramel, and Aaron had a raspberry glace italienne (sweet soft serve).  I think that's a perfect way to start a day at the beach!

We then walked a few miles along the beach and around the point.  It was very unamerican (shocking, we're not in America)--no guide rails most of the way.  There would have been a LOT of law suits about that back home.  It was gorgeous.  The sun was shining, and there was a brisk breeze.  We walked up some stairs on the cliffside and had the picnic lunch we brought with us while overlooking the Channel.  (Lunch was actually good for us--fruit, bread, cheese--which of course meant we could get a pastry later.)

Aaron even took his shoes off to
walk in the water!

 We walked back through the town toward the bus stop to get to Saint Malo, which is a medieval city right across the water from Dinard.  It had gotten warmer, and I actually considered going in the water for a bit.  Then I realized I hadn't brought a towel, and spending the day in damp bathing suit and jeans did not sound entirely appealing. We waded, though, and the sand is so sparkly there!  I'm not sure why, but when the sun hits the sand in the water and on the beach, it looks like gold.  I've never noticed that at any other beach I've visited.

Alfred Hitchcock.

We snapped one last picture in Dinard while waiting for our bus--a statue of the great Alfred Hitchcock!   His statue is there because the prize given at the British film festival in Dinard is named after him.  The area attracts a lot of tourists from England because of the proximity.  

Saint Malo was a more interesting city for a non-beach day.  Dinard is a 19th-century resort town, and Saint Malo was a medieval city, largely destroyed in World War II but restored to look historic.  The actual city is much larger than the walled section, but we've seen other modern cities here, so we only went to the medieval section.

A view into the medieval part of Saint Malo.

The cathedral in Saint Malo was
almost entirely destroyed in
WWII and was rebuilt in the late
twentieth century.

We visited the cathedral, which, like the city, had been mostly destroyed in the war.  It had a strangely modern feel, with an altar made of bronze by local artists and gorgeous stained glass windows, but the windows had no detail, just patterns of color.  The church also held saints' relics encased in wax sculptures of the original body.  You could see the broken bone fragments in the uncovered, open hand of the figure.  They also had a vial of the saint's blood.  We're just showing you pictures of the pretty windows, so don't be afraid to scroll down.

Detail of the light through the stained glass at the cathedral.

Before leaving Saint Malo, we went to its seaside and looked back across the water to Dinard.  Chateaubriand, a famous 19th-century French writer, was buried on this coast.  Well, it's on the coast if it's low tide, and it's an island when it's high tide.  If we'd had time, we could have walked out to see his tomb, so that may be an adventure for another day.  They built a walkway so that people can go at low or middle tide without getting all sandy.  High tide looks pretty impressive from our google image search, especially when the tide pool on the beach is entirely covered.  The diving board looks like the head of some sort of sea dragon poking out to inspect the city.  

The view from Saint Malo to Dinard.

An apple Kouign Amann, a traditional
Breton butter and sugar pastry.  

We wandered around the shops in town for a while and tried an apple Kouign Amman pastry, a sort of croissant like creation, fried in caramel and butter, which an apple in the middle.  We both thought it was a little too sweet, but we wanted to try a regional specialty to keep our tummies quiet on the bus ride home after all the walking.

St. Bartholomew's Church in Dinard,
the only Anglican church in Brittany.

To get back to Rennes, we had to take the bus through Dinard and had about an hour's wait there.  Aaron wanted to walk around the other side of the city, and in doing so we found an Anglican church!  We went inside, and it reminded us a lot of the chapel at the Chapel of the Cross.  It's not too surprising because they were built at roughly the same time.

Our day ended getting back on the bus in Dinard but with only three nuns.  Suspicious?  I think so.