The Sabbaticus Line: Brittany Coast Walking Tour - Day Five - Dinard

At the end of Day Four we stayed the night in Dinard, a resort town that has become popular with the British. A small town of 10,000 souls, it can boast of having several wonderful sandy beaches. Taking less than 10 minutes, Julie and I travelled by ferry to the walled city of Saint-Malo where we spent Day Five. Saint-Malo has a notorious reputation as being the home of pirates.

Saint-Malo, located on a fortified island at the mouth of the Rance River, was built in the Middle Ages (from 1000 to 1300) to control the estuary and surrounding sea. In 1590 Saint-Malo declared itself to be an independent republic from the French Monarchy. While only remaining a republic for a few years before being forced back into the bosom of the Monarchy, it was a hint—for those that had ears to hear—of things to come.

Saint-Malo is famous as being the home of French corsairs. This appears to be a rather romantic word, but means nothing more than pirates. These pirates used to raid the numerous English cargo ships that steamed—I guess I should have used the word ‘blew’ as ships did not steam in those days—along the coast, including the rich cargo carried by the ships belonging to The East India Company. The East India Company was a private company listed on the London stock exchange and was formed to pursue trade with the East Indies and China. It turns out that the pirates were authorized to conduct raids on English ships by the French crown, given that England was constantly in a state of war with France during this period. Seized vessels and cargo were sold at auction, with the proceeds going to the French crown, and the pirates getting a percentage of the proceeds to reward their effort. The trade was sufficiently brisk to enable the owners of the pirate ships to become very wealthy; and you can observe this wealth when you visit the city of Saint-Malo which they helped develop into the city it is today, boasting over 200,000 souls.

In response to the significant financial loses being incurred by the pirates, the British amounted a raid in 1758. However, they were only able to occupy the nearby town of Saint-Servan and were only able to destroy 30 pirate ships.

During World War II, the famous American, General Patton created a second landing of Europe weeks after the main landing at Normandy. His job was to sweep to the south-east of the main landing operation moving swiftly into the centre of France while the main ally forces engaged and held down the main German forces at Normandy. In order to make this sweep, Patton had to clear the area of German resistance, and it turned out that this was strongest in the walled city of Saint-Malo. With a view to dislodging the Germans quickly and without significant loss to the Allies, the Allies bombed the historic walled city in late August 1944, almost totally destroying it. Saint-Malo was subsequently rebuilt over a 12-year period starting in 1948. Located in the centre of Saint-Malo is a number of war memorials, allowing locals and visitors to “We will remember them…” a famous line created by poet Robert Laurence Binyon.

Saint-Malo is also famous for being home to Jacques Cartier. He sailed from Saint-Malo to discover Canada in May 1534.

On a previous blog, I noted that the tides here along the Brittany coast are massive at 9 metres. In comparison, the tidal range in NZ is on average 2 metres, although we observed tides of 4 metres in Golden Bay. Because of this and the fact that Dinard is located at the mouth of a large estuary, the French constructed the world's first tidal power station: La Rance Barrage. Opened 1966, it is able to generate 240 Megawatts from its 24 turbines: not an insignificant amount considering this is similar the generating capacity of a typical hydro power station in NZ. The dam permits, via a lock, the passage of 20,000 vessels each year between the English Channel and the Rance.

View from our Hotel Hotel Pintania.

Popular as a resort destination for the British,
Dinard has many wonderful sandy beaches

Sand Castles on one of Dinard's beaches.

Taking the 10 minutes Ferry crossing to the historic walled city Saint-Malo.

On the wall and protecting the city.

An example of some of the Beautiful Buildings within Saint-Malo.
This building, like most others, was destroyed by fire in WWII and had to be rebuilt.