This being the tenth and final instalment of what
we did on our summer holidays 2006.

After Annecy we went on the last leg of our journey
to stay with Sile’s brother, Brian and Sister-in -law Beth
in their new house near Dinan in Brittany.

Beth at the door of the cottage.

Dinan, which I think is the prettiest town in Brittany,
is a place Sile and I keep coming back to.
It has been beautifully mantained with cobbled streets
and romantic and bockety houses and terrific Brocante shops.
One place we hadn’t got to was the Basilica of St. Saviour
so we arrainged to meet in the square outside

While we were sitting in a cafe on the square a bride and groom
sat at the table next to us and had a beer.
I got a shot of them as they left.

Beth, who is an eagle eyed archeologist, had spotted a detail
on one of the entrance towers of the church.

It was a 15th Century Tom and Jerry
placed there, almost out of sight, by a whimsical stonemason.

The windows in the chursh were mostly modern and very bright.
(The originals having been shattered in the war, and probably ending
up in Fontfroide)
This gave the beautiful play of light on the old seats and pews.

There in the windows we found our own Fiachra the French
patron of gardeners and cab drivers.

Connecting the town to the old port on the Canal de Rance
is the amazing Rue de Jeruzal, steep and cobbled
without a vertical or a perpendicular
it must be one of the most photographed in Brittany.

It also has a couple of nice Brocante shops.

And some pretty bridges over the Canal de Rance .

So after Dinan we were only a couple of hours from Cherbourg
and the ferry home.

I can’t say I was dying to get back.
But now we had our toe in the door of France,
with our proposed purchase in the Languedoc,
with that in mind I can’t see us ever
going on such a marathon holiday again.
But you would never know.