While coming back from Languedoc last week Clive and I had a chance to explore the beautifully preserved Breton town of Dinan.
I have previously only managed to see Dinan in mid summer when it is black with tourists.

We went through it at 9.00 on a wet Sunday morning in March, empty but for ourselves and a few hardy souls so I felt I was seeing it for the first time.

This little roof sticking out of the side of a building caught Clive’s eye.
Look at it closely.

You will see that all the slates are carefully graded in size from the larger ones in the front to the little tiny ones at the back.
The building was at latest seventeenth century.
I was reminded of a lecture I attended about Irish chandeliers.
At this the lecturer told us that the very finest examples of chandelier were made in the 17th century. Then the prisms of glass were meticulously graded from the largest ones at the bottom to the smallest ones at the top therby giving the chandelier the illusion of extra height and elegance.
Wonderful to think that a 17th century French roofer thought his roof a thing of sufficient beauty to employ the same technique.