Dinan was our first stop on our trip to Bretagne. A french colleague of my husband’s had recommended it and we are glad he did. Dinan turned out to be a nice little town off the beaten tourist track. Here are the highlights:

Jardin de Petits Diables: We stumbled across this immensely idiosyncratic little park by chance. It was next to the parking area just below the city wall. (By the way, parking was easy, ample, and inexpensive.) The park was small, with flowers, and chickens and ducks. We love chickens as you can see from a previous post. We also are connaisseurs of the different breeds. There were many interesting breeds in the park including a GIANT chicken. It was the largest chicken we had ever seen.

The giant chicken

Ramparts: Dinan is a medieval hillside town surrounded by ramparts. We picked up a tourist office map which showed the ramparts. There are a variety of points to access the ramparts and you can walk a fair ways along them. Since the town is built into the hills you can get a very good view of the river Rance in the bottom of the valley.

Jardin des Anglais: This garden is built along the edge of the town so it is edged by the ramparts. This is the best place to get a great view of the river Rance. Its fun to imagine some medieval soldiers trying to attack the walled city from this side. Impossible! Impregnable!

Walking around the city: The city is small enough that it is easy to get your bearings. The streets are narrow and cobblestoned. There are enough tourists to make for a lively atmosphere but not so many as to make it uncomfortable.

Dinner: We asked our bed and breakfast host for recommendations and he suggested one of the upmarket restaurants. However, it turned out you needed to make reservations. There are many crepe places – this being the home of the buckwheat crepe. However, we wanted something else. Fortunately, we stumbled on a great restaurant with availability in their outdoor seating area. The name isn’t very catchy or orignal but the food was. I highly recommend le Cosy.

This isn’t le Cosy but gives an idea of the many choices of restaurants in Dinan as well as the narrow cobble stoned streets

Le Cosy: Our dinner was amazingly good dinner and at an extremely reasonable price! We had a selection of starters but all of us chose the same main course of local grilled fish. I HIGHLY recommend this restaurant and sit outside if you can!

An amuse bouche. Notice the glass of Breton cider in the background.
An amazing asparagus soups starter with a parmesan toast
We all had the grilled fish dish with a lovely spicy sauce
I like ordering the coffee gourmand since you get a taste of three desserts. The one on the left is the traditional bretagne pastry (Kouign-amann) .