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The northern coastline of Brittany, in the departments of Cotes d'Armor and Finistere, is very scenic. Steep cliffs alternate with broad sandy beaches washed by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. It's easy to see why it's one of France's favorite vacation spots. This page is a composite of a couple of day trips we took from Dinan. This stretch of coastline is called the Emerald Coast (Cote d'Émeraude) for the color of the clear water.
The bay of Mont St. Michel has some of the highest tides in the world, up to 12 meters (39 feet) difference between high tide and low tide. We had visited Mont St. Michel on a previous trip, so we bypassed it on this one. Just south of Mont St. Michel is a flat plain with one high hill in the center, Mont Dol. Beyond that is Dol de Bretagne.
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Looking north from the top of Mont Dol you can see the fields stretching out to the bay, and in the distance, Mont Saint Michel stands guard. |
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On the top of the hill is a restored windmill and a large park. A group of old friends have gotten together for a picnic and to play Palets, the Breton version of Boules. |
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Off to the south is the city of Dol de Bretagne, with its cathedral. | |
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 The
cathedral is in pure Gothic style, but the north tower was never finished,
and the town council is still debating what should go above the main
entrance. |
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The neighboring old school has been turned into a Cathedral museum. It was closed, but in the courtyard they had this replica of the old squirrel-cage cranes that were used to build the cathedrals. |
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The Pointe du Grouin is the western end of the bay of Mont Saint Michel,
and the start of the Emerald Coast.
Across the bay the Cotentin peninsula of Normandy is barely visible. |
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28 kilometers away you can see the Mont Saint Michel. I love the telephoto lens on our cameras! |
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The fortified city of Saint Malo has guarded the mouth of
the Rance estuary for centuries. Fishermen from St. Malo plied the waters
off Newfoundland since the sixteenth century. In the seventeenth century,
it was the home port for French
privateers (or pirates, if you happened to be British at the time).
Merchants trading with the new world made it a rich city.
Heavily damaged during the war, the core of St. Malo has been restored to its striking granite architectural unity. It is now a major ferry port for trips across the Channel, and the home of the French Merchant Marine Academy. |
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Just to the south of St. Malo is St. Servan s/Mer, a popular pleasure boat
port. At high tide, the waters lap at the base of the old keep.
But when we visited, the tide was out. |
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 In
fact, it was so far out that boats were embedded in the sand and had
special stilts to keep them upright.
This boater is barbecuing! |
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St. Servan has a park along the waterfront that provides sweeping views of the estuary, and out to sea. |
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At the top of the park is an old German blockhouse, now converted to an
RV park.
The damage sustained by this armored observation post gives mute testimony to the ferocity of the action when St. Malo was liberated. |
As I mentioned above, the St. Malo / Mont St. Michel area has some of the highest tides in the world. For centuries inlets have been dammed all along the coast to build tide-powered mills. The power of the water flowing in and out of these reservoirs would be used to grind grain into flour. More recently they have built a major tidal power station across the mouth of the Rance estuary to generate electrical power. At high tide the water flows in and is trapped. As the tide goes out the trapped water is released through the turbines.
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The Rance is a small river that flows through the Breton countryside until it gets to Dinan. There it starts to widen and become an estuary. |
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About half way to the mouth, the estuary narrows. At this point a dam and a lock regulate the level of the river back towards Dinan, and protect the town from tidal flows. |
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Below the dam, the water level rises and falls with the tides, but moderated by the tidal power station which is another four kilometers downstream. | |
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The tidal power station also serves as a bridge joining St. Malo and Dinard. We discovered that at high tide, it is a drawbridge, opening twice a day to allow boats in and out of the estuary. | |
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Across the waters from St. Malo and St. Servan is the resort
city of Dinard (not to be confused with Dinan!)
The city was discovered by the British around 1870 and they built mansions all along the shore. We found that the city combines the worst characteristics of a small French city and a small British seaside resort. The one bright spot was the Anglican church of Saint Bartholomew's, where we attended Sunday worship. |
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Cap Fréhat is another rocky point with a sweeping panorama. It reminded us of the coast of California, near home. |  |
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So we're driving along towards Lamballe, and we see this
sign that says "This way to the menhir." We follow it to a small
parking area and a fifteen minute walk through the oak woods (admiring the
violets along the way) brings us to the Menhir
de Guihalon.
Cut and set up around 13,500 B.C., this 15 foot high standing stone was last renovated around 9,500 B.C. It seems to bear its age well. |
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St. Brieuc is the main city of the Cotes d'Armor department.
We tried to visit the cathedral on a market day. We had to park a ways
away, but the street we parked on had a great collection of ethnic
restaurants: Kebab, Tex-Mex, Couscous, Pasta, Indian...
The cathedral started out Romanesque, as shown by the round arches along the nave, but was finished in Gothic style. This model was sitting in an alcove. |
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Right on the border
with Normandy is the world-famous Mont Saint Michel, an Abbey set on a rocky
islet which is only accessible at low tide. A small town curls around the base
of the abbey. The sole industry is tourism.