Travel Diaries: Walled Towns and Cities

While in France, I visited two different walled cities: Dinan and St. Malo. I had been to St. Malo before but I loved it so much that I had already knew I wanted to go back this year. Dinan was a new city to explore this year.

Dinan

Dinan is a town in Brittany in the northwest of France. It is known for its medieval ramparts, cobblestone streets and half-timbered houses. When we first arrived in Dinan, we were unsure where to go to find the older cobblestone streets as the modern part of Dinan is right next to the older part. Once the we located the cobblestone streets, it was almost like stepping the world of Harry Potter. It was all very quaint and charming.

As soon as we arrived, we went to find a place to grab some lunch. We found a small kebab shop called 'Kebab Akropolis' where we got some very tasty kebabs (I'm not usually a fan of kebabs, but the one from this shop was really good). We found a place to sit just outside of the shop; on some grass just outside of an old church. Once lunch was done, we went to start exploring. There was lots of little shops selling various items from artwork to souvenirs.

While exploring, we came across a castle known as "Chateau de Dinan."

It was a really good castle to explore as it was all intact and some of the rooms had been designed to look as they might have back when the castle was in use. Amongst the decorated rooms there was a kitchen which had, on the wall, different scents of what it may have smelled like back in the day when the kitchen would have been in use as well as some sort of cooking game; a queens bedroom which had games such as chess and ludo and a fake bed set out; and a weapons room of sorts which had old fashioned knights uniforms and various different weapons which would have been used back when the castle was in use in the 1800's. It was fairly small, but still fun to look around and explore, plus there was a great view from the top of the castle which overlooked the walled town as well as parts of the new town. The castle cost €17 for four of us.

Once we had explored the full castle, we went back into the old town to further have a look around the town.

 

It was very picturesque and lovely to walk around. While there, we also went to an ice cream shop called "Le Pole Nord" which I would highly recommend visting if you ever find yourself in Dinan (my lactose intolerant body paid the price later on, but it was worth it😄). Overall, it was a fun day out.

St. Malo

Another walled area we went to was St. Malo. 

Saint-Malo is a port city in Brittany in the northwest of France. There are tall granite which walls surround the old town, which was once a fortress for pirates approved by the king so there are a lot of pirate-related shops and attractions to see in the walled city.

Upon arriving here, we again had lunch first. Our original plan had been to go to Montreal Bagel - a bagel shop we had been to the previous year - however, we soon discovered that it no longer existed and so we went to find a kebab shop instead. We went to "Chez Marcel" which also served up some pretty tasty kebabs and once again we found ourselves finding a place to sit outside on some grass. Once we had eaten, we went to look around the walled city. 

Having been the previous year, we already had some shops in mind that we wanted to revisit. My favourite shops to go to when on holiday are the souvenir shops as I like collecting things to different places. My favourite little souvenir shop was called "Décor Home". It sold many great souvenirs and the woman who ran the shop was lovely too.

We spent most of the day wandering around the town, taking in the sights.

At around four o'clock, we went on a boat ride that took us on a tour. The boating company we went with was called "Compagnie Corsaire." We sat at the top of the boat which was open-topped and took in all the sights around. There was a tour guide talking about the different things we were looking at but as my French is little to none, I had pretty much no clue what he was talking about, but the views were nice (learning French is something I definitely want to try and do). While on the boat tour, as well as seeing the different sights and scenery, we also saw dolphins! Some swam right up to the boat and they felt so close. I was too captivated by them to take any decent pictures but I managed to capture some of the scenery of the journey.

After the boat ride, we went had dinner at "L'Oguste", had one final look around the old town and a walk along the ramparts before heading home.

I love old walled towns and cities. There's almost some sort of magical quality about them. They're fun to explore and make for great days out.

This is the final travel diaries blog post for this year. I had a great time spending the full month of July in France - it pretty much became a second home.

If you could spend a month anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Bye for now, xo