Dinan, Brittany in France

After leaving the chateau in Versailles, we headed west to Dinan in the region of Brittany (west of Normandy), France.
Hydrangeas here are magnificent - and everyone has them!

St. Sauveur Church in Dinan

Small medieval town of Dinan in Brittany

This guy takes his job seriously...was he thinking he was a London guard?

The town mascot, "Nobody's Tombstone," is below. And we thought a peeing little boy (Manneken Pis) was strange!

Following the check-in to our Bed and Breakfast in Dinan, the owner recommended Le Cantorbery where we had steaks for dinner grilled in a wood burning fireplace and the kids enjoyed fish and steak (not the usual kid menu items here).

J gave her fish a 10.

R has created his own rating scale. This happens to represent "good". Two thumbs up of course means great and one thumb up with the other down means okay.

We have learned not to climb bell towers anymore. After about 3 or 4 climbs in various ones, we've learned the top steps are always quite small, with tight quarters, people breathing on you, and just plain uncomfortable. So now we just enjoy them from afar. Much better!

Rance River Valley below

St. Sauveur from another angle (above)

Rick Steves says this is the place to stay in Brittany if you have a car (and we did) and 2 days (and we did). Hotel Manoir de Rigourdaine used to be a farmhouse, overlooking a lake below with lush grasslands surrounding the area.

After a good night's sleep we headed to Mont St. Michel, an extremely interesting site surrounded by water sometimes, and other times by sand, depending on the tide. We thought we arrived around the time for high tide, but must have been off by a few hours. After waiting around for about an hour, we decided to head off to the beach. Three hours later is when we saw the tide change...right in front of our eyes while the kids were playing. I wish we could have seen it change at Mont St. Michel since it comes in quickly (they say like a galloping horse!).

Apparently in 708 A.D. the bishop of Avranches heard the voice of Archangel Michael telling him to build here. This abbey surrounded by a small town inside is the result.

After waiting an hour to see this amazing tide, we left shortchanged and headed to the beach with a few stops along the way. Pointe du Grouin was the first with J leading the way from the car to L'Ile des Landes.

I love pictures when the kids snuggle with me and I don't even have to ask!

The picture below makes me laugh every time I see it. You can tell it was extremely windy. What you can't see are the tiny grains of dirt hitting our faces and eyeballs. K doesn't know because he's behind the camera, so he's telling the kids (in a little bit of a raised voice) to open their eyes and be ready. J is conflicted, obviously thinking..."my daddy is telling me to open my eyes, but this dirt is about to get into them...what to do??? I want to obey my daddy." Then there's R thinking, "Maybe if I squint really hard he won't notice that my eyes are actually shut."

We also headed to I'le Besnard and Dunes de Chevets where we found a beach site for the kids that we just fell in love with. Right off the shore there was a small rock island the kids could climb. When the tide was high, swimming to get there was the only option. We were there long enough to experience low tide when the kids could just walk to the rocks.