Day 1 – Drive to Dinan from Gloucester, UK

I had booked quite a cheap gite on Cottages4you so that we could do a budget week in France. When I booked it I had no idea what the town Dinan was like (I had done no research) or even where the gite was situated.

When we arrived after a long day of driving (and an overnight stay in Ashchurch) we were pleasantly surprised to find our gite was on the banks of a beautiful river within walking distance of the town.

^{Our gite was the building on the left.}

However, we quickly realised you get what you pay for. The TV did not work, there was no wifi and the furniture was very basic and extremely uncomfortable!!! We decided that we were just going to make the most of it and have a brilliant week!

Day 2 – Exploring Dinan

We woke up relatively early and walked along the river into Dinan. It was so peaceful and there was a layer of mist on the river as the sun had not broken through.

^{River walk to Dinan}

We reached Dinan and it is the most beautiful town. Cobbled streets, historic buildings and medieval walls for Tom & Izzy to explore. We spent the morning exploring the town & finding geo-caches before buying some stunning patisseries to take back to our gite to eat.

^{Exploring the stunning streets of Dinan}

Day 3 – Pink Granite Coast

After spending the day in Dinan we thought it would be nice to drive out to the coast and explore some of the beaches. The first beach we encountered was Plage de Gaos where Stu, Tom & Izzy played in the rock pools looking for crabs and lobsters.

^{Plage de Gaos}

We drove further round the coast and discovered a really rocky beach so we spent quite a bit of time there before heading back to our gite for an evening of card games as there was no wi-fi.

Day 4 – St Malo

St Malo is a coastal town 30 minutes from where we were staying. We thought it would be a nice day trip due to the port and cathedral. We really enjoyed St Malo – there were harbour walls we could walk along, rocks to play on and wooden struts coming out of the beach that Tom & Izzy could run between.

^{Beach time at St Malo}

Day 5 – Mont Saint Michel

Having visited St Michaels Mount in Cornwall the previous year we were keen to visit Mont Saint Michel. When we arrived the tide was completely out and we parked up and walked across the bridge to the island.

We walked up through the town (which reminded me of Harry Potter) to the abbey on the top. We explored the buildings and took photos of the views before retuning back to the car.

^{Exploring Mount Saint Michel}

Day 6 – Paimpont

We were a bit unsure what to do this day as it wasn’t beach weather so found an abbey town not too far away where there was a walk we could do. We arrived and explored the abbey which was nice – but when we did the forest walk there were gorgeous views of the abbey from across a lake.

After lunch the weather picked up and so we stopped off at a lake on the way home – Etang de Comper – where there was also a castle. We didn’t go round the castle but spent ages playing by the lake with Tom & Izzy finding sticks and chasing each other with them!

^{Afternoon fun at Etang de Comper.}

That evening we went for a quick walk into Dinan to take some photos of the town at night.

^{Dinan all lit up!}

Day 7 – Lunch in Dinan

For our final day – as we had already done lots of travelling and had a huge drive the next day to get home – we decided to stay in the local area. We visited Dinan cathedral, Tom & Izzy bought sweets from a beautiful sweet shop and we had crepes for lunch.