The case of the disappearing swimming pool

Ewan opening the gate to our abode:
you can just see the kitchen and
 lounge room windows

Sunrise from our lounge room

Arriving in Dinard on the coast of Brittany we were just parking the car in the local church car park when we were greeted by Elisabeth whose apartment we had booked." How did you know it was us ?" we asked her. To which she replied "The red number plates of course!"

For future reference - Airbnb - Seaside apartment Dinard - -the host is Elisabeth

No-one else apart from mad foreigners appear to have red number plates . Apparently they signify that the owner lives outside the EU and as we have leased the car we are 'the owners' and so we have the dubious honour of red plates. When Ewan jokingly said it was to warn the locals about our driving the guy at the car lease firm just laughed and said that the locals know to beware of us! When we do crawl along very slowly when we are lost, or do something outrageous (not often!)s we can just excuse ourselves as we have red plates! Very convenient.

Elisabeth showed us to her apartment which was basically built into the sheer cliffs that surround the bay at Dinard, a very old beach resort overlooking Saint Malo. It was right on the walking path around Dinard which featured a white sand beach, a ferry dock, boat ramps flower beds and even a grotto complete with statues of Mary! But by far it's greatest feature was the beautiful old stone buildings - many of them now hotels - lining the shore.Not a fibro shack to be seen anywhere! First settled in the 14th century many of these buildings had been built of very substantial blocks of stone: Ewan kept commenting on how solid they were ( to the point when I thought I might strangle him if he said it again!).

During the days we were there we did many walks along the promenade and encountered a mystery . On our first walk we admired a seawater swimming pool just outside our apartment and noted a lot of boats sitting on sand and mud.

 Then on the next walk the swimming pool had completely disappeared and the boats were all floating on deep water?!
Of course the Brittany coast is famous for its huge tides and at Dinard the depth varies up to 4 metres at high tide. At Mont Saint Michel, which we visited the next day the tide varies by 15 metres so warning signs are needed.

Swimming pool nicely filled with seawater

 

Swimming pool disappeared and water level up by 4 meeres

Whilst we found it fascinating it does present some challenges . For example how do you have a ferry terminal where the jetty accommodates the changing water levels? The answer is: you put it on sliding poles! Very clever engineering.

During the couple of days we were there we manged to achieve a few more points in the Perfect Tourist Awards by:

1. Getting up early and visiting Mont Saint Michel before thousands of tourists arrived. As you approach you can see it sticking up out of the farming flatlands along the coast. And we managed to catch the free shuttle bus to get along the bridge to the entrance: the tide was partly in so there was to be no tramping out there in the mud!



We saved our energy for the hundreds of steps required to climb to the top and enjoy the views from the top of the Abbey.originally built in the 11th Century it is a truly remarkable achievement. The monks led a cold and isolated life but it was fascinating wandering around trying to get a sense of their lives.

You may wonder how on earth they manged to get provisions and supplies form ground level to the heights of the Abbey. They used this wheel with monks inside to make it rotate to hoist them up from below. Not much of a job!

2, We had our first delicious galette: a crisp pancake with savoury filling just perfect for lunch. We pulled up at a seaside stop with customers eating plates of freshly cooked mussels and oysters, neither of which appealed to us so we ended up at this tiny van ordering galettes. Ewan was a great disappointment to the cook as he only wanted a plain cheese one. And we had some local cider: a lovely meal.

3.  A visit to the rugged coast of Cap Frehel. All I have to say about that was that it was freezing! A very nice lighthouse, very pink volcanic rock, an interesting seagull nesting colony and very rugged coast, but all I wanted to do was get back into the car before I froze completely!

4. Wandered around the ancient town of St Malo which was highly recommended to us by many travellers. It took us forever to find a carpark as rambling around the streets of Saint Malo and the port it overlooks is obviously a popular pastime with locals as well as travellers. And indeed it is a beautiful town with very uniform traditional old buildings.

A monument to all of the French resistance fighters

 Apparently it was bombed by the Americans during WW11 as they had assumed that many German soldiers and their administration offices were based there: neither of which was true. the consequences were that 80% of the centuries old town was ruined and rebuilding took many years. However every attempt was made to maintain the architecture so it is a lovely and interesting experience.

5. In Saint Savens nearby we went to the 39-45 Museum as neither of us really understood the impact of WWII on the coastline. We went on a tour of the reinforced concrete bunkers built by the Germans over a series of underground tunnels. The life of a soldier underground was explained and looked very challenging. This piece of coast was bombed heavily and experienced massive destruction. A video showed much of the combat  - although as we had been very busy all day and it was in French , both Ewan and I slept through most of it (so maybe we weren't as well informed as we hoped!) 

After a busy two days we were happy to return to the peace and quiet of the coast at Dinard and relax.

your slightly chilly and well-exercised correspondent

Dianne