Prepare yourself for a blog post full of me gushing over Dinan because no city has ever made me feel this way. I’ve been lucky enough to travel and visit many different cities. But for some reason, they all pale in comparison to Dinan. It’s funny, I had no specific expectations for any stop on our road trip, yet Dinan completely enraptured me. It hasn’t left my mind since we came back. And since autumn is slowly approaching, I find myself thinking about it more, wondering what it looks like during my favorite season.
Editing the photos was what made me crave to revisit it during autumn. I miss every single corner of the spellbinding Rue du Jerzual. Dinan is an enchanting medieval city and this street is unmissable. I can just picture it two months from now. Lined with half-timbered and stone houses, it’s as empty as when we first saw it. While dusk slowly falls, the houses light up from the inside while the smoke starts to rise from the chimneys.
While I always love romanticizing places during autumn, Dinan was no less magical when we visited. We arrived on a Sunday evening that marked the end of a long weekend. That basically meant that everyone else went back home and we arrived at a practically empty city. I don’t know what Dinan looks like on an average day because our visit felt very much out of the ordinary. But I would go so far as to say that there is no place more charming in all of Brittany. We were walking down completely empty streets, encountering no cars or people.
Walking down Rue du Jerzual that early summer evening felt like walking through my hometown on a Sunday evening. There was a sense of familiarity about the town and we would just spot a few locals sitting on their front steps and chatting. It was how I imagine slow summer evenings look in a small town yet undiscovered by tourists. I fell for it right then and there. Never before had I experienced a similar feeling with any place we visited, especially a city! Even now, I still miss it. I’m pretty sure that even if it was filled with tourists, I would have still loved Dinan. But the fact that our first encounter occurred like this made the experience magical.
In total, we spent three nights in Dinan. We dedicated one full day to the seaside and spent the rest of our time slowly exploring Dinan. I really think we didn’t leave a single corner of Dinan unexplored. Especially since it’s quite a small town. If you were in a hurry, you could certainly see Dinan in a day. But I would suggest a bit longer. To settle in, to walk down the streets at different hours of the day, to enjoy the historical architecture. Which is precisely what we did. We explored while also taking it easy and relaxing.
I had a different kind of revelation happen to me in Dinan – I tried the salmon pizza at La Tomate and absolutely loved it. To be fair, at that point I was pretty desperate for any kind of food. I hadn’t eaten anything since noon when we left Étretat and I completely forgot it was Sunday. Which meant that I forgot all the shops would be closed. For anyone that doesn’t know me, I’ve always hated pizza and never understood the fuss about it. Granted, I still don’t understand it but that salmon pizza with sour cream on top was just what I needed then.
Dinan marked the halfway of our road trip so it was nice that we were able to take a breather. And best of all, it was a great station from which you can visit other places. If possible, I would’ve also visited Cap Fréhel and Guernsey island. But as it always happens, there was too little time and too many beautiful places. Hopefully, one day we’ll come back to Dinan and it’ll be during my favorite months, October or November. Until then, I’m going to enjoy those photos that have no greenery on them, and imagine that is what Dinan looks like during autumn.
