Normandy has its American Film Festival in Deauville at the end of summer .... Britain too!!! An international film festival ... the British Film Festival.


And where can it be ??? A place for the Franco-British friendship… Dinard.

Why Dinard ? Because in the mid 19 th century this small city used to be crowded with British people enjoying the sea. And the success was so impressive that nowadays Dinard has more than 400 villas listed.

In short, the British Film Festival could not find a better ally : and it goes on with the ferry that connects Saint Malo (just in front of Dinard) with United Kingdom.

Back to cinema. The festival takes place in early autumn for a few days. And the last ones were successfull…

Shallow Grave Friends (1994), The Full Monty (1997) Billy Elliot (2000), Bloody Sunday (2002) or The Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003). What a great reward and a great opportunity to discover original works.

Not bad for a young festival ! Here is the program for the 20th edition.

The festival has many awards but the ultimate prize is the Golden Hitchcock .... Some sessions are free, screenings are held in the prison of Saint Malo.

In september, enjoy the very pleasant open-air screening .. .

The festival is really nice, far from the summer crowds, you discover the charms of Dinard and its cinemas... And improve your French .... by reading the subtitles...

Read it in French : Festival du film britannique à Dinard

Wedding anniversary, 40’s birthday, your lover is 50 and you want it to be unforgettable... Birthdays are an occasion for giving an original present : a fly over Brittany just for yourself !!!. My friend did it in September, it is just great...




They (my friend and his lover) did it at Dinard Airport, but you can do it in many breton aerodromes. Pilots do it for nothing because they need to fly n hours to keep their licence to go on flying. They fly you around for your pleasure and for their licence. Dinard Airport has for exemple four pilots doing it.

At Dinard Airport, the pilot was waiting for them. They went into the plane




– you can be three plus the pilot – and they began their take off. Once in the air they had to choose to fly East or West, that is Cap Fréhel (east) or Mont Saint Michel (west).
My friends wanted to fly over the coast, they choosed west, they flew over the sea and Chausey island. The pilot explained to them the landscape while driving his plane as if it were a car .
They saw Cancale and its oysters beds.



Saint Malo



and they finished the trip with Rance estuary.



The weather was really nice, it was wonderful…

And what do you do if it rains !!! Don’t worry and be happy !!! It is known worldwide that Brittany like Great Britain has an humid climate. So, the pilots look at the weather forecast and call you when it is no good to fly…
You’re conquered ???? Well, the fly lasts half an hour and it costs 100 €.
Good trip.



Read it in French : la Bretagne vue d'avion : rendez vous à l'aéroport de Dinard

What can you do in Dinard when it rains… discover African Art. Every year at the Palais des Arts in Dinard (on the seafront and close to the casino), you can discover a nice art exhibition : last year it was Picasso… This year, the exhibition called Gloire de la femme dans l'art africain (litterally glory to women in African Art) shows 200 pieces of African Art connected with women and their roles in African Art and Society.



It is open from june 28th to september 14th (a Sunday) 2008, every day from 2 pm to 7 pm. And it is free…




It is a really nice aesthetic exhibit. The objects are from the XIXth and XXth century, you ‘ll see masks, statues, stools, woodlocks, pearls’jewels…that explains the role of woman in african society. The different rooms present various women’sides such as maternity, fertility, couple, initiation figure,… thanks to a sign, each room explains some part of the african culture. For example, you will learn that scarifications around women’ navel symbolizes the links to the world or that twins have a very special status in Africa. As a fertility symbol, they are feared and revered at the same time. And the Yoruba people (Nigeria) have the highest rate of twins in the world (45,1 for 1000 births) compared to Europe (10,9). And we still don’t know why !



And if you want your kids to improve their french, a guide in french !!! will reveal the secrets of African Art on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. For the 4-8 years old at 4.30 pm, and for the 8-12 years old at 2.30pm. Hurry up, it lasts till mid september.

Read it in French : L'art africain en Bretagne à Dinard

You’re visiting Rennes with your children. And you want to rest after your cultural visit of the old town of Rennes… Leave the historical monuments and go up North. The park of Maurepas (Parc de Maurepas) is located on the North side of Rennes and is open from 8.15 am to 6.15 pm.



It is a nice garden for young kids to young teenagers…

With your young kids :



they can play on/in the sand … or enjoy the toboggan





or the swings…



You can also try the carrousel on sundays afternoon.



If you came with their bicycles, you can let them go round the playground, on a track that imitates real traffic conditions (lights, stops…).



Your young teeny needs a break. He can use his skate board on the opposite side of the garden, on a street park for skateboarders.



And parents can have a picnic or rest on the grass



(in France you need to be allowed to walk on the grass... in public gardens? And here yes you can !!!) while your baby savours sand, your little girl jumps from the toboggan and your teenager learns to speak French with other skateboarders…

And you can also observe and compare the customs of Mister and Missis Duck.



And your artist side ??? Well admire the statue !!!



Some more informations : the park has been created beetween 1936 and 1939 thanks to the landlord of Maurepas that gave his land. It was already a garden with playgrounds for children : a track for tricycles… It is the fourth bigger garden of Rennes, it covers 5,5 hectares (the bigger is the parc des Gayeulles - 100 hectares-, Bréquigny – 17 - et le Thabor 10).

You can also discover the two unique umbrella pines of Rennes ? Where are they ???



Read it in French : Le parc de Maurepas à Rennes (bretagne) pour les enfants de 7 mois à 77 ans

If you’re bored during this Chrismas time, I’ve got something for you… Specially because the weather is really mild now in Brittany. You should harvest rose hips, but the good ones, the useful ones used for jam or itching powder…



The fruits of dog roses are usually used to make jam, syrup, liqueur or herbal tea. The fruit is an incredibly high source of Vitamin C (20 times more than lemon) and therefore really helpful for whom is suffering from a lack of vitamin C.
The dog rose produces an orange to red fruit, that looks like an olive. The fruits of the rose tree are round. You can harvest them as early as october, but the longer you wait, the sweeter they will be. They grow in hedges, coastlines… and at my neighbour’s…



And if you wait for the first frost, it will be easier to peel them…
Because that ‘s the main problem with rose hips… Inside the fruit, tiny fine hairs that are used as itching powder and if you don’t carefully remove them while making your jam… You’ll have an itching "posterieur"…



I’ll soon give you my jam recipe as soon as I've some time before me... It is long to peel... Till then, you can keep them in the freezer...

Read it in French : Le cynorrhodon en Bretagne : fruit du rosier ou de l'églantier

This year, the Palais des Arts is celebrating its 20th anniversary ... and for this event it hosts part of the private collections of the François Pinault Foundation.

Do you know François Pinault ? He is THE famous Breton billionaire. Autodidact, art lover… and football fan ... He is the main sponsor of the foot ball team Stade Rennais.

So for its 20th birthday, Dinard has decided to expose the collections of this man… who usually shows them in Venice, yes, in Italy.

About 60 works by thirty artists * ...



Qui a peur des artistes ? Who is afraid of artists?

Not me, except when I look at the picture, it reminds me of Verdun (horrible battle of the 1st World War wtih thousands of deads), the soldier buried standing (alive?) ...
But everyone sees what he wants : I thought it was a commercial for Hunger in Africa ... someone said...

Annoying the poster? And the title?

What is art done for?

- To have fun ? (123 points)
- To ask questions ? (54321 points)
– To understand the world ? (393 points)
– To criticize it ? (3131 points)
– To be nice (333 points)
- To mess around ? (731 points)
- Do nothing ? (34536 points) -
- To laugh and have fun (0.333333333333)
- To be moral ? (321 points)
- To be green ? (369 points)
- What else ?
- To share (4.50 euros full price, the show last year was free)

If your score is 3 points or more, go ahead!

The exhibition shows contemporary art : portraits, contemporary art paintings, photography, photo-collages, drawings, video, sculpture, abstract works ... All art forms are represented ... Each room has a title ...for example-War Consumption Revolt.
Well, not easy to give my opinion. Jeff Wall bothers with the photo showing the ambush in Afghanistan. Further it is even more violent (the video ...). It is the same artist Adel Abdessemed who made the funny pictures on the opposite wall!
The most famous : la nona hora ((the ninth hour is the name for the prayer that is recited at the ninth hour of the day, usually around 3PM to commemorate the moment when Christ died on the Cross) by Maurizio Cattelan. The most famous or the one everybody talked about ? Write your comment for that work !

And next to it, nobody screamed at Damien Hirst, the greens don’t like contemporary art ? But I do not know anything about insects ...

In short, everyone has his reading and interpretation ... Make your own opinion ... because as François Pinault said and I translate : ... The art has led me to wonder more. To keep my eyes open on the world and its evolutions, to be more attentive to the change of the world ...

This summer, if you don’t have time to visit the Palazzo Grazzi museum or the new one at Punta della Dogana (Venice, Italy), where the rest of the collections are, or if you missed the exhibition in Moscow (a certain state of world), go to ... Dinard from 14 June to 13 September from 11 am to 19 pm and night (21h) on Friday.
Pictures are not allowed...

* Josef Albers, Dan Flavin, Agnes Martin, Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Lee Ufans, Pierre Soulages, Charles Matton, Takashi Murakami, Paul McCarthy, Yan Pei-Ming Martial Raysse, Ed Ruscha, Adel Abdessemed, Andreas Gursky, Barbara Kruger , Cindy Sherman, Jeff Wall, Jiechang Yang, Chen Zhen. Subodh Gupta, Mike Kelley, Bharti Kher, Takashi Murakami, Julie Mehretu, Luc Tuymans, Maurizio Cattelan, Paul Fryer, Damien Hirst, Claude Lêvêque, Yan Pei-Ming, Andres Serrano. Subodh Gupta, Mike Kelley, Bharti Kher, Takashi Murakami, Julie Mehretu, Luc Tuymans, Maurizio Cattelan, Paul Fryer, Damien Hirst, Claude Lévêque, Yan Pei-Ming, Andres Serrano.

Have you ever been to Saint Malo, the fortified city ? I'm sure you did. But did you look on your left and attracted by the small fortified peninsula of Aleth, did you run there to enjoy a nice walk and a beautiful view on Dinard and the Rance estuary. Follow me, I’ll show you the place…



Saint Servan is the quarter of Saint Malo that begins the Rance estuary. It is less known, less visited but really nice.

Remind of its history : Aleth – that’s the old name of the place- was occupied long before the creation of Saint Malo. It became a bishopric during the VIth century when Malo, the future Saint, arrived from Great Britain to bring back some order in the religious life of the promontory and to convert it. Aleth suffered many attacks during that period and many times was burnt or destroyed. It was much later during the XIIth century that it was transfered to the actual Saint Malo.

If you come from Saint Malo for the walk, you’ll go along a long beach (plage des Sablons), that leads you to the sailing harbour (800 boats)



and soon you’ll see steps for the pathway around the peninsula.

On the path, a piece of walls, remains of the Roman period.



The Coriosolites, one of the tribes of Armorica, were already living there before the Roman occupation. Then Caesar conquered Armorica (56 AD). And they let some traces because they were building in stones…

Go on and you soon meet a fortress from the XVIII th century. Going up the stairs you are on the Memorial 39-45, going down you have a monument dedicated to Charcot (1867-1936). First name Jean Baptiste.



He is famous in France. Do you know why ? Guess and find the odd one out in the following quotes :

He is known because he is a medical doctor
He is famous because he is a polar scientist and the leader of the first polar expeditions
He divorced the granddaughter of Victor Hugo, a famous French writer
He was a rugby champion
The name of his ship was “Why not?”
He loved gulls
He died on a shipwreck as he was going back to Saint Malo




So, the winner is… Sorry, there is no odd ones.

He was a very famous polar explorer, he discovered new countries, drew new maps, studied tides, polar wildlife and flora. He has had 4 ships called Pourquoi pas ? (Why not) and the unique survivor of the wreck told that Charcot released the mascot of the ship, Rita the seagull before the wreck.

Let’s go back to the cliffpath, you’ll see 8 metal pillboxes,



that are 30 cm thick but quite destroyed by the war 39-45. They were joined by underground galleries.

You’re now walking along the Rance estuary, in front of you Dinard.



Behind you in the distance the cape Fréhel.

In the middle of the peninsula, a camping place. A dam, the tidal power plant cuts the Rance estuary on your left. Leaving the path, visit the village of Saint Servan, it is worth it.



Read it in French : Balade dans un quartier de Saint Malo : la cité d'Aleth à Saint Servan (Bretagne, France)

Rohan is a famous name in Brittany, even now one of the deputee of Brittany is a Rohan. It was one of the three most important family of the Duchy of Brittany. Among others they have built the castle of Josselin ( a really nice town to visit) and helped William the Conqueror in 1066 when he crossed the Channel.
Rohan is also the name of a small village in Morbihan, there is no remain of one of their castle in Rohan except a chapel (Chapelle de Bonne Encontre). This small town is located at 10 kms south of Loudéac, about 20 kms east of Pontivy, on the canal of Nantes to Brest.
If you walk along the canal de Nantes à Brest and you’re lucky, you’ll find a mile-stone where the old name of Pontivy is written ; that is … Napoléonville. If you find it, tell me because I’m still looking for it… Why Napoléonville ? you know the french Emperor Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821) who was defeated at Waterloo and had to exile in the island of Saint Helena where he died. Well, when he was emperor, he decided to convert Pontivy, a small city that agreed with the ideas of the French Revolution in a conservative Brittany into a military centre. Pontivy had a strategical position, located in the middle of Brittany and betwenn Brest and Rennes, it was the best place to control the region. In 1804 he called it Napoléonville. It changed names several times after that, it took also the name of Bourbonville and recovered its name Pontivy in 1870.

Read it in French : Rohan

If you're visiting France with your teenager and if you want to enjoy a medieval town while he wants to skate, you should go to Dinan. It is nice for you and for him…



Yes, Dinan is a nice touristic town and 15 minutes away from the historical city center, you have a skate park that is safe and enjoyable.



Listen to one of the riders :

It is a nice place hidden by trees… 15 minutes away from the pedestrian quarter, close to Quevert. Ask for a shop called Titi Gil, everybody knows it.



We do have nice objects like mini ramps, funboxes, quarters, half pipes …and others that I can’t translate... even if the “French words” are English ones…

We sometimes play at a game called in French SKATE. You have to do tricks and everytime you fail, you get a letter from the word skate. Once you can spell it entirely, you lost…


Teenagers to young adults (10 to 20) ride in the skate park Cordier – mostly or even exclusively men –. Roller blades or kick scooters (push scooters) are welcome.



Read it in French : le skate parc Cordier à Dinan Bretagne

Brittany was a very important strategic place during the Second World War. German militaries defended the breton region with the building of fortifications, the Atlantik wall along the atlantik coast (from Danemark to France). Bunkers but also antitank obstacles, concrete pillboxes to house machine guns... were done.

They also transformed the ports of Saint Nazaire, Brest, Lorient et Saint Malo into fortresses.



That’s for the main context. Let’s go now to Saint Malo and one of its district Saint Servan. (Saint Servan is part of the municipality of Saint Malo since 1967). The fortifications of Saint Malo were designed by Vauban (1663-1707), Marshal of France and famous military engineer. He also wanted Saint Servan to be strengthened and specially the cité d’Aleth, the outposts to the Rance estuary.



But it was done much later when the peninsula suffered from a British assault. In 1758, the major Marlborough invaded the Aleth peninsula and was thinking of doing the same in Saint Malo when he was shelled. He left the peninsula but did burn all the ships around before leaving the place. It did not take long, in 1759, one year later, Mazin, a French engineer began to build an artillery fort



to protect the estuary.



Almost 200 years later, the fort was strengthened by the Germans : you can visit the Mémorial 39-45,



situated in the middle of the peninsula, in a large coutyard. The Museum is located in one of the bunkers of the fortifications, you’ll see a documentary and an exhibition about the WWII.

On the platform, about 30 bunkers






were erected joined by underground passages with pillboxes.





The whole region was fortified : Cézembre, the island in front of you, the pointe de la Varde (Varde’s cape at the end of the long beach of Saint Malo), a radar at Cap Fréhel… The fort of Saint Servan was the German headquarter with the commandor Von Aulock.

The Allies invaded Normandy in June and arrived at Saint Malo August 2d. But they were not many to conquer the place, most of them were fighting in Normandy. The Allies decided to shell Saint Malo and after 15 days of intense bombings,



the German surrendered (august 17th). More than 70% of Saint Malo was destroyed and it lasted 12 years to rebuild the city like it was (1948-1960).

The island of Cézembre held out untill September 2d (site de l’inventaire général du patrimoine culturel). 80 bunkers were built there to control the port of Saint Malo and it is the more bombed place on the French territory.



Napalm bombs were dropped on it. Unexploded shells are still on the island and have to be defused. It is still a no trespassing zone on most of the place.

From the courtyard, you have a really nice view : on your right of Saint Malo, in front of you Dinard




and on your left, the Rance estuary.

Read it in French : Visite du fort de la Cité d'Aleth à Saint Servan, quartier de saint Malo (Bretagne)

Why should you go and visit the French Côte d'Amour?

- because it is a long, long, long sand beach and a nice, nice, nice bay !
- because you are lovers !
- because we like nested Port, Pines and Promenade in Pornichet !
- because you’re lost and want to understand why there are 3 La Baule : La Baule Escoublac, La Baule Les Pins and La Baule

Located on the Atlantic coast, the beach of La Baule is known as one of the most beautiful beaches in Europe. Well, it is up to you to judge but what is sure is that it is quite long (almost 8 kms) and facing South West, which is nice as the sun is concerned! .



The bay houses 3 different cities and 3 different moods… Pornichet, La Baule or Le Pouliguen… It is on the French Côte d’Amour (love coast which runs from St. Nazaire to Le Croisic). This romantic name was given during the 19th century after a competition organized by a local newspaper : their readers had to baptize this already trendy coastline…

Let’s begin with Pornichet, the first resort to have a touristic fame during the 19th century…

It used to live from the salty marshes but that’s not something special as all the cities from the Guérande peninsula were living on salt too. Dunes and marshes were the common landscape. And it was also the problem of the area.
These mountains of sand were moving and in the middle of the XIXth century threatening the next village Escoublac. It was decided that the bay needed to be fixed by planting pine trees.

As one problem is never alone (un problème n’arrive jamais seul as we say in French)… the salt trade was going down and the port silted up… They seeked a solution ... that came from the railroad which connected Pornichet to St Nazaire in 1854.

In 1860, the success of this bathing resort began…

Soon the new wood pine was divided and sold to build villas.


The development of Pornichet continued, the salt marshes were filled up and horse races began in 1907.

During World War II, Pornichet, as the whole Atlantik coast, was part of the Atlantic Wall (defensive wall built on the coast by the Germans). It was covered with bunkers. Walking around you’ll still see plenty of them.

Pornichet is a family resort and quite different from its neighboring, La Baule, more stylish...

Known as one of the most mundane beach of Britanny like Dinard, it is a nice place to enjoy luxury… or more simple activities. You can rent bikes all year long in Pornichet (as in La Baule) or (less expensive!) use your feet.

La Baule used to be Escoublac, the village that was (as I already said) gradually invaded by dunes. End of the 18th century, the village was buried under sand by a violent storm and had to move.

La Baule, or rather Bôle as it was spelled in the 19th century, comes from the Breton language (that is one of the few places in the east Brittany where breton was still spoken) and means marshy shoreline covered by tides (the equivalent of salt marshes of Mont Saint Michel). The spelling La Baule we know today was given at the end of the 19th century.

As Pornichet, the same company seeked to stop the dunes with pine plantations.
400 hectares of pine trees (one hectare is about 100 m to 100) were planted : a magnificent pine forest grew and was called Bois d’Amour (love wood). Today a very small green spot still remains in the middle of La Baule Escoublac, close to the Parc des Dryades (nice park with 300 trees and playgrounds for children).

Soon, as in Pornichet, it was used to build villas.
The war (1939-1945) did its job too and used the wood for the implantation of bunkers, military structures or just as firewood. The ruins of a church are visible in the dunes, because it was under these trees that the old village is buried.

This wood is nice for long walks (when you want to escape the sea breeze).

The tourist boom of the station is linked with the railway (1879), 20 years after Pornichet ... Soon it became very popular and the need of a new church, the Chapel of St. Anne, to accommodate tourists was urgent (the population of La Baule increases so much during the summer time).



It is now a cultural center for concerts and expo. In the 20’s, the resort is quite successful and the erection of cottages continues. This is the beginning of a major urban development.

In the 30’s, the train station Art Deco is built at La Baule Escoublac.



There are three Baule : Escoublac the first one, La Baule Les Pins because of the wood and La Baule the international sea resort.

Today a large pedestrian walk (and road) runs along the bay, which has lost almost all its beautiful villas. Multi-storey buildings or hotels have replaced them. If you leave the waterfront, you’ll see the villas, which have made the reputation of the resort. Hundreds of them between Pornichet, La Baule and Le Pouliguen are to be discovered.
The plaza also houses luxury accommodations (this is a mundane city, do not forget it!): Hôtel Royal (built in 1896 combines British style and Belle époque)



or L'Hermitage (Anglo-Norman style)



host presidents, stars, singers and actors.

What to do

This is a very good destination for a long weekend anytime because many activities are possible throughout the year.

If you want to walk gently along the bay or enjoy cycling around the peninsula of Guérande (rentals available all year in Pornichet and La Baule).
If you love the sea and the elements : no problem for sea fishing (port Pornichet), sailing, waterskiing, kite surfing or kite flying.




Families, go to the Aquabaule (heated leisure pool).

Riding, golf or first flight, parachuting are possible if you’re bored !!!

But if you re looking for nice gastronomic restaurants or thalassotherapy centers you’re also in the good place.

The Pouliguen ends the bay .. and its wild coast await you.

A map to help you...



Read it in French : Tourisme sur la Côte d'Amour : La Baule ou Pornichet