Dinan

Dinan is a town of 12,000 above the Rance in northern Brittany, founded in the eleventh century. Everything shipped inland from Saint-Malo passed through it, and the town grew rich on that traffic until the railway arrived in the nineteenth century and took the trade away.

What replaced it was English tourists, who have been coming ever since. Dinan has the longest circuit of medieval walls in Brittany — nearly three kilometres — and a centre of timber-framed houses that survived the war intact.

The two Dinans

This is the thing to understand before you arrive. The historic centre is on top of the hill; the port is down on the river, and between them runs the Rue du Jerzual, a steep cobbled street that drops seventy-five metres.

Going down is a pleasure — the street is lined with craft workshops in fifteenth-century houses and is one of the finest medieval streets in France. Coming back up is a serious climb. Allow for it, or take the shuttle bus in season.

What to see

• The ramparts — walkable in long stretches, with the Jardin Anglais and the Tour Sainte-Catherine giving the view over the viaduct and the port
• The château — the fourteenth-century keep of Duchess Anne, four floors and a roof terrace; the climb is the best thing in the town
• Tour de l’Horloge — the fifteenth-century belfry, 45 m, with a bell given by Anne of Brittany in 1507
• Basilique Saint-Sauveur — Romanesque and Gothic, holding the heart of Bertrand du Guesclin, Constable of France, who was born nearby and who in 1359 fought a judicial duel in the Place du Champ to lift the English siege of the town
• Église Saint-Malo — late Gothic, with an English organ of 1889
• Rue du Petit-Fort and Rue de l’Apport — the timber-framed streets, with houses on wooden posts over the pavement

Léhon

Two kilometres upriver, and a Petite Cité de Caractère in its own right: the abbey of Saint-Magloire, founded in the ninth century, with a Romanesque church, a cloister and terraced gardens, and an old stone bridge over the Rance. Walk there along the towpath in half an hour.

Getting to Dinan

• By car — Rennes 55 km on the RN137 then the D794; Saint-Malo 35 km; Saint-Brieuc 55 km. See parking in France.
• By train — from Paris with one or two changes, via Saint-Brieuc or Dol-de-Bretagne; the station is up in the town.
• By boat — in summer, up the Rance from Saint-Malo and Dinard, about 2 h 30 each way, tide permitting. This is much the best arrival.

Around Dinan

• Saint-Malo — 35 km, the walled corsair city
• Dinard — 30 minutes, the belle-époque resort opposite it
• Mont-Saint-Michel — an hour east
• Cancale — 45 minutes, for the oysters
• Combourg — 30 minutes, Chateaubriand’s castle

When to go

April to October. Three or four hours is enough for the town if you skip the museums, and it is worth staying the night to have the streets after the coaches leave. The Fête des Remparts, a large medieval festival, takes over the town in July every even-numbered year.

See Brittany.

Weather in Dinan

Updated: 26 October 2026