Brittany 6: Dol-de-Bretagne

Saturday 18th May – Sunday 19th May 2024

We have moved inland to spend a couple of nights at the small, but old city of Dol-de-Bretagne and are staying on an aire on the edge of the city centre. When we arrived, the automatic barrier was broken and the machine for buying a ticket, out of order. We were supposed to pay 11.50 € per night including services and electricity, a bargain which we were happy to pay, if able.

Saturday

Having only travelled a short distance from St. Malo, we arrived in time to visit the large street market where Alison identified some earrings she liked.

After lunch, and the market had finished, we returned to the main shopping street where some sandals were purchased. The street is called Grand Rue des Stuarts and a plaque on the wall of the Hotel de Ville claims that the city is the origin of the royal house of Stuart which went on to rule Scotland and Ireland from the 14th century.

There is some beautiful architecture; many buildings are old and ornate with exposed wooden frameworks and barely a straight line. Reports on Google Maps, said this is “just another French town, nothing special”, but we beg to differ. It is really nice.

The Quengo Hotel dates back to the 15th century. It has been used as a prison during the French revolution, the post office and as the Hotel de Ville until a new building was built.

Clearly much has changed since medieval times in the city. An illustration of how it might have looked around the year 1500 was found. There are some ramparts still to be seen, but we did not visit these.

The city also has a gothic cathedral which is undergoing some renovation. It is quite an impressive structure, dedicated to Saint Samson of Dol.

The stained glass is superb:

Sunday

We had read notices about a Fete planned for today and were woken to find a running race was passing along the path next to the aire, just the other side of the fence from where we were parked. There were many participants and I think they must have done several laps as the fastest athletes seemed to pass us more than once. There was also a Vide Grenier on a nearby carpark which we explored. Our friends Jeeves and Michelle would have enjoyed this, so I have taken some pictures to show them what they were missing:

After lunch, I wandered up to the Place Chateaubriand where a live band “Bogzh Celtic Cats”was playing and people, some in traditional costume, were dancing.

On the way back, I noticed Victor Hugo and his “passage”.