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2017 E5 walk, day 29: Dinan (zero-day)

Section 7, Day 29
low 51 °F
0.39″ rain
high 59 °F
26,867 steps
10.4 miles

My zero-day, with no forward pro­gress on the walk, started off drizzly. I had a simple, leisurely breakfast at the hostel, after which I headed into Dinan to do a load of laundry.

Looking north, a swollen stream flows rapidly towards us, passing by immediately on the left. The water is brown; it is up to the level of the brush on the far side. The near bank is a retaining wall of stones in a wire cage. To the right, mostly out of the picture, a wet paved road roughly follows the near bank. Trees hang over the stream from both sides, as well as over the far side of the road.
The stream that passed the hostel was running high from the overnight rain.

I resented every hour I spent on laundry during the walk — I would rather have been walking, or exploring the area, or eating, or sleeping. Nevertheless, I finished in around an hour (for something around 7€, which was typical) and headed out for lunch.

Lunch was at Breizh Crêp’, which was quite pleasant. But I made one terrible mistake: I ate as if I were walking 15 miles along the trail at a good pace while carrying 20 lbs. Instead, I was strolling around town, carrying a few clothes in a mostly-empty backpack, and my metabolism had slowed far more quickly than I expected.

I was full. After I finished and started walking around town, I was so full that I seriously wondered if I was going to throw up, and that maybe it would be better if I did. I didn’t; after a slow stroll and as much water as I could drink (which wasn’t much), the worst passed. But I was slow and cautious for the rest of the afternoon.

I started by walking along the medieval walls of the town. It took me a little while to find the way up, but it was worth the effort; the views — both of the town and of the Rance below — were striking.

Looking west from what must be the top of one of the town’s walls, the tops of two walls meet in front of a heavy stone tower. An arched gate leads to the area around the tower; from the top of the tower, a white and red flag flies in the wind. The sky is overcast and grey.
The town walls and Château de Dinan, with the coat of arms flying above.
From atop a wall, we can see a grassy space below to the south-southeast, in front of another, lower stone wall. People are visible atop it; at the far side of the field is a tower, beyond which the wall continues. At roughly the distance of the tower, various buildings are arranged, leading up to a spired church in the distance. The sky is overcast.
View of town, and a little bit outside, from the walls.

I also trekked to the edge of town to the tourist office, to get some stamps for postcards that I’d gotten earlier in the day. (It was Saturday afternoon, so the post office was already closed.) They refused to sell me stamps without also selling the postcards themselves, so I ended up buying extra postcards and leaving them behind in the hostel that evening.

For the rest of the afternoon, I just wandered the town.

Through an arch, a narrow cobblestone road runs to the north-northwest between stone buildings. It either turns to the right, or ends in a courtyard that extends that direction. Next to the arch, on the right to the right, is a small white sign reading “Rue Haute-Voie”.
A courtyard off the Rue Haute-Voie (“High-Way Road”). The road connected to the elevated roadway into town, a repurposed railway bridge that I had walked under the day before.
A three- or four-story building, wood-framed with plaster between the beams, extends out on pillars beyond its ground floor. Many corners that were originally right angles have sagged into slightly new configurations. In the upper windows are red and black signs, perhaps for-lease signs. People are strolling in front and down the street to the south, where there is another half-timbered building along with newer ones. Perhaps a block away is a stone tower with a walkway near the top. The sky is grey.
More half-timbered buildings. I can’t find the source, but I read that taxes were based only on the square footage of the ground floor. (I obviously can’t say if the source was reliable.)

I headed back to the hostel for a while, then down to the Port of Dinan (a stretch of businesses along the Rance, below the town’s eastern gate) for dinner. I ate a late (for me) meal at La Crêperie du Port, then went back to the hostel for an unprecedented second night’s sleep in the same bed.