As Ian is in the UK I went with a couple of friends that hadn’t experienced this event before and they were very impressed as were my current guests in the 3 gites who decided to go in convoy.   Although the weather appeared grim to start, it cleared by midday and from then on it was perfect, not too hot or too cold as nothing can spoil an outdoor event like miserable weather.  

The festival started on Saturday 24 August and continued until the 25th finishing at 9.30pm with a torch lit procession of over 2000 participants in full costume consisting of comics, clowns, dancers and musicians.  Unfortunately we missed this as we were all too tired to stay any longer than 8pm.   We did however enjoy all the festival had to offer although next time in 2012 we will make an effort and go in costume ourselves.   As can be seen from the photos, a great deal of effort and ingenuity is put into many peoples appearance and not all necessarily genuinely Medieval.    Some of the pointy eared characters clearly got inspiration from Lord of the Rings and why not? 

The city of Dinan is so beautiful and the perfect setting for this great festival, you seem to travel back centuries just looking at the buildings and when that’s accompanied by knights, crusaders, noble men & women, serfs and peasants you can be convinced that you have stepped out of a Tardis in another time.    As well as the street entertainment there are also areas that hold specific performances which you either pay to see or come in costume in which case it’s free.  The exception being the Knight’s jousting tournament which is 10€ per adult but worth every centime.   The other 4 areas are covered by a ticket costing 12€ if you don’t fancy creating a costume. 

Some of the stilt walkers were quite incredibly dressed and I’m sure gave some nightmares, what incredible imaginations these participants must have, not only to dream up these characters but also create the costumes and make up.   Even though it’s another 2 years before the next festival, you can see what this one was like on their Sito web .   I hope you will also get a feel of the experience looking at my photos here:

[Vista con PicLens]

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 This has been a few year years in the planning and works and now there is a clear waterway between Redon and Fégréac which then continues on to Guenrouet, Blain and ending in Nantes.   With a footpath suitable for walkers, cyclists and riders this is going to be a great asset for the locals and tourists alike. 

The first barge arrived at St Nicholas de Redon around 12 noon closely followed by a flottilla of other boats and barges which then anchored by the new lock in town.  With a Breton band following and musicians on the some of the boats, it was a very festive event.   There was also a turnout of demonstrators against the proposed new passenger airport terminal at Notre Dames des Landes which althugh very strident, was peaceful. 

After the various speeches, free drinks were laid on to accompany people’s picnics with more music throughout the afternoon.    We left about 3pm and wondered back along the tow path to where we’d left the car (very naughtily in a store’s carpark).   It had been a lovely afternoon and luckily not too hot to make it uncomfortable and I hope that all our visitors make use of this new addition to our lovely local waterways.

[Vista con PicLens]