Romanesque Modillions & More Places to Carve Stone
by hquittner
The esthetics of the Romanesque period like most others illustrates the "horror vacua" tendency. Nothing should be left plain, especially to hide structural necessities. So the end brackets that support roof cornices are decorated with stone carvings - modillions. All columns shound have capitals with figuration, statues should be painted, walls should have murals, etc. The idea that plain or smooth is beautiful is a 19 & 20C esthetic for the most part. The cost of such "filling-in" often became prohibitive and so was often delayed or if the style already in place became objectional, obliterated by new designs and whitewash. So in St.-Sauveur there remain numerous unobtrusive carvings that you can relish. The best are on the outside of the church. Look carefully and use binoculars if you have them. First is the West Front, look at every column and pilaster. The South side is also Romanesque and they are there too under the cornice at the roof-line.
Little train - Out of Service
by ranger49
All our children used to walking, cycling or travelling by car look on a train ride as a real treat particularly an old steamengine pulled train. Which means we don't have a chorus of "Want to go on the little train" whenever they spot a little tourist train!.
One day as we were making our way around the side of the Basilique Saint-Sauveur from a walk in the Jardin Anglais and the ramparts before we heard the bell of the little train or saw it coming we heard a fanfare of horns heralding a motorcycle and car cavalcade followed by the gaily bedecked little train.
But they could not have gone on this one for if followed a procession of bridal cars and carried all the wedding guests around town and to the place of the reception. The hooting of motor horns following a marriage seems a local custom in France, Italy and Spain and is heard more and more in the UK.
Explore the town
by ranger49
Dinan attracts tourists - why wouldn't it with such a wealth of preserved buildings, the river and all its history. - there are tourist shops - lots of postcards and souvenirs alongside butchers and bakers - but it never strikes me as "tacky tourism".
This is still a real working little town with a life of its own - shared with lots of visitors.
Respect the little houses you walk past - real people live there!
A View of the Port from the Gothic Bridge
by hquittner
From the old bridge we saw the Rance river and the once active port now only a place for excursion boats and yachts and the like but it is certainly nicely situated (if you do not mind the climb to the center of town). Some take excursions down the river and bus back (not us).
See Basilica St.-Sauveur: Examine the W. Front
by hquittner
The Basilica is an interesting example of the mixture of Romansque and Gothic styles. The lower West Front is early 12C and above the central door is a Flamboyant Gothic 15C gable. A chapel at the right is also 15C. (The inside is also a stdy in contrasts-another Tip). The central door is a set of recessed arches and the lateral bays are sealed and have statuary niches but with colonettes like the center. All of the colonettes have simple figured carved capitals. The voussoirs of the central arches and winged lions and grotesque faces above the arches are finer. The statues are worn and stand on lions. There is a tympanum of a Welcoming Christ with Censing Angels (undoubtedly retouched). There are few examples like this in this part of France.
Main town street
Blue Shop
Boulangerie Patisserie
but it's not picking up passengers.
