François-René de Chateaubriand
The region is associated with François-René de Chateaubriand, born in 1768 in Saint-Malo on the second floor of a house located in the current rue Chateaubriand Intra-Muros. In his Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe, he describes his birth and his childhood spent pushing his playmates in the water from the breakwaters of the Sillon. "There is no day when, dreaming of what I was, I do not see again in thought the rock on which I was born, the room where my mother inflicted my life, the storm whose noise rocked my first sleep...". Very attached to the corsair city, he negotiated with the municipality to be buried out of sight, on the islet of Grand Bé. Chateaubriand's soul can also be found in the castle of Combourg, where he lived during his adolescence, hesitating between a military and an ecclesiastical career. We naturally invite you to read his Memoirs before your stay!
Writers of the region today and..
Nowadays, Aurélie Valognes, a successful author and figure of the popular novel lives in Dinard. We can also mention Agnès Martin-Lugand, a novelist born in Saint-Malo. Hugo Buan, a Malouin, is also known in the region for his crime novels. The illustrator Jules has just published her latest book in which she stages the adventures of Tom and Lola in the communes of the Emerald Coast. Jean-Luc Legros, a retired history teacher, is a writer and historian specialising in Mont-Saint-Michel and the Emerald Coast. He has published several works, notably in collaboration with his photographer friend Charles Montécot. Henri Fermin, a historian specialising in the history of Dinard and former director of the Dinard Museum, is also to be noted. In addition to his books, Henri Fermin also holds numerous conferences.
... writers passing through
Several writers have spent their holidays in Dinard, including Oscar Wilde and Jules Verne. Let us also mention Judith Gautier, daughter of Theophile Gautier and specialist in Asian literature, who was the first woman to enter the Académie Goncourt in 1910. She is buried in the cemetery of Saint-Enogat.
Major events
Every year, Saint-Malo organizes an international book festival: Les Étonnants Voyageurs. Created by Michel Le Bris in 1990, it attracts every year more than 60 000 visitors and brings you to the discovery of literature from here and elsewhere. This festival was created in 1990 by the writer Michel Le Bris, who died in 2021 at the age of 76. The Étonnants Voyageurs has become the second largest gathering of readers in France after the Salon du Livre de Paris. Similarly, the festival Quai des Bulles is a great success with fans of comics. It is the2nd festival of this kind after the one in Angoulême.
Lexicon
"Be careful, you might get hit by a roadblock! "This expression warns a person who is about to leave Dinard to go to Saint-Malo by car (or the other way round). The road bridge lifts every hour during the day to let boats pass through the locks that link the Rance maritime to the Channel. Intra-muros ? Within the walls ? in Intra ? The only certainty is that if intra means "between" and muros "walls", we should avoid the pleonasm "in intra-muros". Used alone with a capital letter, or without if used as an adjective. Semper Fidelis is a Latin motto which means "Always faithful" and is the motto of Saint-Malo (and that of the United States Marine Corps and Calvi among others). Pirate or privateer? Don't make the mistake! Privateers were ship owners or captains who went off to wage war on behalf of the king, especially against the English. The booty consisted of goods, weapons and the ship itself. The defeated men were taken prisoner. The King took 20% of the booty, the rest was divided between the ship owner and the crew. Crepe or galette? In Upper Brittany we speak of buckwheat pancakes and wheat pancakes. In short, the galette is salty, the crêpe is sweet! In Ille-et-Vilaine, people like galettes with sausage.
But some people also like galettes filled with chocolate or salmon crepes... to try it is to adopt it!
Language
Breton, a Celtic language, is not or hardly spoken in Upper Brittany, in favour of Gallo, which belongs to the Oïl language family. Variations remain between Ille-et-Vilaine and Côtes-d'Armor. Despite local initiatives to rehabilitate it, Gallo is considered as a language in real danger by UNESCO. Less than 8% of the population of historical Brittany claim to understand Gallo.
