July 14, Bastille Day, is very like our Fourth of July with parades and fireworks. I took some clients to see the fireworks over the harbour there one night. The fog that night was very thick and heavy. You couldn't see anything. I mean absolutely nothing. Visibility was maybe 50 feet. Imagine your head inside a brown paper bag. However in France if fireworks are scheduled, fireworks happen, no matter what. Throngs of people stood staring at the wet brown wall hoping to catch even a hint of the airial display that we could all hear clearly. No luck, not even a flicker. My little group of irreverant Americans however began to pretend. They started saying "oooh" and "aaah" and pointing into the brown nothingness. We shortly were surrounded by envious locals, some even also pointing and exclaiming. Such is the power of imagination.

Although staying in the walled city is a unique experience another option is to spend the night in Dinard, across the bay. A regular ferry service runs between the towns and Dinard has it's own beaches and attractions. It also has the promenade le la lune, a beautiful if rather adventurous pathway carved along and under the cliffs. After surviving the wet rocks and the salt spray a warming restorative is in order. Napoleon Brand works really well here. Trust me on this.

Many, many years ago I and a young lady were staying in a Youth Hostel nearby and picked mussels off the rocks under the wall and stole some fresh corn from the fields to cook a feast back at the hostel. If memory serves correctly we then returned to the beach above when it was dark to reenact the scene from "From Here to Eternity". Those were the days!