Dinard, Brittany
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For more than half a century, people came to this building on the Dinard shore to stare at fish through its portholes. The aquarium closed in 1992. The portholes stayed. Behind them now is the Aquarium Bar, blue velvet and gold, and the creatures on the inside of the glass are guests holding cocktails. They are better dressed than the previous occupants, and considerably drier.
Nobody has ever been quite sure what to call the place. It began as a nineteenth-century seaside villa. A British colonel, Robert William Hamilton, is said to have taken one look at its jumble of wings, called it bric-à-brac and then added battlements in the Scottish style, which cannot have helped. The castle and the clutter ended up sharing one word: Castelbrac.
In 1935 the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle moved in with a marine laboratory, and the architect Yves Hémar dressed the building as a ship, portholes and all. For decades scientists studied the bay from here. Today Yann and Lydwine Bucaille, whose family has long operated the boats between Dinard and Saint-Malo, run it as a hotel. The bay is still studied closely, mostly from the bath.
Every room faces the sea, and the sea here will not stay put. At the mouth of the Rance the biggest tides rise and fall by more than thirteen metres, so a bay that is full at breakfast can be mostly sand by teatime, with the boats lying on their sides like sunbathers. Room 19 has six windows around bed and tub, which is the front row. Each evening a small pastry appears in the room, presumably by way of apology for the scenery changing without warning.
Dinner at Pourquoi Pas is served under a ceiling curved like a ship's hull, in honour of the polar explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot, whose ship gave the restaurant its name. The chef, Julien Hennote, cooks the coast with a Breton wink. One of his lobster dishes comes with pork sausage, a tribute to the galette-saucisse that Bretons eat on the football terraces. The lobster, for once, is wearing the away kit.
Castelbrac is also an easy hotel to leave, which on this coast is rarer than it sounds. The Promenade du Clair de Lune leads past Dinard's grand old villas, and in most seasons a passenger boat crosses to Saint-Malo. On calm days the hotel's own wooden launch takes small groups out to the islands. It is named Le Fou de Bassan, after the gannet, a bird that hits the sea headfirst at full speed. Passengers are encouraged not to follow its example.
Couples and gourmets will be happiest here, especially those who would rather watch the sea than lie beside a large pool. The pool is a single heated lane along the cliff, built for lengths, not lounging. On grey days the Aquarium Bar fills with people staring out through the portholes, exactly as visitors once stared in. The fish, wherever they ended up, would have enjoyed the joke.
Nearly 4,000 hours
The work that went into building Le Fou de Bassan, the hotel's wooden launch.
From the water the hotel reads as one silhouette, but the 23 rooms are divided between three buildings. The Lord Hamilton Villa, built in 1872 for the Faber family and enlarged by the Muséum in 1935, holds fourteen; a newer wing, the Observatory, has four; the Captain's Office, set slightly back, has five, including a family suite. Below, the hotel keeps its own pontoon, where Le Fou de Bassan takes on passengers, so the building can be left by sea.
The Observatory, a newer wing with four rooms, shows how the hotel uses a small footprint. Its Deluxe Room with sea view measures 25 m², with one double bed, a walk-in shower and a curve of windows given over to the bay of Saint-Malo. The category has no balcony, so the view is taken from the bed or from the table by the glass. For more space, or for a family, the Prestige Suite in the Lord Hamilton Villa is the larger choice: 50 m², four windows, sleeping up to four.
The Aquarium Bar occupies the public aquarium the Muséum ran in the building, with Art Deco references to its scientific past; it is also the place for an informal lunch when a full dinner is too much. Next door, the Charcot Lounge stands where Commander Charcot, the polar explorer who worked here, had his office. It was the hotel's first restaurant and now serves tea and pastries facing the sea, beneath a fresco of his expedition.
Pourquoi Pas opens onto the Belvédère terrace, the hotel's lookout over Saint-Malo and the Prieuré Bay, so an aperitif outside can follow the light on the ramparts before dinner moves indoors. The kitchen is built so completely on fish and shellfish that the menus cannot be adapted for anyone who avoids seafood: worth knowing before booking a stay around it. The restaurant takes reservations only, does not serve every lunch and dinner, and closes for several weeks each winter.
At a glance
Where
17 avenue George V, 35800 Dinard, on the cliff above the Prieuré Bay at the mouth of the Rance, facing Saint-Malo; Rennes about 50 minutes by road; Saint-Malo station reached from Paris by TGV
Why this one
Saint-Malo across a tidal bay.
A wooden launch from the hotel pontoon.
Dinard's promenade on foot.
The Edit Notes
All 23 rooms look at the water, so the choice that matters is not the view but the outdoor space. Only two categories have it: the Deluxe Room with balcony, 25 m², and the Prestige Room with terrace, 35 m², the Captain's Office version described as very large, with deckchairs. Everyone else watches through glass. With no large garden to fall back on, a balcony or terrace is the one way to have the bay to oneself.
Le Fou de Bassan is a 12-metre wooden launch leaving from the hotel's own pontoon with a skipper, for up to nine passengers. It runs in the warmer months, is subject to weather and is charged separately, with a full charge for late cancellation. In a bay where wind can cancel a morning, a single-night stay gambles the main excursion on one forecast. Two nights, with the trip pencilled in early, leave room for the weather to change its mind.
The hotel stands at the edge of a town that can be walked, which makes a stay without a car realistic. Saint-Malo is a different calculation: the passenger seabus runs at high frequency in high summer, but outside that window the crossing needs checking, or becomes a drive round the Rance. Chausey is further still, a day on the water that only works by boat. Plan the islands as the exception, Dinard as the everyday.
The pool is a single heated swimming lane on the cliff, reserved for hotel guests, with a changing room above it and a solarium. It is built for lengths, not for a family afternoon, and there is little other outdoor space to spread into. When a westerly arrives, the warm water is still there, but the solarium is not much use. A summer booking should be made for the bay, the town and the boat, never for days by a pool.
The price question
The money buys a small hotel in an unusual building, with a view that never settles and the town of Dinard at the gate. It does not buy space: no beach of its own, no large garden, one swimming lane, and outdoor space only in two categories. The premium makes sense for a balcony or terrace room, two nights and the boat. For a bed with a glimpse of the sea, Dinard offers cheaper and larger addresses.
Book it for two or three nights centred on the bay: a room with outdoor space, the boat booked early, dinner at Pourquoi Pas and walks into Dinard. Look elsewhere for a beach holiday, a family pool or a long summer week.
Le Grand Hôtel Barrière, Dinard
A hotel of 86 rooms and suites directly on the Promenade du Clair de Lune, with an indoor pool and a Shiseido spa.
Le Grand Hôtel des Thermes, Saint-Malo
A large hotel on the sands of the Sillon beach with direct access to the Thermes Marins thalassotherapy centre and three restaurants.
The Extra Edit
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