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Dinard
Dinard is a seaside resort of Ille-et-Vilaine, on the Emerald Coast, facing Saint-Malo. Its rise began in the mid-nineteenth century with William Faber, an American aristocrat who sold land to English-speaking friends from Dinan. After his death in 1854, his widow Lyona continued promoting the resort, and a large British colony settled there. Between the 1880s and 1920s, the town drew crowned heads, artists and intellectuals.
This period left many Belle Époque villas and an Art Deco hotel, the Gallia, built in 1927. The Promenade du Clair de Lune dates from the 1930s and runs along the coast. After the 1930s, the aristocratic clientele turned to the Côte d'Azur, but Dinard preserved its heritage and in 1989 created the British Film Festival, which remains its great annual event. The town today has about 10,800 inhabitants.
