Gite Holidays Corseul Brittany

Corseul, in Brittany’s Côtes d’Armor department is a delightful, peaceful little village between Dinan and Plancoet. It is a perfect place to use as a base for exploring both Brittany and Normandy, and a welcome retreat from the business of the tourist centre of Dinan, only a few miles away (7 km).

Our gite is tucked away slightly from the main road, and is on the edge of fields and woods - making it very easy to explore the local countryside on foot. If you turn back to the main road however you can take a stroll into the village centre, where you’ll find a post office, boulangerie, chemist’s , small grocer’s, a couple of bar-tabacs, and a pizzeria. You’ll be impressed by the beautiful mairie (town hall) on your right-hand side on the way, and the imposing church building in the square on your left. As well as chiming out the hours, its bells still toll for a couple of minutes at 7 am and 7 pm, something which personally I find quite charming and nostalgic, though I am quite glad we don’t live right next door!

On your walk up into the village, take some time out to wander through Corseul’s Roman ruins! Yes, that’s right, at some point before becoming a sleepy little village, Corseul was a major Roman town, called Fanum Martis (Temple of Mars) in Latin, and several columns and substantial remnants of foundations are still standing. It was founded in 10 BC, and was the capital of the Gallo-Roman province of Coriosolites. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, like many other cities, Fanum Martis was renamed after its people, the Curiosolitae, which over the years evolved into Corseul.

If you’d like to know more about the history of Corseul’s historic buildings, you should visit the relatively new “Coriosolus Museum” ( Centre d'Interpretation du Patrimoine Coriosolis), just a short walk along from the boulangerie (Rue César Mulon).

Just outside Corseul, about 1.5 km southeast, you’ll find the substantial ruins of the Roman “Temple of Mars” built at the time of Nero, the same temple which was responsible for giving Corseul its beginnings. To get there, take the road towards Dinan and follow the signs on the right-hand side about a kilometre down the road.