Parc de la Briantais, Urban park next to Rance Estuary in Saint-Malo, France.
Parc de la Briantais is an expansive green space beside the Rance Estuary in Saint-Malo, set on raised terrain that slopes toward the water. The park features interconnected walking paths that wind through forested sections and open areas with diverse plant life.
The estate belonged to Michel Picot de Presmenil (1715-1788), a member of a Saint-Malo shipowner family, and was seized as national property during the French Revolution. The 17th-century manor was rebuilt in 1864 as a castle 20 metres long and 7 metres deep. Guy La Chambre (1889-1975), mayor of Saint-Malo and minister behind the city's 1945 reconstruction, inherited it and, with no heir, gave it to the Diocese of Rennes in 1978. The city bought it in 1999 and opened it to the public free of charge.
The château's grounds host Saint-Malo's flower market every May, held in the park of the castle. The estate also holds a chapel from 1778, later altered, washhouses, a Temple of Love and neo-Norman outbuildings from the last quarter of the 19th century, including a large farm building.
The park is open daily, with opening hours that change with the season. It lies in the Saint-Servan district above the Rance estuary, and its paths are laid out in terraces and alleys that open onto viewpoints over the water. The flower market of Saint-Malo is held in the château grounds each May.
The park's plateau-and-alley layout was designed to stage sudden views over the Rance. From the grounds you look down on the Rance tidal power plant, anchored off the Briantais point, with the Solidor Tower and Dinard across the water. The storms of 1987 and 1999 felled about 400 of the estate's 4,500 trees.
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