GARDENS

These gardens were developed after the opening of the hotel, because the corner bd Féart was then occupied by an agency of a bank which prevented such an implementation.

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"Boutin" bank agency before 1927

View from the beach in 1927 : the "Boutin" bank agency is still visible
on the left of the facade
(private collection)

They were the perfect architectural extension of the hotel also using the language in "step-like manner".

View of the gardens in step-like manner
(private collection)

The slope, backfilled today, was then divided into fourths terraces, connected by a flight of three steps, in the perspective of the rotunda staircase which would be considered as the first degree. The stairs ended at a lookout terrace on the left and on the right by the entrance to the gardens next to the beach, in the corner of the boulevard. At this level, the floor was garnished with a large tiled floor in shape of a carpet and was used as a carriage entrance, flanked by two mighty pillars, probably equipped with indirect lighting system. A beautiful double wrought iron gate, with “art deco” drawings, gave access to the gardens also called "garden bar".

Entrance of the gardens seas side view
(private collection)

Circa 1930 two elegant ladies are portrayed
in front of the entrance gate of the gardens
sea side view
(private collection)

Garden plants were treated according to the principle of the French garden style of the 17^th century. The systematic use of straight lines by the architects of the period "art deco" will have the effect of bringing up to date, after more than 150 years of garden designed in English style with curved lines , the geometric language of French garden of the 17^th century. Part of the gardens of the villa "Grey Stone" in Dinard is the only remaining example of importance of revival of the classic era of garden art that will end in the late forties.

Bird view of the gardens
(private collection)

The area of ​​each garden terrace of the "Gallic" was separated from one another by narrow grass borders with flowers and trimmed topiary plants in both end. The space was thus divided into sort of outdoor lounge and allowed guests to have some privacy. The ground was covered with sand. Hollyhocks were planted against the rotunda large columns.

Viex of the gardens circa 1930
(private collection)

Armchair from the gardens
(private collection)

This was completed by hundreds of red geranium in the planters running along the facades of the hotel and thus conferred on building a silhouette of a vertical garden.

Colored view of the gardens circa 1939
(private collection)

The gardens will be the scene of lavish festivities given by Lady Mond in 1934 to honor of Jacques Cartier discovery of Canada. The gardens, stressed the pyramid pattern of the building. Thus, set on top of a staircase, on a sort of promontory, the Gallic Hotel gave beach goers, a strong signal of classical modernity.

These gardens were partially destroyed during German occupation because of the construction of a protective barrier for the bomb shelter located beneath the rotunda. Then they will be permanently filled and turned into parking lot for a bus company who had bought the rotunda and transformed it into a Station Road.

Photo taken in August 1950, the gardens have disappeared.
On the left, the bunker built during WWII, between the Gallic Hotel
and the garden of the villa "Moulton"
(private collection)

FROM 1948 UP TO TODAY

The Gallic Hotel transformed
into military hospital  photographed by
a German soldier at the end of summer 1940...
an era has come to an end...
(private collection)

WWII brought an end to the Gallic Hotel. The hotel never opened again. Actually, the last years of operation before the war were not very successful and the management was already considering turning it into apartments. After being significatively damaged during German occupation, the hotel could no longer reopen.

The Gallic Hotel, like all other hotel in the resort were requisitioned by the French army after September 2, 1939 and transformed into military hospitals. After the debacle of June 1940 it will be the turn of the German Army to use it also as a hospital. The facades of the hotel were severely damaged by the bombing of the streets during Dinards liberation in 1944. 

 

Photo taken by a German soldier.
Two observation posts were built
on the roof of the hotel
(private collection)

The fate of the Gallic Hotel is sealed on July 9th, 1948, when the Board of Directors of “La compagnie l’écluse” chaired by Mr. André Maisel, in the presence of Mr. Hazan, Petit and Blum, decided to turn the hotel into apartments, thus ending a 12 years operation as hotel.

La compagnie l’écluse”, former owner of the hotel, however, kept the right to use part of the building as furnished apartments and intended to continue operating the rotunda restaurant wich was so successful before WWII. These projects remain unachieved.

The architect Alexis Daniel, former assistant to Oudin, took in charge the subdivision of the building and designed the plans we still have today. He also created a series of six shops on the ground floor using a part of the hotel main lobby. The dining room was spared with much of its original decor intact. It is today use as an exhibition room, "Espace Pablo Picasso" at the back of the tourist office. The sales of the apartments started in the end of 1948.

View of the Gallic Hotel at the end of the 40's.
The posters of the offering of sale are visible
on the two pillars of the entrance gate.
(private collection)

The first owners, belonging mostly to the bourgeoisies of Rennes and Paris, remained very much attached to the original vocation of the hotel building. Letters they send to Alexis Daniel are very enlightening about that. These included, for example, having the telephone switchboard of the hotel put back into operation, employing two people to operate both elevators during the season and so on.

View of the Gallic Hotel in the 50's.
The garden has been transformed into a parking, 
while the rotonda is now a bus station.
On the right, the villa" Moulton" will be destroyed in 1964
(private collection)

View of the Gallic Hotel in the 70's.

The orginal planted environnement has totaly disapeared
(private collection)

This attachment to the memory of the hotel that had the first owners would last and had a very positive effect on the conservation of interiors and especially the two elevators.

And when it became necessary to comply latter with new safety laws in 2010, the condominium made ​​the choice of preservation trying to keep them as much as they were in 1927. Under the authority of the “Architecte des bâtiments de France, who control preservation of ancient buildings of heritage importance in France, the TIB company created and set a fully transparent elevator shaft to ensure safety, without changing the original visual appearance. Cabins and ironwork were also restored to their original aspect.

Another major transformation project of two years started in 2013 : the restoration of facades, supported by the Heritage Foundation. Concrete altered by time had to be fully repaired. The building was restored into its original yellow color (Jaune Togo) and the top floor regained its polychromic aspect with the bottom of loggias and ceilings painted in red (Rouge Esterel).

Facade boulevard Féart
renewal in 2013

The city of Dinard, now labeled as a “City of Art and History”, decided to set in 2014, his permanent center of heritage presentation on the ground floor in the former dining room of the hotel.

The city of Dinard favours also the restoration project of the gardens that had disappeared over the years, largely blurred architectural reading of the building.

The first official recognition of the architectural interest of the building took place when the inventory of 400 villas in Dinard was mase under the authority of Mr. Mallet, then mayor of Dinard. Since 1996, the building is cited in the inventory of Cultural Heritage of the region, made by Véronique Orain for the French Ministry of Culture. The "Gallic" is finally the subject of numerous references. The latest is that of Philippe Bonnet and Daniel Coëdic in their book on the architecture of the twentieth century in Britanny.

Main entrance, renewed in 2013

The "Gallic" since it is now how the building is called, has become over the years a kind of "large family" where apartments go mostly from one generation to another, although this tends to be less the fact today. Of course, as in all families, there are good and bad times, but one can say that there is something called a "Gallic spirit". This spirit lies, among other things, in a strong link to the brief but glorious past of the building. We live in this building not by chance, but by choice and one is generally under the spell of its protected atmosphere in spite of the great misunderstanding that this type of architecture still raises.

Luggage tag circa 1927
(private collection)

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