INTERIORS (3)

LOUNGE

This room, located originally to the right of the glass gallery on the ground floor which connected the main lobby to the garden. The decor was exactly identical as in the dining room and was also characterized by the same bright polychrome colors. Such unity in the decor was probably due to the fact that these two rooms were only separated by glass walls and so decoration of each room could always be seen from one another.

Overview of the lounge
(private collection)

A corner of the lounge sea side view
( GLAD - Portail du patrimoine de Bretagne)

The pieces of furniture were made of mahogany woodwork in a classic “art deco” style. There were alternative groups of chairs such as "bridge style” chairs around small inlaid tables, comfortable chairs such as parlor side chairs and sofas covered with assorted bright mottled orange and turquoise fabric. Against the glass walls, were put noticeable divans covered with a night-blue fabric that evoked the Far East so dear to the 1920’s.

Armchair from the Gallic Hotel lounge.
In its current state
(private collection)

Small piece of the original tissue of the armchair above

This room also included a corner designed for correspondence: a series of tables with separation at the center were set against the windows on the side of the boulevard Féart. Guests could thus write their extensive correspondence on the almond green and dark green writing paper provided by the hotel.

Letterhead of the Gallic Hotel
(private collection)

Floors were covered with oriental carpets which completed this very cozy atmosphere, specially dedicated to a mostly Anglo-Saxon clientele.

Lighter in silver plated metal designed
by Christofle company,
being used in the lounge and the lobby of the Gallic Hotel
(private collection)

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INTERIORS (4)

Rooms

The 150 rooms, all with central heating, were distributed on the four sides of the building. Because of the “step-like manner” façade, the rooms on the sea front went from 60 sqm on the 1st floor to only 20 sqm on the 6th floor. On the others sides, the average room size was 30 sqm except for a serie of 5 bedrooms of 18 sqm each located on the west side facing the garden.

Plan by Alexis Daniel in 1948
for the subdivison in appartments.
The rooms are stiil in their original design
(Archives of the condominium "Le Gallic")

Some rooms could be reunited together to form a suite as follow : two rooms at the end of a corridor, one room on the sea side or on the street side and two other rooms on the garden side (either west or south), all serviced by a large entrance hall closed with a double door. It should be noted that all other rooms on the sea front could not be reunited. On the boulevard a first series of three interconnecting rooms, and a second series of two bedrooms, also communicating, can be reunited when needed.

Circa 1930, room rates written on a postcard of the hotel.
The meaning "garden"covers the rooms
located in the actual courtyard

(private collection)

The room interior decoration, according to few items that remains today, appears to be fairly typical of late 1910s and early 1920s. This period in term of style is still hesitating between modernity and the Louis XVI style “modernized” at the turn of the 20^th century. The rooms at the "Gallic Hotel" are apparently representative of this transition of style, creating yet an up to date hotel in the world of palaces of the time that remained strongly marked by revival decorations.

You have to keep in mind that although modernity is displayed without complex on external architecture of palaces during this period of time, it is never or very little displayed in the inside decoration, (hotel " Latitude 43" to Saint - Tropez 1932 - hotel "Splendid" in Dax -1923 - , are examples of such a modern inside decoration). Most of the time, modernity is only limited to decoration of public areas of the hotel (such as the bar at the "George V" hotel in Paris) and only mainly for commercial reasons.

However, in accordance with the minimalist movement in decoration that became of importance in the late 1920’s, Oudin reduced to a maximum the furnishing of the rooms, equipping them all a clever mirrored wardrobes "fronts" built in the walls thus avoiding the presence of anesthetic and large wardrobes that were cluttering hotel rooms at that time.

Again, to avoid cluttering the rooms, Marcel Oudin had integrated central heating radiators in niches. This explains alternatives windows and French doors, because the radiator is in fact installed under the window. On the sea front, the screen forms by the balcony rail, creates a visual effect of two perfect twin French doors, which in fact is not the case.

The wallpaper of the rooms was of an “Art deco” floral design.

Two models of wallpaper
from the rooms of the Gallic Hotel
(private collection)

As for the furniture, it included, among others, classic beds with a brass frame as in most hotels of that time (again for hygienic concerns), an inlaid vanity dresser “Parisian style" with a mirror and 5 drawers, and a matching table. These two pieces of furniture are very representative of the compromise between art deco and Louis XVI style. They were also characterized by a relatively simple and robust appearance that matched the functionality requirements of hotel furniture.

Inlaid vanity dresser and standard table
for the rooms of the Gallic Hotel.
In its current state
(private collection)

The model of seats remains unknown because no picture of these rooms is available. The few pieces of furniture that are presented above come from a storage of hotel furniture held by the company that decided the transformation of the building in 1949. At that time, this company intended to start an activity of furnished apartments in some of the rooms. This project was not carried out and thus first owners of the building were offered the opportunity to buy furniture from storage. Some of these pieces of furniture are still used today by some of the tenants.

One hundred of these rooms had each their own bathroom and toilets. The 30 rooms of 18 sqm only had a sink, with hot and cold water, without any other comfort.

The bathroom floor, like the rooms, was coated with the same red vitrified cement that was in the public areas still for hygienic reasons. Oriental rugs were used as bath mat.

View of a bathroom of a room
(private collection)

INTERIORS (5)

BASEMENT 

On the basement, there were right under the kitchen, a dining room for guest’s servants and drivers, where it was served local cuisine and table wine according to the Michelin Guide.
There were also service rooms such as a boiler room, a laundry room, storage room and a dozen bedrooms reserved for hotel staff. They could use common showers and toilets, an improvement quite unusual for hotel staff at that time.

The basement is a place for memorabilia of Dinard’s history. Happy memories of the 1930’s, when hotel staff covered the walls of the corridors with many graffiti relating their working lives.

Graffiti made by the hotel staff in the basement,
between 1927 and 1939
(photo P Viger) 

More painful memories of the Occupation period : one can still see chalk inscriptions in German Gothic characters on many doors. The basement was transformed and used as a bomb shelter formed by filling the rotunda pillars and soil excavation. This shelter was divided into three silos, and was intended to secure hospitalized soldiers. In fact, the hotel was turned into a hospital in September 1939 by the French army and later used for the same purpose by the German Army. According to some testimonies and for practical reason, the operation room of the hospital, had been installed on the dance floor under the bar canopy which received daylight in case of power shortage during operations. The ceiling of the bar canopy was painted with a red cross to prevent it from being a bomb target.

Graffiti and inscriptions realized between 1939 and 1944 
 (photo P Viger) 

In this shelter, Mr. Doury, acting as mayor, installed in Aug. 8, 1944, the temporary city hall and a single secretary continued to hold without interruption, civil registry on a simple school notebook. It is also at this place that around 200 inhabitants of Dinard still present when the city was liberated, waited for the happy ending of the ordeal.

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.

"

"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)

TODAY

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