Photo spot in Dinard & the Emerald Coast
The Plage de l'Écluse and its bathing tents
The town's crescent beach under the casino, lined every summer with blue-and-white striped tents — Dinard's oldest photographic habit.
About The Plage de l'Écluse and its bathing tents
Get directionsThe Écluse is the beach that made Dinard: a wide crescent of sand between two rocky headlands, the casino on the promenade above, and the rows of striped canvas tents that have been rented by the season here since the resort's earliest days. Nothing else on this coast looks like it.
Two positions do the work. From the sea wall above, the tents line up in rows and the whole curve of sand runs away toward the Pointe du Moulinet — the frame that says Dinard in one image. Down on the sand, the same tents become a graphic backdrop, and at low water the beach doubles in size and gives you room to work far from anyone.
The light comes from the west, so this is an afternoon and sunset beach; morning leaves it flat and shaded. In July and August it is genuinely full by eleven, and the seaward end of the promenade holds the bronze Hitchcock that the town's British film festival left behind — a small, easy landmark to build a shot around.
Best time to shoot
Afternoon to sunset, spring to early autumn, while the tents are up
Tips
The tents are seasonal — check they are in place before building the shot around them. At high water the sand almost disappears, but the sea wall above still works.
Other spots in Dinard & the Emerald Coast
The Promenade du Clair de Lune to the Pointe du Moulinet
A narrow seafront path through palms and agaves along the Baie du Prieuré, climbing to the headland where the villas look straight at Saint-Malo.
Saint-Lunaire and the Pointe du Décollé
A rock headland four kilometres west of Dinard, with a footbridge over a sea cave and the whole Emerald Coast opening on both sides.
Cap Fréhel
Pink sandstone cliffs seventy metres above the sea, a heath of gorse and heather, and a lighthouse at the end of the road — the wild end of the Emerald Coast.
Ready to book?
Our concierge team will hand-pick 2-3 photographers who know The Plage de l'Écluse and its bathing tents — free of charge.