Stylist’s Tom Gormer is seduced by the chic resort town of Dinard in Brittany, and its hip new boutique hotel, Castelbrac

You know those idle dreams you have about a Plan B career, running an Instagram-hip florist or a supercool doughnut shop? Well, what do those dreams look like a few years on, when you’ve sold your floristry or doughnut empire to the highest bidder? If you’re anything like me, you think about cashing in that bumper cheque, moving somewhere idyllic and writing that novel. Somewhere quiet, culturally distinct and full of charm, yet not too far from the UK, so you can nip back and forth? Stop looking, because I have found the place. Google ‘Dinard’ now. Bookmark it. And thank me later.

The popular French resort of Dinard is like walking into an 8pm Sunday night ITV drama. Think The Darling Buds Of May meets The Durrells. Or, if your tastes lean towards the highbrow, like stepping into one of the oils that Picasso painted here in the Twenties; all cliff-hugging mansions, striped beach huts, golden sands and people living the good life.

In the late 19th century, British and American aristocrats made Dinard fashionable as a summer resort, building elegant villas on the clifftops and sipping cocktails at the hotels on the promenade during the belle époque. Dubbed the ‘Cannes of the north’, Dinard has continued to attract a genteel crowd to the north coast of Brittany: Winston Churchill holidayed nearby on the Rance river, Alfred Hitchcock and Oscar Wilde both visited, Lawrence of Arabia lived here as a young boy, and Joan Collins is still a regular visitor.

Escape routes: bask in a belle époque retreat at the Breton seaside resort of Dinard