Rance

To the right, Grand Bé, a corner of Saint-Hélier, the Pointe du Décollé, and Cape Fréhel.

To the left, the jetty and the mole, the mouth of the Rance, the beach of Prahec near Dinard, and the gray dome of Saint-Servan.

Formerly, Saint-Malo was an island, and perhaps Captain Antifer regretted the time when he would have been called an islander.

But the ancient Aran has become a peninsula, and he has to make the best of it.

He had been born in the painted cabin of a canal barge, and in a barge he had spent his life.

First as a hand, then as captain of the Charmante Amelie.

He had been up and down the Rance from Dinard to Dinan, from Dinan to Plumago to return with a load of wood, of wine, of coal, according to the trade.

He hardly knew of any other river.