Brittany, Normandy and the Channel coast
An Oura ring missing after flying a kite on the Sillon in Saint-Malo while the tide was out
The Sillon runs from the walled town to Paramé, with oak breakwaters standing on the sand and villas along the digue above it.
An Oura ring that went during a kite afternoon on the Sillon can be looked for once the tide has gone back out. The villa on the digue or the breakwater you were level with, together with the hour it went, is what points a detectorist to the right part of the beach.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Saint-Malo, Dinard, Deauville or Le Touquet with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the beach, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
A pin before the water comes in
Stand where you sat or flew the kite and store that spot as a location on your phone, before the sea comes back over it. Where the tide goes out this far, a location recorded on the spot beats anything written later. Take one photo from there towards the digue or the seafront, and note two times: when you can still picture the ring on your hand, and when you realised it had gone. Shake out the kite bag and the towels over bare sand before packing up.
Beaches and promenades on this page
- Saint-Malo
- Plage du Sillon
- Plage de la Hoguette
- Plage de Rochebonne
- Plage de Bon-Secours
- Plage de l'Éventail
- Plage du Môle
- Dinard
- Plage de l'Écluse
- Plage du Prieuré
- Plage de Saint-Énogat
- Promenade du Clair de Lune
- Deauville
- Deauville beach
- Les Planches, Deauville
- Trouville-sur-Mer
- Promenade Savignac and the beach, Trouville-sur-Mer
- Le Touquet-Paris-Plage
- Le Touquet beach, from the Canche bay to Stella-Plage
- The bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, walked from Genêts
Emerald Coast, Côte Fleurie and Opal Coast
Saint-Malo and Dinard look at each other across the bay. Deauville and Trouville-sur-Mer are on the Côte Fleurie in Normandy, and Le Touquet is on the Côte d'Opale.
The Sillon, the Hoguette and Rochebonne, Saint-Malo
The Sillon is Saint-Malo's biggest sand beach, running from Intra-Muros to Paramé and taking in the Grande Plage, the Hoguette and Rochebonne. Along it runs the digue, a promenade lined with villas, and a row of oak breakwaters stands on the beach. It is good for swimming and for windy days, when kites and windsurf boards come out.
Bon-Secours, the Éventail and the Môle, Saint-Malo
Bon-Secours is reached through the ramparts and the walled town. It is a busy sand beach with a sailing school, looking out over the bay to Dinard. The Éventail, sheltered by the ramparts, faces the Fort National at the very start of the Sillon. The Môle faces west behind the jetty that shelters the port, and fills up in summer.
The Écluse and Saint-Énogat, Dinard
In the centre of Dinard, the Écluse is a large stretch of fine sand facing north. In rough weather the waves crash against its seawall. Saint-Énogat, reached past the Jules Verne fountain, is another north-facing beach of fine sand lined with villas.
The Prieuré and the Promenade du Clair de Lune, Dinard
The Prieuré lies at the far end of its own bay, the first big beach on the way into Dinard from the Rance dam. The wind reaches it less than the open beaches, the sand shelves very gently, and at low tide the sea goes a long way out. From its seawall the coastal path leads to the Promenade du Clair de Lune, a walk of gardens and Belle Époque villas looking over the bay to Saint-Malo, where the sea bus from Saint-Malo comes in. East of Saint-Malo, guided walks cross the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel barefoot from the Bec d'Andaine at Genêts.
Deauville beach and the Planches, with Trouville next door
Deauville's beach has its Art Deco cabins and parasols, and the Planches, a boardwalk of azobé wood, run past the cabins with the names of film directors and actors marked along them. In season, large masts with boats, houses, trains and balloons are planted on the beach to help children find their way around, and they work just as well for placing a loss. Next door, Trouville-sur-Mer has its own Planches, the Promenade Savignac, also of azobé wood, running along the top of the beach below the seafront villas. Below it, the beach is fine sand and shells, with a club de plage and a lifeguard post in summer.
The beach at Le Touquet-Paris-Plage
Le Touquet's beach is eleven kilometres of fine sand and dunes, from the Canche bay at the northern tip to Stella-Plage in the south, and at low tide a great deal of it is uncovered. Avenue Louison Bobet runs along the seafront at the southern end of the town, and sand yachts go out on the wide beach.
Who reads your message, and what you hear back
Questions come back to you
If the detectorist needs to know which side of a breakwater you sat on, the question reaches you in the same WhatsApp chat, from the person you have been writing to since your first message.
On the boards or on the sand
At Deauville, say whether you were on the Planches or had stepped down onto the beach. They are two different searches, and the brief is written for one or the other.
Planned around the tide
A loss on sand the sea covers later in the day is searched once the water has gone back out, so the date and hour you give us go into the brief and the detectorist plans the visit around them.
Time to think it over
We explain the costs before any search is booked, and a reply saying you need a day to decide is a perfectly normal answer.
Sand, boards and a sea that moves twice a day
What to keep in mind from Saint-Malo to Le Touquet.
Some of Europe's biggest tides
The bay of Saint-Malo, Dinard included, has some of the biggest tides in Europe, and the sea comes in and goes out twice a day. Sand that was dry when you arrived can be under the sea later the same day, so the hour of the loss matters as much as the place.
Markers that stay put
The oak breakwaters along the Sillon and the villas on the digue behind them do not move with the tide. Whichever one stood nearest to you is worth a photo, and so is the view along the beach from your towel.
What people ask about Saint-Malo, Dinard, Deauville and Le Touquet
How do I show where we flew the kite on the Sillon, now the sea has come back over that sand?
Use what stays above the water. Tell us which villa on the digue or which oak breakwater you were level with, since either can be found again whatever the tide is doing. Add the time you were flying and the time you noticed the Oura ring had gone. If it could have come off at any point of the afternoon, anywhere along the Sillon, it is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
The strap on my watch gave way somewhere along the Planches at Deauville.
Work along the boards by the names on them. The Planches run past the Art Deco beach cabins, with the names of directors and actors invited to the American Film Festival marked along the way. The last names you remember reading, and the points where you stepped onto the boards and off them again, frame the stretch to look at.
Car keys went missing on the sand where Avenue Louison Bobet ends in Le Touquet.
At low tide a great deal of the beach at Le Touquet is uncovered, so start with the time and whether the sea was near or far out. The end of the avenue gives you a starting point: pin the spot where you walked down onto the sand, say which way you went from there, and whether the keys were in a pocket, a bag or your hand.
A ring came off on the sand at Trouville, below the Promenade Savignac.
Tell us which part of the boards you came down from and where you sat on the sand, whether the lifeguard post or the club de plage was nearer, and whether the tide was in or out. A photo from your spot towards the villas on the seafront helps.
A bracelet went during a swim at the Écluse in Dinard.
The Écluse is a large beach of fine sand facing north in the centre of Dinard, and people swim there at high tide and at low tide, so the time of your swim matters as much as the spot. Tell us where along the beach you went down: at the western end the sand is level with the seawall, and on the eastern side you reach it by stairs.
I think my phone slipped out as we stepped off the sea bus onto the Promenade du Clair de Lune.
Think back to whether it went at the landing itself or later on the walk. The sea bus from Saint-Malo puts you straight onto the promenade, which runs between the Pointe du Moulinet and the Prieuré beach. Say whether anyone heard a splash, the time of the crossing, and which garden or villa you had reached when you went to use the phone.
My wedding band went while I walked out to the water at the Prieuré in Dinard at low tide.
At low tide the sea goes out too far at the Prieuré for a swim, and the slope is very gentle, so a lot of sand lay between your towel and the water. Send a pin where you left your things, the line you walked out on if you remember it, and the hour you set off, which tells us how far out the edge of the sea was.
An earring went somewhere between the walled town and the sand at Bon-Secours.
Bon-Secours is reached through the ramparts and the walled town of Saint-Malo, so say whether you noticed the gap on the beach or only later, back among the streets. Mark where you sat on the sand, and send a photo of the other earring if you still have it.
Brittany, Normandy and the Channel coast
Before the next tide, or a week later
The Emerald Coast, the Côte Fleurie and the Côte d'Opale.
One WhatsApp message naming the beach and the piece that went gets things moving, whether it went this morning or on the last day of a trip that is already over. If you noticed whether the sea was in or out, say so. Your pin and pictures can come after that.