Airport sleep pods get nod
BRITTANY is France at its easiest – a family-friendly, affordable gem. Here is our lowdown on the best bits.
God’s chainsaw French Cornwall
The Breton coastline has lots in common with Devon and Cornwall. It is a happy hunting ground for hikers, campers, foodies and families who want to go crabbing, seafood snacking or just stretch out on the sand.
It is at its most dramatic at Finisterre, its most westerly point. This stretch of coast is even called Cornouaille, like Cornwall.
The best locations are on the stretch from Brest down to Vannes, the most sheltered, south-facing shore, where God’s chainsaw has created creeks, coves and secret beaches.
And for keen hikers, the GR34 coastal path, which runs around the whole shoreline, is a worthy rival to our own southwest coastal path. Get help walking it from sanssacados.fr.
Peachy sands Best of the beaches
Although the sands of Brittany’s north coast are wide and pristine, the climate is not so good. So everyone heads south for the likes of La Baule, Carnac Plage and Le Pouldu.
La Baule is the biggest and most southerly, with six miles of sand in a semi-circular bay, a huge range of activities, classy villas and all the back up of a full-service resort.
Carnac is more laid-back, with the added attraction of mystical standing stones, older than Stonehenge.
And Le Pouldu is the most villagey, loved by Impressionist artist Gauguin, with a selection of beautiful little beaches. Find very inexpensive cottage stays through Gites de France at en.gitesde-france.com.
On your bike Easy cycle routes
Inland Brittany is a kingdom of cottages and vegetable patches, whose swirly landscapes are punctuated by tufts of forest and spidery villages of granite houses. A lot of food production is organic without trying.
It is also ideal cycle country and one of the best routes follows the Nantes-brest canal, spooking the herons and wishing the fishermen bonjour.
The canal runs through Pontivy, a handsome town of half-timbered houses with a proper castle from the dukes of Rohan. Locally based, English-owned Breton Bikes are the experts. See bretonbikes.com.
French Glasto King Arthur country
Broceliande, the country’s oldest forest, in central Brittany, west of capital Rennes, is the focus of France’s contribution to the King Arthur story.
There are lots of connections – King Arthur was a Celt, as are the Bretons, and Sir Thomas Malory’s version of the story, Le Morte d’arthur, takes place here. The 14th-century Chateau de Comper, not far from the village of Paimpont, hosts the Centre de l’imaginaire Arthurien, a focal point for research, Arthur-related arts and education.
And Broceliande itself, with Merlin’s tomb, Merlin’s spring and the Valley of No Return, has become a sort of French Glastonbury, attracting a cross section of free-thinking, alternative-living residents. You should stay in Paimpont’s Relais de Broceliande, see en.relais-de-broceliande.fr. WEARY passengers with long airport waits could soon catch 40 winks in a private sleep capsule. The Airpod will be trialled at several EU airports from autumn and would mean no more stretching out on n hard chairs when flights The French take camping seriously. In an all-singing all-dancing site like Domaine des Ormes, up by St Malo, there are cabins, mobile homes, stables, a boating lake, swimming pools, zipwires, a golf course and the largest number of treehouses in any one spot in France.
There is so much going on in the extensive grounds around the Domaine’s chateau you almost never need to leave the premises. See lesormes.com/en. A small but immaculate campsite such as Camping Les Grands Sables in are delayed. They feature a seat that turns into a bed, wi-fi, mood lighting, power sockets, luggage storage, sound reduction tech and flight updates. You can snooze overnight or for a quick nap. See air-pod.io/the-airpod. Le Pouldu has everything you could need in a more intimate setting, with beaches and boulangeries in walking distance, and for a much lower price. See camping-lesgrandssables.com/en.
Shellfish heaven Plus pancake paradise
Cancale, east of St Malo, is shellfish city. At low tide, the bay is busy with farmers, some selling oysters from stalls on the promenade. But most people come here for the parade of 50 restaurants, with highly competitive prices – less than £20 for a three-course menu with oysters, mussels, prawns and crab.
All along the Brittany coast you can buy fresh fish direct from the fishermen, particularly in creeks such as Merrien, where a couple of local boats sell direct to the public every afternoon.
Also on the waterside you find local viviers, establishments selling live shellfish and crustaceans, particularly oysters and mussels.
And wherever you go in Brittany, there will always be simple, cheap crepe restaurants, with savoury pancakes or thicker galettes at around £5, and dessert crepes even less.
Try the rural Creperie St Maurice on the banks of the river Laita, just south of Quimperle. See creperiedesaintmaurice.com.
Weedy world Marine harvest
The most obvious route from the UK is with Brittany Ferries, which offers cruise ferry sailings to ports at St Malo from Portsmouth and Roscoff from Plymouth. Both these Breton ports are delightful places in themselves, with St Malo a walled city whose port heaves with yachts. Visitors find Roscoff is an engagingly rural little town, still obsessed with fishing and farming. Because they are long-distance, both routes cost from £400 return in season, for a car plus two adults. You can make substantial savings by booking day-time crossings from Portsmouth to Cherbourg or Caen, but it will mean doing a lot more driving. See brittany-ferries. co.uk. Alternatively there are seasonal flights to Brest, Dinard, Rennes and Nantes from a heap of UK airports with Flybe, Easyjet and Ryanair.