The best of France – to the power of three
MRS Milton wanted to go to Normandy, the children were hooked on Brittany and I was keen to visit the Loire.
‘Why don’t we do all three?’ I suggested optimistically. My ideas rarely get the family thumbs up, but on this occasion it worked. A fortnight later we set off in our unglamorous Citroen Berlingo on a 300-mile trip through northern France.
Our first stop was the picturepostcard port of Honfleur, left miraculously unscathed by the Allied landings that took place near here in June 1944.
The gabled houses and fishing harbour are little changed from a century ago. The only reminders of D-Day are the fractured concrete pillboxes, buried up to their shoulders in the long miles of golden sand.
After wandering through Honfleur’s cobbled backstreets, we headed for Dives-sur-Mer, known locally as ‘the village of William the Conqueror’. In 1066, Duke William set sail from here with 55,000 soldiers in 700 ships.
It’s hard to believe the conquest began in this little backwater of well-kept cottages and tidy flower-gardens. Dives springs to life but once a week, on Saturday, when it hosts a market selling smoked hams, cheeses and home-made ciders. For the rest of the time, the cats, dogs (and villagers) snooze in the sunshine.
I toasted William the Conk’s success (somewhat grudgingly) with a glass of local, apple-rich Calvados. Then, after a bracing seaside walk, we headed along the coast towards Brittany.
This top-left corner of France has never felt particularly French, and with good reason. For much of its early history it was fiercely independent, more closely connected with Cornwall than the mother country.
The Breton language has been revived in many areas and there are dozens of colourful Breton festivals. But if you really want to experience the local spirit of independence then you need to visit the port of St Malo.
Once notorious as the home of pirates, it declared itself a free- standing t di republic bli i in th the 1590s. The port soon grew so powerful that English shipping in the Channel had to pay tribute to the Breton corsairs.
St Malo’s solid castle and the town’s fortifications are still its greatest draw, the looming granite walls and thick-set bastions giving a heavy hint at the town’s violent past.
Unlike Honfleur, St Malo was bombed to oblivion in 1944. Even the citadel was destroyed and most of the houses turned to dust. What you see today is the product of a painstaking post-war reconstruction.
On the onward drive from Brittany you go through dappled woods, back-of-beyond villages and family farms. And then – unexpectedly – every village seems to possess an impossibly huge Renaissance castle. You have reached the Loire.
We headed for the Chateau de Chambord, the most illustrious of all. King Francois I built it so that people would remember him a as ‘the greatest builder in the u universe’.
It’s more like a town than a c castle: 365 chimneys, 440 ro rooms and 85 staircases. King Francois found it so vast, cold an and draughty that he declared it unsuitable as a home, and sp spent fewer than 40 nights he here.
H He might have preferred Ch Chateau du Clos Lucé, the last ho home of Leonardo da Vinci. In it its vaulted chambers, he dreamed up some of his complex machines, models of which are on display in the cellars.
We continued until we crossed the mighty River Loire. It was evening and we stopped at a bar on the water’s edge and sipped white wine as the sun slipped slowly into the landscape.
‘So, what did you like best?’ I asked the family.
‘Normandy,’ said Mrs M, unusually decisive. ‘Brittany,’ said the girls. ‘And you?’
I liked all three. But they told me that was cheating.
DFDS Seaways (dfdsseaways.co.uk) and Brittany Ferries (brittany-ferries.co.uk) serve ports in northern France. Find details on the areas at brittanytourism.com, www.normandie-tourisme.fr and paysdelaloire.co.uk.