Brittany 2010:
9 Days Touring The Coast
This is a flashback post to the big trip of last Summer, 2010. On a grey February day it’s good to look back on a great trip.
Our successful tour to West Wales in September 2009 gave us confidence that the van could handle reasonable distances with no problem. So we crossed the channel for nine days in Brittany, but was the weather as good? And did the van run smoothly on it’s first foreign trip?
Saturday 26 June
We packed the van at 3pm and drove on to Portsmouth via the M25 and A3, stopping briefly at The Devil’s Punchbowl to admire the view and stand in the glorious sunshine.
In Portsmouth we had an hour to kill so we found a back street chippy and had fish and chips on Southsea promenade where we saw the ferry arriving from St Malo. After boarding we watched the sun set on the deck of the MV Bretagne. Our cabin with a window was fine but wasn’t as nice as the ones pictured in the promotional images, which are from another ship. As the Isle of Wight passed by and the red sun disappeared behind it we had a bottle of wine and played iPad scrabble on the Yacht bar’s outside deck.
Sunday 27 June
A beautiful morning in St Malo. Mark was chanting “drive on the right” to remind himself. We drove on to St Briac to have a morning coffee on the promenade above the beach. A couple of different middle-aged French couples wished us “Bon cafe!” as we sat taking in the idyllic view of the chateau and moored yachts. What an utterly perfect start to the day and our trip. Tearing ourselves away we drove the coastal road towards St Brieuc, with a stop at Cap Fréhel to look at the historic lighthouse towers on the cliffs.
St Brieuc seems unappealing as you approach on the expressway but in the heart of the town is a dark, solid and cool cathedral. The attractive half timbered houses on the hilly streets north of the cathedral were worth a look.
After an unintended detour the wrong way out of town we got back on the main road up the coast to Binic. We’d read a Just Kampers thread that mentioned the municipal site in Binic was a great spot to stop, and how right they were. Our full site review explains the details but it was everything we were looking for; wonderful views, not too big, simple facilities and very peaceful. The continuing gorgeous weather helped with all round feelings of happiness.
Before dinner we took a walk down in to town and bought some Breton cider. The town wasn’t quite a traditional and rustic as we might have liked but it was being enjoyed by plenty of holiday makers. Back at the van we had some packet food we’d brought from home as being a Sunday, there weren’t any grocery shops open in the town.
Monday 28 June
We decided to stay another night at Les Fauvettes and officially booked in. Yesterday we just chose a pitch that we fancied as the managers were not working. They came by later and said we could check in on Monday. The manager was a lovely and informative lady who recommended a good beach and tide times for swimming.
In the morning Mark took a walk to the more distant Plage du Corps de Garde. Apparently it’s cleaner and quieter than the main town beaches. David lounged around he van and wrote the campsite review.
Tuesday 29 June
We were reluctant to leave Binic but knew there was more to see on the Cote de Granit Rose. So at noon we set off north and made our first stop shortly in Saint-Quay Portrieux. Dave had a swim in the seawater pool and then we climbed the steps to have lunch overlooking the beach at Cote Resto.
After lunch we pressed on to Abbaye de Beauport, near Paimpol, which is a lovely semi-ruined abbey surrounded trees and meadows of wild flowers. We didn’t go in as we felt we’d seen the best of the place and had further to go.
Passing through nearby Paimpol we arrived at Tour de Kerroc’h over looking Paimpol.
Our next stop Perros Guirec was a nice and well-to-do place. We stopped to shop for bread, veggies and some delicious macaroons in three small shops.
We considered staying at Trestrou Camping near one of the town’s beaches and while it seemed nice and leafy, it didn’t have the kind of view our favourite sites have had, so we pressed on towards Tregastel.
The coast road passed a lovely lookout point over the pink granite of Ploumanach. Just beyond Tregastel we first tried Camping du Port with it’s beach side pitches, but they were all booked up. Getting a bit concerned we made one last try and our perseverance was rewarded with a fantastic spot in the nearby Landrellec Municipal. Pitch 64 on the site’s hillside has a great view over the boulder strewn bay and across to Ile Grande.
The site is wonderfully peaceful with just the sound of waves and birds. It seems like great time of year to be visiting France, before the July/August peak season.
Wednesday 30 June
The day started cool but soon warmed up. Mark took a run and picked up croissants for breakfast. A non-driving day, our first activity was a short walk along the coast towards Tregastel. On our return we continued in to Landrellec village and went to the creperie Mark had seen earlier, only to find it closes on Wednesdays! How do they make money?
Fortunately Le Macareaux restaurant by the beach was open. As you will see from the photos, it was a great three course meal.
They specialise in local lobster and seafood, but have a small a la carte selection too. We didn’t have lobster and seeing other diner’s plates, were glad we didn’t as they were pretty small. Prices are currently the same numbers you might see in a nice London restaurant, but in Euro, so depending on the current exchange rate, they’re relatively expensive. The food was very well presented and apart from the over cooked and salted vegetables, tasted great. Our very relaxed and sunny three course lunch left us feeling extremely content and for that, it was worth every penny.
After a rest we wandered down to the beach at low tide. Dave went for a swim in his wetsuit which felt a bit tighter than it used to be in Cornwall 2003!
Our gas bottle is nearly empty so we had a simple dinner of bread, cheese and meats. While we ate there was a late burst of sun so we hung our second wind break over the guy ropes of the canopy for shade. It worked surprisingly well!
Thursday 1 July
We realised last night that we were almost out of gas, so this morning we could only just boil a kettle for coffee. We decided to explore west of Landrellec today but first headed in to Tregastel for a coffee at the cafe next to the patisserie where we had bought an almond croissant. The gas situation was resolved with two new camping-gaz bottles at Mr Bricomarche and we also stocked up on groceries at Super U.
The first real destination of the day was Ile Grande. It’s more of a headland than an island but has the feel of an island with one road on and off. Our first stop was a prehistoric ’stone table’ or covered passage. We knew there would be a quiet spot for lunch somewhere and after a bit of driving we found the perfect spot at end of a road out into a tidal bay. We cooked up a fantastic three course lunch by the dunes.
In the afternoon we pressed on west to Lannion driving up to Brélévenez church and looking down the picturesque stairs. We took another route back towards Landrellec via Pleumeur-Bodu, where we took a picture in front of the giant white ball of the Cite de Telecomunication and visited the interesting living archeology site Le Village Gaulois. Down a winding country back road we found the Menhir de St Uzec. Originally a giant neolithic standing stone it was Christianised with carvings when paganism was being campaigned against.
For dinner we got a couple of pizzas from a van which parked up by the site gates and went by the name Tonypizz.
Later in the evening we packed the canopy and wind-break ready for a long drive back to St-Malo tomorrow and in preparation for expected rain in the morning.
Friday 2 July
As predicted it was a rainy morning, but our preparations last night made it little hassle to get on the road. Breakfast was a cup of coffee and a couple of muesli brioche.
It was a smooth and trouble free drive 90 miles cross-country to the fantastically preserved medieval city of Dinan. We parked in Place du Champ near a pale blue and white tin-top early bay, one of just a few VWs we’ve seen this trip. We walked past the bell tower and into the maze of streets in search of a restaurant for lunch. However because it was 2pm most places had stopped serving lunch! It worked out fine though as we had our first crepes of the trip in the shadow of the bell tower at Creperie Anha (Lunch served until 2.30pm). It was one suggested in the Lonely Planet and we’d recommend it too. Mark had a sausage and potatoe galette while David had a mushroom, smoked lardon and cream. Both were very good and a lot less sloppy than some we saw on peoples plates outside the dozens of creperies in the town.
The steep street down to the port is hard to believe with it’s continual medieval loveliness. The long climb back up to the town required a break for a carafe of wine at an empty creperie.
Back at the van we were approached by a nice couple of Brits who it turned out were the owners of the early bay. We had a good chat about traveling with a bus.
The short trip to St-Malo wasn’t picturesque but we were soon at Cite d’Alet municipal campsite on the site of the original settlement of St Malo. It’s a wooded headland overlooking both the St Malo ville and Dinard. Adjoining the site is the fort which shows clear signs of the World War II wounds wrought on the city by the Allies in their liberation of France.
We walked around Alet and got some wine, cake and groceries for our dinner.
Saturday 3 July
We were woken at 6.45am by birds cawing and distant announcements from the ferry port, but managed to snooze until 9.30am. Mark took a run to the edge of the city walls and back before a fried egg sandwich breakfast.
We walked around the fort and half way around the walls before cutting through back streets to find somewhere to eat. It was busy but we found a quieter place for a salad in the sunshine. By the time we left we were pretty sure it was a gay cafe.
We continued our walk around the walls and bought ice creams on the way back around the bay to Alet. There was an unwelcome surprise back at the campsite. Our pitch had been blocked in by teenagers, their tents and their parent’s car parked right up to the van. Over a blaring radio we explained they would need to move their tents so we could get our van out and quickly decided to move to a new pitch there and then. It was a shame as we liked our spot in the trees, but it was better than being bothered by noisy kids and their apparently inconsiderate parents.
Sunday 4 July
Another clear blue sky this morning. The ferry departed at 10.30am on a flat sea. Ahead of us a 9 hour voyage between the Cherbourg peninsula and the Channel Islands to Portsmouth. The day passed easily and the drive back to London was straight forward. Our first foreign trip has gone even better than we had hoped it would. We wish that instead of heading home we could head on to another stop on a grand tour. One day we will.
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