kahern

too much to see - carnac, gulfe de morbihan, redon, malestroit, crozon peninsula, parish closes, cote de granit rose, dinan, st malo... what can i leave off?

traveller1959

You are right - much to see. When we go to Brittany, we spend usually two weeks at one place. We have travelled at least half a dozen times to Brittany (thus having spent there 12+ weeks) and still have not seen everything.

Please specify how much time do you have, from where you will come and to where you will go. Then we can help you find an itinerary that works.

kahern

traveller1959, ok ths is what i have so far: start in vannes (i've reserved 3 days there). i figure i'll take a boat cruise on the gulfe to get me thru the first day of jet lag; another day to see carnac. then heading north - but up the coast or along the nantes brest canal??? thinking of 2 days near quimper (dournenez?). then 2 days further north near the best parish closes. to dinan next (via cote de granit rose?) for 2 days, finally a nite on mont st-michel (it'll be a full moon so tides should be fantastic; it's also holy thursday and what a cool place to go to mass). it seems like an awfully busy 10 days, but don't know what to cut out.

kahern

thanks traveler1959. can you give me anymore help with my itinerary? i'll email you, or you can post here.

traveller1959

Sorry, now I am back from dinner. DW has a lengthy telephone call with her cousin, so I can answer your post.

3 nights in Vannes means two days.

See Carnac and drive to Quiberon peninsula. Visit Josselin Castle - the finest castle in Brittany.

On your way northwest, see Pont-Aven and Concarneau (a beautiful historical town). Stay overnight in the area (why not Douarnenez?).

Skip Brest and head to St. Thegonnec. Visit the best parish closes in St. Thegonnec and Guimililau. (BTW, Auberge St. Thegonnec is an excellent affordable restaurant with a Michelin Bib Gourmand).

Drive a little northwest to Kerjean and visit the castle. Drive a few miles further northwards to Plouescat and see the Baie de Kernic (walk through the Baie and the dunes). Very impressive is the half-submerged cairn.

Then drive eastwards. North of Morlaix, you find the Cairn of Barnenez - the most impressive archeological site in Brittany.

Head further eastwards, north of Lannion, drive the Corniche Bretonne between Trebeurden and Perros-Guirrec. Take the expressway to St. Brieuc, then drive northeast to the Emerald Coast. See the beautiful beach of Erquy and drive to Cap Frehel (beautiful landscape) and Fort La Latte (medieval castle).

Eastwards, you will see St. Malo, and, a short drive further, Mont St. Michel.

This itinerary will offer:

- castles
- prehistoric sites
- parish closes
- different types of scenic coastline
- picturesque villages
- medieval towns

It will fit into your timeframe.

hopingtotravel

Douarnenez was a pretty little town.

We had planned to stay near there last may and had a room booked at the Relaix & Chateau about 18 km away. Three months after we booked they CANCELLED our reservation as a wedding party booked the whole hotel.

So we spent one night at Hotel Guidlon in Audierne--a really nice option and the other night at Chateau de Guilguiffin, an even nicer option though not on the water.

Take a map and put some of the village names and hotel names from the parts of Brittany you think you might like to see into the search feature here and there are lots of posts from the last few years.

kahern

thank you traveller1959 for the sugguestions. your itinerary is varied, covers the main sites, and sounds very doable.

and thank you hopingtotravel for the idea about plugging various towns and/or hotels into fodor's search engine. it seems like an obvious idea when you say it, but i'm new to this.

bilboburgler

april still a little chilly,

for surfinf, you need to know that france is broken into department. Brittany is therefore 29, 35, 56, 22. You will find a web site "information touristique" on each of these. Being so close to UK there will be english versions of this.

Having written all this, I better check it is true but that is how france does its tourism, then links down to individual towns

bilboburgler

I'm sorry that works well in alsace so i thought...

one start is http://www.tourisme.fr/. move into the english and then click on the brittany links

johngerard

Last year we stayed near St Nazaire & took day trips out. One trip was to Vannes. The medieval town is surrounded by a castle wall & we had a lovely day out exploring the town with its narrow streets. The marina was under construction & there was a lot of dust blowing around. I don't think the work could be finished by this year.
After a few hours in the town we travelled out to Auray which was just over 30 minutes away. The port is a bit like a Disney set but it was a lovely spot to have a meal.
Travelling the roads around there you don't seem to be able to appreciate the scenery. It felt to me like I was rushing from one place to the next without seeing anything but road. The speed limit is 80mph & you have to go that fast to get anywhere.
It seems that most shops shut for dinner around 1.00 so make sure you beat the rush for lunch or have something to do for an hour at that time.

kahern

thanks bilbo. i'll check out the website.

john, that's something i'm worried about - missing everything while driving. and i'm going solo so don't have anyone to share the driving with. i may end up cutting out some of the sites i plan on visiting en route, and spend a longer more leisurely time hanging out in each of the areas where i'll be staying.

i think i'll stay a couple of nites in douarnenez at Manoir de Kervent; and two more at La Grange de Coatelan in a village near all the best parish closes. (both of those are from B&Bs of Character & Charm.) two nites at a little hotel in dinan will be my last stop in brittany, before going to mont st-michel. i wanted to stay at just 2 towns for 3 days each, but i couldn't bring myself to cut out any one of them.

johngerard

I drove from Paris to near St Nazaire & can't say I saw much to remember. We left at around 10.00 & got there about 5.00. Stopping at the 'motorway' diners where it was always packed. I was expecting that I would have seen some chateau's or passed through some interesting towns but the roads bypass all that.
Returning to Calais was another blur of fast driving with little time to detour - that was 7 hours driving. Even on our day trips out we seemed to miss the pretty towns & villages that we expected to pass through.

traveller1959

Driving:

If you want to cover a great distance in limited time you take the autoroutes or dual carriageways which are generally not scenic.

If you have time and want to see something look carefully on your 1:200'000 Michelin map (or viamichelin.fr). The scenic roads are marked with a green line - and this marking is very reliable.

I also like to drive the very small (white) roads - they are crooked and narrow but it is nice driving.

They will lead you through the smallest villages. On the Michelin maps, look for special items like dolmens and menhirs. They are everywhere in Brittany, often just in the middle of a field.

hopingtotravel

We used the freeways to get out to the westernmost point in Brittany, but got off to see Locranan, Pleyben, and then on to Audierne.

Then we used them again Quimper to Vannes, but got off to see Carnac and Pont Aven. Worked out fine.

kahern

thanks y'all. i see the green lines on the map, so i'll try to work in as many of those and the "white roads" as i can. then hop on an autoroute if i need to cover some ground. i'm taking the train from paris to vannes, to i'll get to relax and watch the scenery for the longest stretch.

what's the difference between an autoroute & carriage way?

traveller1959

>>what's the difference between an autoroute & carriage way?<<

The main difference is that the autoroute generally has a speed limit of 130 km/h while the dual carriageway ("divided highway" in American English?) has a general speed limit of 110 km/h. However, the dual carriageway is almost as fast as the autoroute since there are no stops.

On normal highways, your average speed will not exceed 60 km/h. Often, the average speed on the yellow marked highways is higher than on the red marked highways because there is less traffic and less congestion.

If you are driving the white roads and you do not have a GPS it is sometimes not easy to find directions, especially in small towns. But this is part of the fun of driving through the countryside.

annhig

hi kahern,

our September 5 day tour of Brittany took us from Morlaix [the granite coast] via the Crozon peninsular, to quimper.

if them all, the crozon peninsular was the bit we enjoyed least and you could easily jettison it from your itinerary and stil have a very good time.

a night in quimper to enjoy the beautiful square at night and the terrific museum of folklore [get those headdresses] in the morning would be high on my list.

regards, ann

Padraig

kahern asked: "what's the difference between an autoroute & carriage way?"

In Brittany, the difference is significant: there are no autoroutes. There is a network of "voies express" (dual carriageways) on which traffic generally moves quite efficiently, but they offer little opportunity for sightseeing in transit.

sheila

We've spent two fortnights in Brittany and much prefer the wild west. Fewer people, "better" landscape, lighthouses, sea, seafood, more Breton spoken and written.still lots of ancient history, but less modern.

I'd point you right out to Finisterre