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Points of Interest Between Tours & Auray, France

Points of Interest Between Tours & Auray, France

Old Aug 1st, 2010, 07:18 AM
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Points of Interest Between Tours & Auray, France

We will be driving between Tours (Loire Valley region) and Auray ( Bregagne region) in the next few days.

We have all day to do this trip, and would welcome any suggestions for interesting towns or landmarks that we should stop at along the way.

Many thanks; Di
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Old Aug 1st, 2010, 07:53 AM
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Viamichelin shows the best route to take you through Angers, Nantes, and Vannes. All three are interesting places, well worth stopping at. If you've spent time in the Loire valley before leaving, you may be less interested in stopping at Angers for yet another chateau/castle, although the one in Angers is quite different from many of the others you might already have seen. The gardens surrounding it are very pretty and the town is nice as well.
Nantes is the largest of the 3 (approx 275,000 people) and might take up more of your time getting into and out of town. Its big claims to fame are the Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne and the LU biscuit. I recall a large glass shopping center in the middle of town and the strikingly beautiful restaurant La Cigale, a belle epoque brasserie with fantastic interiors. You might want to consider it for your lunch stop.
Vannes is the smallest of the three and would afford fairly easy entry and exit. It has beautiful half-timbered houses and the Cathedral St. Pierre. It is a 4 flower Ville Fleurie and great to walk about in as there are flowers everywhere.

If you are staying a while in Auray, I highly recommend visits to La Trinite sur Mer, a beautiful port which serves as a harbor to 1200 to 1500 sailboats and to St. Anne d'Auray with its pilgrimage basilica and war memorial. Both are very close to Auray (about 25 km or less)
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Old Aug 1st, 2010, 08:41 AM
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Thank you so much, Julie! We are actually on a home exchange for 4 weeks in the Loire, so will have plenty of time to visit Angers from our base here.

Nantes sounds like a great lunch stop - what on earth is a LU biscuit (quite a mind-boggling title)!

We'll have 2 nights in Auray before returning here, so will make sure we follow your suggestions.

As this is a two-way trip, does anyone else have more suggestions for the return journey? Thanks, Di
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Old Aug 1st, 2010, 09:01 AM
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Julie has good advice. Of the three places she mentioned, I would make sure that you don't miss Vannes - one of my favorite small villages in France. Both Nantes & Angers are OK cities - but not in my "favorites" list. Last year Angers was "dug up" in the center of town - they were doing a major "dig" and pedestrian & auto traffic was re-routed. Don't know if the project is finished yet. The Chateau at Angers is really just a ruin with the majestic walls still in tact, and an interesting tapistry inside. I think the Chateau is more "photographic" from the outside than from the inside.

Nantes was hit pretty hard in WWII & parts of it are not as interesting as Rennes & other major cities in the region. Le Cigal is quite a feast for the eyes - as Julie mentioned. The Ducs de Bretagne is a museum - not an interior of a castle (with tapistries, furniture, etc). It just opened a few years ago, and has rooms describing Nantes' participation in the American slave trade, and other things about Nantes. There is a LU bisquit exhibit at the castle.

Between Nantes & Vannes there are several small villages with lots of very pretty thatched-roofed houses. These villages are hard to find on the map. Look for Kerbourg & Kerhinet. They are just a little northeast of Guerande - which is a cute (but touristy) village worth exploring.

Stu Dudley
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Old Aug 1st, 2010, 09:06 AM
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A Lu biscuit is just that - a tasty Brittany butter biscuit. We keep a package in the car all the time while traveling in France, so that if we get the "munchies" - we have something to satisfy it. There is a former factory in Nantes with a giant Lu biscuit tower. The inside of the former factory has been turned into some sort of a study center.

Stu Dudley
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Old Aug 1st, 2010, 09:58 AM
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since you're going back and forth perhaps you can stop in Nantes on the way to Auray and in Vannes with a look at the places Stu mentions on the return. Thanks, Stu, for the suggest re: villages between Nantes and Vannes. We'll be staying in La Trinite sur Mer for 4 days in late August and I've been looking for more places to explore. Sounds like I've found some.
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Old Aug 1st, 2010, 10:14 AM
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Don't miss the apocalypse tapestry at the chateau in Angers and the Jean Lurcat tapestry museum after you've seen the original.

Vannes is one of the most delightful towns in Brittany.
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Old Aug 1st, 2010, 12:05 PM
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Thanks, everyone - hope we manage to cover everything in our travels; will report in on our return. Cheers, Di
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Old Aug 1st, 2010, 03:53 PM
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I've just returned from one of my usual vacations in Brittany around the Gulf of Morbihan and a village I highly recommend visiting is Rochefort en Terre. It is just out of this world charming and goes way overboard with the flowers. It is classified as 1)one of the most beautiful villages in France, 2)a small city of character and 3)a flowered city. I've been to many of the famous "most beautiful villages" in France and my wife and I agree that this one ranks higher than just about any other we've seen.

I love Vannes and in La Trinité sur Mer make sure to find the old Bourg just behind the main strip along the harbor. It is loaded with charming old streets and typical Breton architecture. Just down the road from La Trinité sur Mer is Locmariaquer, which is a cute village as well. If you have time a must see in the area are the ancient alignments of standing stones in Carnac and the loads of other ancient megalith sites in the area. I'll have a trip report up by the end of the week with lots of photos if you want to check back and see what I'm talking about.
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Old Aug 2nd, 2010, 08:06 AM
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Thanks for your additional info FMT - will look forward to your trip report. Di
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Old Aug 2nd, 2010, 08:46 AM
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The whole business of Villes Fleuri is worthy of attention in my experience. When I'm going to a new area of France I will consult the website of this organization and note any villages with 3 or 4 flower ranks on my expected route to plan to stop to see them and will even detour to do so. That's how we got to Rochefort en Terre recommended above. Check them out at www.villes-et-villages-fleuris.com
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Old Aug 2nd, 2010, 11:19 AM
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What an excellent site that is, Julie!

We had happened across a couple of the towns around the Loire / Cher region already, but now I have a much more comprehensive list to work from.
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Old Aug 2nd, 2010, 11:29 AM
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Yes, don't miss Rochfort-en-Terre - you feel transported to
centuries past.

We rented a gite just on the outskirts and got to know this
village. It worked its magic even during a week of teeming rain!
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Old Aug 7th, 2010, 07:03 AM
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Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to our Bretagne experience - we had a very busy and most interesting time!

Our base at a Logis hotel in Auray was ideal; we were on the port side of the old town, and took our time exploring there. Plenty of visitors around, but not over-crowded.

For anyone visiting, make sure you wander in to the Choclaterie and Buscuiterie G. Larnicol at 1 Quay Saint-Martin . . . the biscuits and chocolate are just heavenly!

We spent the best part of a day exploring the coast between Locmariaquer and Port Louis - just as delightful as you had all lead us to believe. A word of warning, though; if you are planning to visit Quiberon, do arrive early in the morning at this time of year. We had headed there first thing, and spent a couple of hours wandering around. By the time we were driving out of the town around 11am, the single-lane only road down the peninsula was jam packed with cars just crawling along for around 15km. I don't know where on earth they would leave their vehicles, as the park & ride area wasn't that large, and I hope they were planning a very late lunch!

Saint-Anne d'Auray was another real surprise - such a magnificent Basiiica, pilgrim stairs and war memorial tucked away there.

I am so pleased that the secret of Rochefort-en-Terre was revealed to us - one of those little towns with great character, and some of the best flowers we've seen on this trip. Plenty of choice for places to eat; we had lunch on an open terrace pizza & salad cafe. It was great to realise that we were the only people dining there who were not french speaking, although we are fast learning to at least order our food and drinks in french.

Many thanks, Di
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Old Aug 7th, 2010, 09:32 AM
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Glad to hear you had a wonderful time Di!
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