PalenQ

Dinan is preferred by many over St-Malo (including moi) but I also stayed in St-Malo and found it a very interesting city with all its fortifications - too bad was damaged a lot in war...take a short look at St-Malo anyway.

dcd

OK, after much thought and additional research, I'm back with our final itinerary:

Arrive CDG in morning, take train to Rennes and spend 2 nights there; rent car upon departure

Drive to Dinan and spend 3 nights there using it as a base to explore Pink Granite Coast and other areas

Drive to and visit St Malo; then drive to MSM after 4pm and spend one night on the island

Drive to Bayeux, taking the scenic route, and spend 3 nights there

Drive to Rouen and spend 2 nights there

Then drive to Reims (2 nights ) and Colmar (3 nights) where we'll drop off the car and take the train to Stresa.

The rooms have all been booked. The rental car is next. I'll go with Europcar.

Thanks again for all your help. This plan may be a bit ambitious for many but we're going to give it a shot. We tend to be active travelers, and with so much of the world we want to see, we doubt we'll be back to this part of France.

In the meantime, I'm going to see if I can learn some (travel) French. Anyone have suggestions for a good/easy online course or some other tool to do that?

kja

Should be nice!

I use Pimsleur's CDs to learn a bit of language before my trips, and have found them to be easy and very helpful.

farrermog

Fwiw I'd suggest looking at Paul Noble's Learn French the Natural Way, and one of the old stand-bys, Hugo's.

Disclosure: I'm still learning my native (Australian) English.

farrermog

And btw just in case it hasn't been picked up in the links above, for Brittany (as well as around Paris), in addition to Kerouac's superb photo essays you definitely have to pull up long time contributor French Mystique Tours' jaunts.

bilboburgler

michel thomas gives good french

FrenchMystiqueTours

Just popping in for a visit. I haven't read much of this thread but since farrermog mentioned my trip report I'll give you the link to my photo report about spending five days exploring the area around Dinan. Be sure to click on the link to the second page of the report and at the very end of the report are links to major tourist office websites and other resources that are useful for planning a trip to Brittany:

Dinan and its environs in Brittany | Forum

You might also find some useful info about Brittany in the following thread:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi....html#37748007

And for Normandy:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi....html#39058384

Giverny, Rouen, Honfleur advice - Fodor's Forum

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...html#37142728h

Be sure to get yourself Michelin maps for these areas and for Brittany you want map #309 Côtes d'Amor, Ille-et-Vilaine and for Normandy you want map #303 Calvados, Manche and also map #304 Eure, Seine-Maritime.

I was curious why you are spending two nights in Rennes and then getting a car but perhaps you have your reasons. I would train from CDG and spend the day exploring the city and spend the night there and then on day two rent a car and move on. Also, Dinan is not a good base to visit the Côte de Granit Rose (it's a 3 hour non-stop drive) and you'd be better served spending a night in Ploumanach or Perros-Guirec.

dcd

Sorry, just now saw these "new" replies.

Thanks for the French language recommendations. I found some free online classes which look promising. Now I need to get busy and start one of them....

FMT, I have previously seen and read your excellent reports. Thanks for the other links and the Michelin map recommendations. I will pick those up. We are spending 2 nights in Rennes to get over our jet lag and enjoy the city and its sights. Dinan was a compromise. Michelin maps say the drive one way from there to Ploumanach is just 2 hours. Hope that's right. It's what I was relying on.

kja

I think that sounds about right -- but if you want to stop at any of the stunning Calvary Closes of that part of Brittany, you might want to leave a bit more time!

dcd

Will do, kja!