Valencia-Lorient-St. Malo and tons of beautiful stops along the way
 

This last minute spontaneous trip to visit family in Lorient, France, and to DRIVE up and back, had actually caused me a lot of anxiety instead of excitement.

I did not have the time I like to have to research, and I was also skeptical if I could bear such a long car trip.

Fortunately, with the aid of skimming trip reports here and a surprisingly easy road trip, we had an absolutely wonderful 11 day trip through France.

Thanks to all who have contributed, many unknowingly!

I must say there are a few things my husband and I were really impressed with in general. I had not traveled the French countryside for about thirty years.

The secondary roads were not only not very busy, but in good condition and scenic in themselves even if you never got out of the car! The groomed farmlands, the castles in the distance, passing through historic plazas,...

The amount of parking/picnic areas along the roadside is amazing. It is such a pleasure to see travelers taken into consideration. The public amenities for camping vans is also admirable.

And the parking! Coming from Spain where every salable inch of land has been SOLD, and new streets are getting narrower and narrower, and buildings in villages higher and higher.. parking is at a premium here. There is a "hate car" attitude which is somehow supposed to be progressive/green here that is ruining living outside the city.

Anyway, France seems to understand city planning quite a bit better.

And that people have cars and drive and need a place to dump their vehicle when they get to their destination.

There are public parking spaces everywhere. And I mean everywhere. At the beginning we would park on the way UP to the castle/ church ASSUMING there would be no parking anywhere NEAR this tourist attraction.

Not at all! Thee was mostly plenty of parking in front of or behind every major monument we stopped to see.

We couldn't stop commenting on this the whole trip. It was a pleasant surprise.

Much has been written about the places we visited, so as soon as I organize my report I will just mention them and if we had a nice meal with the names of the restaurants I have kept.

Without internet connection most places ( I did not see cafés and we did not take a laptop) it was difficult to decide on hotels once on our way.

We had reservations in Hondarribia (www.solmelia.com

nice hotel but 120E room only, but was the best I could find short notice.

One night Nantes. One of our favorite areas. We stayed outside the city along the Idre River at the Best Western Le Regate Hotel This is a GREAT place. More in my report. Travelzoo had an offer for 55E including breakfast at this eco-hotel. Next time we will make this piece of paradise our base for several days.

3 nights Lorient B+B chambres d'hotes very nice! (Actually at Amorplage)

2 nights St Malo Ville Framoy.. very nice!

and we winged it

1 night Vitré..ferme auberge.. pleasant change of pace
1 night Niort..OK
1 night Bergerac... no need to go back to this hotel

Then a LOOONG drive back to Spain from Bergerac.

As you can see, we covered a LOT of ground, but enjoyed it immensely. This was a "tasting" as we were unfamiliar with these areas and decided to get a feel for Brittany and the towns between there and Bordeaux.

We avoided most large cities leaving them for another type of trip, perhaps by train at some point. We took advantage of the car and did a lot of wine/cognac and supermarket shopping we otherwise would not have been able to do.

All in all, Brittany is amazing ( but had some very aggressive weather/winds on North cost) and we found the amount of outdoor activities you can do anywhere in France is spectacular. Riding, fishing, canoeing, biking.. all at your fingertips.

Will get this off ASAP!

Looking forward to your trip report

Our first stop was overnighting at the Tryp Urdanibia 3* hotel, 120E room only. I felt this price was very high although the hotel was nice. It was strategically located right off the highway so it was easy for us to find and gave us immediate access the next day for our continuation of the trip.

http://es.solmelia.com/hoteles/espan...nibia/home.htm

I, of course, would have liked to have stayed at one of the highly recommended places in town, but either they were full or the prices were even worse and I was not willing to pay for it.

We enjoyed gourmet pintxos at Gran Sol bar restaurant.

http://www.todopintxos.com/bares/bar...bar&id_bar=122

From foie to jamon, perfectly executed croquetas the size of a huge potato, to rice pudding and other extravaganzas, we later strolled the fishing village and then headed off to bed.

We detoured a bit to stop in Dax, a town I thought sounded familiar but did not know why. Once entering the town area, it seemed like Pamplona should have been its name and that we were in san Fermin! Everyone was walking briskly to the town square for the inauguration of the fiestas, all clad in white with red scarves and cumberbons (sp?). We found a parking garage and joined the crowd to see what was happening.

It was the beginning of several days of fiestas, including plenty of well known bull fighters. This is a bullfight supporting town that was frequented by Earnest Hemingway in the past. Maybe that is where I had read about it.

Since crowds are not our "thing" and there were no interesting parades or anything, a short coffee stop and stroll to see an interesting building or two was enough to satisfy our curiosity. We continued on our longish drive to La Rochelle.

La Rochelle is a lovely port with plenty of restaurants and interesting architecture and history to match. We spent a good part of the day and early evening here ( as did many other tourists!) and ate at one of the many tempting places along the "restaurant street" one block off the port. The traffic became dense the last kms. entering and leaving this busy obligatory tourist stop. We found this to be the case along the entire coast. The cyclists were probably grinning as they passed us all on the groomed bike trails!

We left La Rochelle a bit later than planned but finally arrived at our hotel in the outskirts ( 10 min) from Nantes. This was one of our favorite stops and we will keep this place in mind for a future longer stay to explore the area more in depth, using it as a base. It is the Best Western ( yes.. and excellent!) La Regate.

http://www.booking.com/hotel/fr/de-la-regate.es.html

This eco-hotel is well designed. Rooms are not large, but the overall impression of the place was very appealing. It is located in a very quiet, scenic area with the Erdre river across the way and a couple castles within an hour bike ride. We thoroughly enjoyed our breakfast and our half day of biking in the area. There are two excellent restaurants here also.

L'Auberge du Vieux Gachet

http://www.aubergeduvieuxgachet.com/presentation.html

where we had a drink while biking .. we were served under a tree with the castle in view. Really lovely way to end our ride.

We ate at the restaurant in front of the hotel itself on our trip back to Spain. Excellent food and view. A welcome respite on our trip home.

http://www.lesfreresperou.fr/?page_id=3

Day 3 we were on our way to visit our son at Lorient. We stopped at Le Croisic for a lunch of huitres and moules. I will now just say that every single town we stopped at was amazing in character and /or scenery. The coast is gorgeous and inviting you to stroll along the boardwalks or paths. Restaurants beckon you to indulge even when you think you are not hungry!

http://www.tourisme-lecroisic.fr/

We kept driving what is called La Cote Sauvage and treated ourselves, me to a coffee and my husband a glass of white wine at this gorgeous estate/fort/hotel.

http://www.hotelfortocean.com/#

You can google "la cote sauvage" for some incredible photos.

We wanted to stretch the day as much as we could but we did need to move on. After many photo sessions and "oohs" and "ahhs" as we crawled along the coastline, we eventually had to turn off to go towards Lorient.

Celtic fans may know that the largest Celtic festival is held in Lorient every August and again we were right in the middle of it. We were unable to get around the city at all, finding every street blocked creating a bit of stress trying to get to our son's workplace near the submarine base. It seems there were going to be concerts in part of the old industrial port and virtually every access one had on a map was blocked.

A VERY nice festival official asked to get in our car so he could take us there. 30 minutes and several kms. later, moving barriers by hand every block, he finally got us to a point where we could manage to get into the port. Thank you! We met up with our son and were very excited to see where he is working now.

We spent three lovely evenings at a B+B at Larmor Plage, a few minutes away from Lorient. It is a calm, organized little town with its own market and plenty of dining possibilities. Also it is the only place where there are a couple places with hotel /B+B rooms overlooking the beach in the area.

The owners couldn't have been nicer. Breakfast on the terrace is so relaxing. We left the window open at night to hear the sea. We shared a bath with our son. I believe there IS one room with ensuite bath.

http://www.breaks-france.com/

This is getting long. I am enjoying reliving the trip but will continue tomorrow. I hope to find my restaurant cards so I can give you better info.









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lincasanova - It is great to see you in print again. I, too, enjoy long road trips and love the scenery that we see when we travel. I am looking forward to hearing more of your travels.

p.s. When we were at the Grand Canyon a few weeks ago, I thought of your son and as we drove by the hotels, wondered which one he stayed at. I hope his trip was as wonderful as ours.

tC

Hi! They were able to stay in the park at one of the lodges.. then spent a night in Sedona at a wonderful place.

Good to see you! We packed a lot in.. but did enjoy it We found the driving very very relaxing, and the sights are such a pleasure to the senses everywhere we were.

A fine meal was enjoyed in Lorient at Le Pécharmant. We also took a half day trip to the nearby medieval village of Hennebont, admiring its impressive castle and taking in a tour of the National Stud Farm there and horse museum.

http://www.hennebont.net/presentation.php

We were lucky to be fed a couple delicious baguettes in a café after letting the typical lunch hour pass us by. This would not be the first time we forgot to eat extra early.

In fact, many places would not serve after 1.30 pm. It just depended on where you were and how busy the town was. The busier the town, the later you can eat (only to a certain extent though!).

Saying goodbye to Lorient and son, we headed up towards St. Malo stopping off in beautiful Josselin for a visit and exquisite lunch at the Hotel du Chateau across the river from the castle.

http://www.josselin.com/

On the way to St. Malo we tried to stop in Dinan, but it was also the idea of hundreds of cars so we also left this stop as many others for a future trip.

In St. Malo we stayed two nights at a very nice villa, Le Ville Fromoy, we found on internet on a Travelzoo offer. 99E with breakfast.

http://www.villefromoy.fr/

We would definitely go back here or to someplace similar if we returned. It was second row from the beachfront and a 2.5 km. walk to town. We taxied back after a lovely dinner at La Bouche en Folie, 14 rue de Boyer near the upper walls away from the crowds.

We had not reserved anywhere and were turned away at two hotel recommendations. The last place suggested we try here and we were given an option to come back an hour later.

Definitely a good rec. Nice atmosphere and delicious food.

Too windy and cold to walk back late at night so we hopped into a taxi once one showed up. Otherwise there was a bus 10 minutes later that would have taken us near our hotel.

We visited St. Malo in the morning and drove to Cancale along the Emerald Coast, with the hotel rec restaurant of Cote de Mer as our lunch stop. What views and what delicious food. Here we were given an amuse-bouche of some type of foie loose flan among other things.
Need I say I gained 1 kilo on this trip! The food was so tempting and the atmosphere so relaxing!

The next day we drove off to Mont. St. Michel on our way "back" to Spain. This would be the most northern point before we turned south to go home over the next few days.

All of you who have already been there know what I am going to say..

"Try to vist this place in the afternoon". (After the THOUSANDS of visitors have left)

With our schedule, we couldn't and I would not even recommend going if you can't manage to come later, at least not in the summer.

It is a beautiful site, and we were able to walk around the base on the sand and get some good pics, but inside the town walls it was almost unpleasant. Darling, but so crowded you really did not enjoy it much and were not too unhappy to get back in your car and snake your way out of the several acre parking lot following the line of traffic back to the road.

We stopped at a place for a snack of oysters and continued on to our next destination.. the famous Fougéres.

I will continue tomorrow as this is getting quit long.

Getting back to wrap this up. I can see how Brittany has so many addicts. The cooler weather in summer, the aggressive coast, the endless bike paths and sport activities, and plenty of fresh, fine food in every even small town.

Taking mostly secondary yellow routes on our map, we drove past fields and fields of corn, sunflowers and of course in certain regions, acres and acres of pristine vineyards.

We were able to route ourselves past, visiting for a short period for coffee, lunch or afternoon snacks, the following places over the next few days.

Fougéres- spectacular.

Vitré - spectacular, also. We stayed here at a sweet farm auberge 3km from town. It was such a nice change of pace in the evening to have a lake, goats, cows and a horse and pony around.

We had a double bed, small TV and private bath for 42E including breakfast.

The sky was so dark the constellations stood out like I have not seen for decades. Just before retiring I spent several minutes just admiring the view from our bedroom through the open window. Here is a photo of our ferme auberge. The owner speaks little English but we were able to understand the instructions to get there. This was a spontaneous last minute reservation.

http://www.ecuriesdelavaliere.com/

The owners recommended we have dinner at the Botte Dorée. Good thing they made us a reservation as within minutes this small place was full. Look at the formules to get an idea of the yummy offerings!

http://restaurantlabottedor.free.fr/

Everywhere we felt the food and fixed price menus were reasonable and many times cheaper than what we would get here in Spain.

After a very peaceful night's sleep and breakfast ( simple bread, croissant, butter, marmalade and hot drink) we set off to

Chateaugiron and Chateaubriand. Two lovely towns.

By lunchtime we were near Nantes so decided to have lunch at a gourmet restaurant in front of the hotel we had stayed at the week before. Served on their outdoor terrace with calm weather and a view that would relax ANYone, we again partook in even more French cuisine.

We spent the rest of the day in Nantes, and will go back to do more on another trip. It has so much to offer. We got a nice feel for the overall layout of the town and of course spent some time in the Chateau. We never made it to La Cigale.. saving that for next time!

We then took the highway to Niort where we decided to spend the night. It had been a very long day and with no reservations we felt it might be easier to find someplace in a larger town.

Niort was a pleasant surprise. We pulled into the first hotel we saw after crossing the flower laden bridge and turning right. Hotel du Moulin. It had a nice parking lot and the decor in the lobby area was pleasantly trendy. The room was basic but "trendy" with good reading lamps and a modern bathroom.

http://www.hoteldumoulin79.com/

58E sans breakfast

We rested and then took a lovely stroll around and across little bridges and past historic buildings. The landscaping was very well designed.

For dinner they recommended Le Salon de Tartine.

http://www.restaurant-niort.com/

I guess I will repeat myself.. we had another fine meal. To get there we strolled several blocks and came upon the very lively outdoor café area where it seemed like the entire town was out having a meal that evening, enjoying the weather. Our restaurant was across the way down a newly developed older smallish lane. A very popular place and well served.

The next two days were long driving days as we needed to be home a day earlier than we had thought, so we headed, still on scenic secondary routes, to Cognac.

I could use this area as a base for a few days. The stunning rolling hills with the perfectly executed rows of grapes, the wine estates in the distance.. and I am sure there are some gorgeous accommodations here.

We visited the Otard historic distillery. This tour is worth it just to see the castle and hear the history. We had the tour in English and it lasted an hour. Some places you need to reserve many hours in advance, but the tourist office told us just to show up 15 minutes before the Otard tour.

We bought a couple bottles for gifts and finished seeing a part of the town and continued on to the very popular and full of British residents/tourists the much talked about Aubeterre.

We had dinner here outside in the main plaza, walked a bit afterwards and moved on.

Our last night in France would be in Bergerac at a simple hotel that was a disappointment.

Bergerac is fantastic. It is a must see if you are anywhere near there. We skimmed the surface but were impressed around every corner. We spent several hours Saturday meandering the Vieux Ville and admiring the flowers that give it its merited 4 flower award.

This whirlwind trip is not something i would suggest be done under normal circumstances, but it gave us a good idea of what to expect and where to base ourselves when we go back the next time.

I do recommend avoiding the highways as much as possible, giving yourself time to do the secondary routes. They were the best surprise for us.

At one of the tourist offices in Brittany we were given a beautiful booklet about the petites cites de caractere. We were happy to see that many of the places were on our list to try to see. I must have picked those names up here .. thank you.

http://www.frenchentree.com/france-b...le.asp?id=8051


Here is a website with the lists by region of the villes fleuris.

http://www.villes-et-villages-fleuris.com/

Thanks again to all who have previously posted reports about some of the places we visited, and who helped answer my requests. I know my next trip to our border neighbor will be better planned . I hope someone is able to take a bit of this and use it to help them do what was overwhelmingly difficult for me to do in the minimum time I had before we took off.

However, in spite of it being August, and in spite of the crowds along some coastal routes, it was one of the most relaxing vacations, and by all means one of the most beautiful ones, day after day after day.

Thanks for a wonderful and very helpful report. I'm filing it away for a long anticipated trip to Brittany.

I loved your report Linda! We just missed you in Brittany. We stayed in a gite very near Hennebont July 17 -24, and also visited the Otard distillery the following week while in the Charente Maritime. We stayed near Pons. What a beautiful area that doesn't get mentioned very much. This B&B was just beautiful inside and full of attention and detail. You might want to check it out when visting your son again! It's 1 hr. from La Rochelle.

Maison [email protected] 58€ 0033 546 912 532
http://www.maisonmaurice.net/
From the A10: Leave the A10 at junction 36 Pons. Follow the D732 direction Pons, continuing straight until you reach a roundabout which will be signposted Jonzac D142 to the right (the other turnings being Cognac straight ahead and Pons to the left)

We also found, as you did, uncrowded roads throughout France in July and August. We avoided the south where it was crowded, but will be flying back next week, staying in Uzes, then Corsica.

Thanks again for your report. Brittany is such a beautiful area!

Are you addicted to Brittany yet? Far less crowded than some of the other well known areas in France, wouldn't you say? I liked that you drove on the smaller roads through the countryside. Have you created a photo album you might consider linking to from your trip report? Then again, that might just make everyone want to go there and spoil it for those of us who enjoy the lack of crowds. You missed Rochefort en Terre but at least you made it to Josselin and Fougères. Are you planning your next trip back to Brittany yet?

Hi Images2! So long since I have seen you here. Thanks for the link. I had VERY little time to do research , plus, the several recommended places I had called were full, so I was anticipating a patchwork, not so cool trip.

We lucked out on some lodgings, and next time, now that I know the geography better and have some great tools from the tourist offices, it will be practically perfect, I am sure!

Funny we were so close! I may go to Cincy in October. Will u be there?

FMT..Yes, fairly addicted. I was not looking forward to the DRIVING part of this 4,000 km. holiday. After the first day I was having so much fun and was so relaxed I told my husband.. " we can come back here by car ANYtime!"

I did take the time to read up a bit on your LOVELY trips and jot down several places to see. I was exhausted and sleep deprived by the time we started our journey, but it was worth it and probably saved the second part past St Malo!

I know we "missed" R. en Terre, but we had to "miss" plenty of places. I look at it this way "Nice to have left some big name places for our next trip!

I doubt I will take many highways again in France. The smaller roads are just too beautiful to pass up. I was unaware of the extent of the farming in France. If it wasn't a forest, it was cultivated.

The city planners are doing such a wonderful job in the small towns, or whoever is in charge of the roundabouts and their design. No curbs when they are small.. just a flowered pavement mound. Really well thought out.

Re photos. Most of our photos are of ourselves in them with only a few of scenery alone, so I am quite sure there are already better albums online!

FMT..Keep posting your weekend jaunts.. they make fun reading!

Now you know why France is referred to as the breadbasket of Europe. I'm sure most people who stay on the autoroutes are unaware of just how rural France becomes once you are outside of cities and off the autoroute. You, like myself, have now discovered the joy of driving through loads of anonymous little towns, villages and hamlets that aren't mentioned in guidebooks. But now I'm giving away secrets so I better stop before they all get discovered.

Next time you go back to Brittany I've got a bunch of places I can recommend for you to visit, if you aren't already aware.

I've got a few more trip reports I should have up within the next few days. Last Saturday I rode my bike through the countryside from Nemours to Sens on a day without a cloud in the sky and got some fantastic photos. Tomorrow I'm riding my bike from Rambouillet to Chartres and since I have no idea what I might discover I'll have to wait and see what kinds of photos I get. Stay tuned.

I'll be here in October Linda! We've been in Europe all summer, and as you know France doesn't offer much wifi. Funny, in the North, near Lille wifi was available. We also stopped frequently at McDonalds for their free wifi connection.

We're home for 1 1/2 weeks now, but leaving again soon, for most of September. I'm glad you've discovered our love of France! We can share lots of experiences in October!

Images2 - I'm not much of a computer person but I do a lot of biking around Paris and one thing I have noticed is that many of the public parks in Paris have wifi. Just walk past a park and see if there is a sign at the entrance saying it has wifi. From what I've seen many do.

Yes, but we couldn't connect. I think you need to buy something in France for the connection. We've tried at two of the parks. Thanks for the suggestion though!

We were able to find wifi at a grocery store in Brittany and St.Tropez also, but not all grocery stores.

We were at Mont St. Michel yesterday and had the same experience - didn't even go into the town, just coughed up our 5 Euros to park with the hoards, then thought better of it. Instead we found a quiet lane and had a picnic of Carrefour sandwiches, the best peaches of the summer, and some grapes. http://gardyloo.us/20100824_65a.JPG (Not us in the pic.)

Then back to Dinan for another meal at the old port - http://gardyloo.us/20100824_129a.JPG - where it was confirmed I was coming down with a screaming cold, so today's excursion to Cap Frehel was somewhat muted (also it was raining on and off) but I still managed to get into the "Celtic Fringe" mindset with heather outside the windows and Alan Stivell on the car CD. http://gardyloo.us/20100825_41a.JPG
http://gardyloo.us/20100825_62a.jpg

Hi Gardyloo.. the fact MSM is on the mound and gets surrounded by water is cool, but you were correct in not even attempting to go in if you found the streets crammed. Around 2.00 pm seems that is when many of the buses tell their passengers to go to the parking lot. We could hardly get OUT of the town walking down the steep lanes.

There were police at the entrance not letting anyone else IN, and diverting them to the other entrance to the left "Gendarmerie".

I'm glad we went after our longish drive, but never again before 7pm or so, as I was told by a local there.