A short report on our trip to Normandy and Brittany
Jun 6th, 2025 | 08:39 AM
#1
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 19,633
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A short report on our trip to Normandy and Brittany
The aim of the trip was to get in some (tri)cycling, and we tried to choose accommodation with that aim. We originally wanted to cycle along the Somme river but the accommodation we booked there cancelled so we had to find another place. We couldn't find anything near the Somme though and this explains why our first and last stays were pretty close to each other geographically.
The cycling part was somewhat in the air as DH fell off his bike, breaking his collarbone, a few weeks before we left, but in the end he was able to ride OK.
No reports of restaurants or places to visit I’m afraid. We kept costs down by eating at home, and as I said the main aim was cycling.
We loaded the folded trike into the car, tied it down, packed around it and put DH’s bike on the rack on the tow bar and set off on a lovely May morning.
After a long drive, and the inevitable traffic jam around Antwerp, we arrived at our first stop in Mesnières en Bray, chosen because it is on the Avenue Verte, the London to Paris cycle route. The bit we were close to is an old railway line so easy to cycle along.
From the outside our gite looked less than promising but it was in fact beautiful, and the owner very welcoming and friendly. Only downside was that we found the bed to be very hard, though in the reviews others found it comfy.
The building our gite was hidden in.
https://www.booking.com/Share-WusjkZy
We made a couple of rides along the Avenue Verte, one in each direction and enjoyed it as a good start to the holiday.
Along the Avenue Verte
An old station building
The remains of a platform
Mesnières Chateau
One evening we ventured to the village and got Pizza from the machine there rather than finding a shop. Surprisingly good and quick!
It is an interesting area even if you don’t ride a bike.
We then moved on to Brittany where we stayed for two weeks in a gite rented from a cycling holiday company, in Gouarec. I am not sure I would recommend the gite, but the English owners were lovely. The gite just felt a bit tired and unloved, with yet another uncomfortable bed, and some dodgy stairs. It was also up a steep hill which wasn’t great.
https://www.bretonbikes.com/gite/our-smaller-gite
There was a booklet full of ride suggestions as well as places to visit, so we did a recce in the car to see what was feasible for me.
In the end we stuck to riding sections of the Nantes-Brest Canal, driving to different starting points, simply because I was unhappy with the steep bits on the roads, as I am very slow on hills with my trike. Living in Friesland our steepest hill is the bridge over the motorway!
We loved cycling the canal, it was very peaceful and beautiful. The part we were on is not navigable which made it even quieter. We were also there before prime cycling season which helped. We saw all sorts of cyclists, from commuters and families with kids to fully laden tourers along it, but it never felt crowded, even on our last ride when we stopped at a creperie in an old lock house. It was a sunny day, and a day off for many as it was the day after Ascension day, so it was very busy there.
The locks were sometimes a challenge for me as they were steep and often had a road at the top which meant stopping just before the top and getting going again was tough. DH had to give me a push a couple of times!
An old lock house
Notre-Dame de Pitié
Lock
A reflective view of the canal
Galette! Yum!
We also went to the pink granite coast for a day but got rained on continuously. It was also incredibly crowded everywhere, which we hadn’t expected in May, so we really didn’t enjoy the day and headed home early.
The weather was mostly good but we had a few cool rainy days, and for some of those we just stayed at the gite and relaxed, and read.
We did enjoy our galettes at Ecluse 150 on our last day!
Third stop was Quettehou on the Cotentin peninsular. A nice clean studio B&B, all pretty new.
https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/chambr..._102768_en.htm
Also on Booking and Airbnb.
DH chose this stop and said there was cycling to be done there. There probably was but it was very busy around there with narrow roads, so we decided not to ride. We only had one full day there anyway. After breakfast, which I admit I found odd in that it was only sweet food apart from the yogurt, we went to see a couple of lighthouses and have a walk along the coast. We then went inland to see the remains of a Roman bath house.
Cap du Lévi Lighthouse
By this time I was getting a bit fed up, doing all the driving and not sleeping well so we opted to cut a day off our final stay, which, as it turns out, was a mistake.
Our final stop was near Dieppe, and also not too far from our first, chosen so we could cycle part of the Velo du Lin, between the flax fields of Normandy.
To get there we drove along the Normandy coast, with beautiful weather. The Normandy Beaches were busy in the run up to the commemorations, and parking was difficult. We have been to most of them before so didn’t stop at any. The roads were full of (mostly)men in uniforms driving around in old Jeeps playing soldiers, and there were lots of army surplus type markets along the way. I admit I found them a bit odd and a bit disrespectful to those who fought there.
We stayed in a chambres d’hotes and had also booked two evening meals there. The price was incredible and certainly worth every cent.
https://www.lemanoirdetessy.com
It was stunning, with amazing gardens, and an impressive colombier/dovecote you could go into. It is run by Marie-Agnes on her own, with her 87 year old uncle looking after the gardens. Marie-Agnes speaks good English and German as well as French.
The Manoir de Tessy
The colombier from 1587
Inside the colombier, once home to 2000 pigeons. In 1940 the Germans killed them all. The size of a colombier indicated the wealth of the owners pre-French revolution. They were known as pigeonnier after that time.
Our room was lovely, overlooking the gardens, quite spacious with a good bathroom and a comfortable bed. Oh the joy of a big, comfortable bed!
View of the garden from our room.
Breakfast was also mostly sweet stuff, so I made do with a croissant and a yogurt. That said much of the sweet stuff was made by Marie-Agnes from garden produce.
Dinner both nights was with a French family from Alsace, friends of Marie-Agnes, staying in the gite, so there was a lot of chatter, but they tried to keep us in the loop, and we really didn’t mind at all when they didn’t. Each night we started with a glass of Pommeau, then a starter, first night terrine with salad from the garden, the second night eggs en cocotte (from their own hens ). The main course both days was fish, first cod with rice and home grown broccoli, then salmon with homegrown potatoes and Swiss Chard.
The cheese course was a huge selection of Normandy cheeses. I am not a cheese eater but DH loved that. The others joked about how he ate my share as well as his own.
Neufchatel, the local cheese is heart shaped. The top one is flavoured with Linseed (Flax seed).
Pudding was homemade ice cream with a homemade biscuit, first blackcurrant which was divine and second vanilla, also really good.
Wine was served with the meal. Sometimes she serves cider instead.
It was a short, slightly scary, ride down a fairly busy road to meet the Velo du Lin. The section we rode was, again, on an old railway line, but it proved to be another lovely ride, with a short section on roads. We turned back at the point it was on more roads, but you can ride it all the way to Fécamp. We did a 34km round trip but would have gone further if the trail had been longer. The flax was just starting to flower and there was blue haze over the fields. Marie-Agnes later explained that each stem carries several buds but only one opens at a time and lasts only a day. If it is cloudy they tend not to open, and are usually over by the afternoon, which explains why we didn’t see them on the way back from our ride.
A hint of blue in the flax fields
You can just about se the individual flowers
End of the line.
As I said we cut a day off the trip and thought we offered to pay for it Marie-Agnes only charged for the two nights and two meals, which we paid for with the credit card before leaving.
Another long drive home, stuck in traffic again in Antwerp, but at least DH drove!
Good to sleep in my own bed again.
The cycling part was somewhat in the air as DH fell off his bike, breaking his collarbone, a few weeks before we left, but in the end he was able to ride OK.
No reports of restaurants or places to visit I’m afraid. We kept costs down by eating at home, and as I said the main aim was cycling.
We loaded the folded trike into the car, tied it down, packed around it and put DH’s bike on the rack on the tow bar and set off on a lovely May morning.
After a long drive, and the inevitable traffic jam around Antwerp, we arrived at our first stop in Mesnières en Bray, chosen because it is on the Avenue Verte, the London to Paris cycle route. The bit we were close to is an old railway line so easy to cycle along.
From the outside our gite looked less than promising but it was in fact beautiful, and the owner very welcoming and friendly. Only downside was that we found the bed to be very hard, though in the reviews others found it comfy.
The building our gite was hidden in.
https://www.booking.com/Share-WusjkZy
We made a couple of rides along the Avenue Verte, one in each direction and enjoyed it as a good start to the holiday.
Along the Avenue Verte
An old station building
The remains of a platform
Mesnières Chateau
One evening we ventured to the village and got Pizza from the machine there rather than finding a shop. Surprisingly good and quick!
It is an interesting area even if you don’t ride a bike.
We then moved on to Brittany where we stayed for two weeks in a gite rented from a cycling holiday company, in Gouarec. I am not sure I would recommend the gite, but the English owners were lovely. The gite just felt a bit tired and unloved, with yet another uncomfortable bed, and some dodgy stairs. It was also up a steep hill which wasn’t great.
https://www.bretonbikes.com/gite/our-smaller-gite
There was a booklet full of ride suggestions as well as places to visit, so we did a recce in the car to see what was feasible for me.
In the end we stuck to riding sections of the Nantes-Brest Canal, driving to different starting points, simply because I was unhappy with the steep bits on the roads, as I am very slow on hills with my trike. Living in Friesland our steepest hill is the bridge over the motorway!
We loved cycling the canal, it was very peaceful and beautiful. The part we were on is not navigable which made it even quieter. We were also there before prime cycling season which helped. We saw all sorts of cyclists, from commuters and families with kids to fully laden tourers along it, but it never felt crowded, even on our last ride when we stopped at a creperie in an old lock house. It was a sunny day, and a day off for many as it was the day after Ascension day, so it was very busy there.
The locks were sometimes a challenge for me as they were steep and often had a road at the top which meant stopping just before the top and getting going again was tough. DH had to give me a push a couple of times!
An old lock house
Notre-Dame de Pitié
Lock
A reflective view of the canal
Galette! Yum!
We also went to the pink granite coast for a day but got rained on continuously. It was also incredibly crowded everywhere, which we hadn’t expected in May, so we really didn’t enjoy the day and headed home early.
The weather was mostly good but we had a few cool rainy days, and for some of those we just stayed at the gite and relaxed, and read.
We did enjoy our galettes at Ecluse 150 on our last day!
Third stop was Quettehou on the Cotentin peninsular. A nice clean studio B&B, all pretty new.
https://www.chambres-hotes.fr/chambr..._102768_en.htm
Also on Booking and Airbnb.
DH chose this stop and said there was cycling to be done there. There probably was but it was very busy around there with narrow roads, so we decided not to ride. We only had one full day there anyway. After breakfast, which I admit I found odd in that it was only sweet food apart from the yogurt, we went to see a couple of lighthouses and have a walk along the coast. We then went inland to see the remains of a Roman bath house.
Cap du Lévi Lighthouse
By this time I was getting a bit fed up, doing all the driving and not sleeping well so we opted to cut a day off our final stay, which, as it turns out, was a mistake.
Our final stop was near Dieppe, and also not too far from our first, chosen so we could cycle part of the Velo du Lin, between the flax fields of Normandy.
To get there we drove along the Normandy coast, with beautiful weather. The Normandy Beaches were busy in the run up to the commemorations, and parking was difficult. We have been to most of them before so didn’t stop at any. The roads were full of (mostly)men in uniforms driving around in old Jeeps playing soldiers, and there were lots of army surplus type markets along the way. I admit I found them a bit odd and a bit disrespectful to those who fought there.
We stayed in a chambres d’hotes and had also booked two evening meals there. The price was incredible and certainly worth every cent.
https://www.lemanoirdetessy.com
It was stunning, with amazing gardens, and an impressive colombier/dovecote you could go into. It is run by Marie-Agnes on her own, with her 87 year old uncle looking after the gardens. Marie-Agnes speaks good English and German as well as French.
The Manoir de Tessy
The colombier from 1587
Inside the colombier, once home to 2000 pigeons. In 1940 the Germans killed them all. The size of a colombier indicated the wealth of the owners pre-French revolution. They were known as pigeonnier after that time.
Our room was lovely, overlooking the gardens, quite spacious with a good bathroom and a comfortable bed. Oh the joy of a big, comfortable bed!
View of the garden from our room.
Breakfast was also mostly sweet stuff, so I made do with a croissant and a yogurt. That said much of the sweet stuff was made by Marie-Agnes from garden produce.
Dinner both nights was with a French family from Alsace, friends of Marie-Agnes, staying in the gite, so there was a lot of chatter, but they tried to keep us in the loop, and we really didn’t mind at all when they didn’t. Each night we started with a glass of Pommeau, then a starter, first night terrine with salad from the garden, the second night eggs en cocotte (from their own hens ). The main course both days was fish, first cod with rice and home grown broccoli, then salmon with homegrown potatoes and Swiss Chard.
The cheese course was a huge selection of Normandy cheeses. I am not a cheese eater but DH loved that. The others joked about how he ate my share as well as his own.
Neufchatel, the local cheese is heart shaped. The top one is flavoured with Linseed (Flax seed).
Pudding was homemade ice cream with a homemade biscuit, first blackcurrant which was divine and second vanilla, also really good.
Wine was served with the meal. Sometimes she serves cider instead.
It was a short, slightly scary, ride down a fairly busy road to meet the Velo du Lin. The section we rode was, again, on an old railway line, but it proved to be another lovely ride, with a short section on roads. We turned back at the point it was on more roads, but you can ride it all the way to Fécamp. We did a 34km round trip but would have gone further if the trail had been longer. The flax was just starting to flower and there was blue haze over the fields. Marie-Agnes later explained that each stem carries several buds but only one opens at a time and lasts only a day. If it is cloudy they tend not to open, and are usually over by the afternoon, which explains why we didn’t see them on the way back from our ride.
A hint of blue in the flax fields
You can just about se the individual flowers
End of the line.
As I said we cut a day off the trip and thought we offered to pay for it Marie-Agnes only charged for the two nights and two meals, which we paid for with the credit card before leaving.
Another long drive home, stuck in traffic again in Antwerp, but at least DH drove!
Good to sleep in my own bed again.
Jun 6th, 2025 | 10:19 AM
#4
Original Poster
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 19,633
Likes: 0
Jun 6th, 2025 | 03:22 PM
#5
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 3,500
Likes: 0
What a lovely trip, and so green! (You will think my remark odd, but in Australia where I live, unless we have had a lot of rain, nothing is ever that green. We have a lot of brown and rust colours in our landscapes.)
Lavandula
Lavandula
Jun 6th, 2025 | 04:00 PM
#6
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 4,234
Likes: 19
The arrival at that first gite would have been a bit alarming!
What a lovely, peaceful area.
Lavandula, we have just had our first rains (missed out on autumnal rains) so it should green up here soon. I love the green of winter.
What a lovely, peaceful area.
Lavandula, we have just had our first rains (missed out on autumnal rains) so it should green up here soon. I love the green of winter.
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Jun 7th, 2025 | 02:53 AM
#10
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 6,757
Likes: 42
Heti there is nothing like sleeping in your own bed but a small trade off to have done and seen what you did. What a lovey trip report, except for that gaite building. I probably would have thought it was a mistake or that I was fooled. Glad that wasn't the case. We don't often get to see this part of the World.
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