The savage coastline of France. When I think of Normandy, the first things that come to my head are castles, cathedrals, the Norman invasion of the British Isles (all courtesy of my mother) and the more recent events of world war two. When I think Brittany, had it been a year ago, I would have said “the place in France that is close to Briton, I think they have some funny hats?”. Having lived in France for a while know, when I think Brittany, I think a fiercely proud people that are a little akin to the Corse, in the sense of having their own language and wanting to be an independent state, as well as a place where one eats crêpes and drinks cider. Oh, and they also have funny hats.

View Normandy and Brittany in a larger map

So when my father said he was going to be visiting France, I suggested that we go on a tour through the area. Public transport there is average (to say the least) and along the coast you really want a car so you can get to all the interesting points, so we hired a car for 5 days, leaving Paris and ending in Rennes. Organising one way care hire is an absolute pain, due to the 75€ fee, which is never advertised in prices, so after a few hours of searching I just cracked it and ended up going with Sixt who were reasonably priced with insurance.

Day one: Falaises

I said I never want to drive in Paris, but having stepped up to the plate, I can say I wasn't that bad. I only went from Montparnasse to the Peripherique, so thankfully no Etoile or alike! We were heading straight for Fécamp, a town on the coast just above Étretat. The town was pretty and the palace there is just beautiful. We had some lunch and got supplies and then headed for the day’s main event: the falaises. After navigating the tiny streets and finding a parking spot, we walked out on the the beach and we just blown away, figuratively and literally. The cliffs are something to behold and the sea stacks and archways are just on another level. We were lucky that we had blue sky and sunshine, as it meant that we could walk along the cliffs for a good amount of time.

The paths are great and form part of the GR 21, which follows the entire coastline. After a few hours there, we headed for our destination for the night which was in Honfleur. With only a few navigational errors, we found ourselves passing by Le Havre and about to cross the mouth of the Sienne. The bridge which facilitates this crossing is by far the most impressive bridge I have ever seen, both from an engineering and a design point of view. I was just awestruck driving over it, and if it didn't cost 5.70€ per pass, I probably would have done it a few times. Honfleur is a beautiful harbour town which was a delight to wander around, and it was a darn good place to enjoy some moule frittes.

Day two: Landing at le Mont

With only a short drive south west, we were in the region of the Normandy landings. There is a rather strange attitude that arises from the landings, as they are celebrated as the beginning of the end of the war on the mainland, but due to the utter destruction of the area and the number a casualties, they not seen in a positive light. Unfortunately, the whole experience suffers from being rather tourist oriented. It seems that for an American who comes to tour France: stop 1) Eiffel tower; stop 2) Normandy. And where there are tourists, there are people there making from the tourists. We stuck to the eastern landing sites (that is, not the American landing sites) and to be honest it is a really depressing place. All buildings date from about 1950 and you see how hard it must have been for the residents of the area, who are often overlooked in the conflict. We explored around for the morning, but then continued south and headed for Brittany.

In the monastery gardens — In the monastery gardens

On the frontier of Brittany and Normandy was our next stop and one of France’s most iconic places, Le Mont Saint Michel, and for very good reason. As soon as the land flattens out and you see it on the Horizon, you begin to understand that it is really a special place. The roads are a little strange to find you way in there and the number of camper vans exponentially increases with distance from the site. The car park is about 2-3 kms from the Mont, which makes for a nice walk to get out there. Unfortunately the tide was right out, so the magical view of the Mont and its reflection was not observed, but it is still magic. One passes through the walls and into the old town which really is medieval in its layout. There are just passageways 30 cm wide going off in every direction and absolutely structure, meaning if there was not a big line of tourists heading for the monastery , you would have a hard time of it. We headed into the monastery which affords phenomenal views over the sand flats and the surrounding area. Inside, the cathedral was very grand, but did not have stained glass windows, which I found odd. Have I been here too long and now expect too much from cathedrals? Probably. The real highlight for me was the garden courtyard, where you have to remind yourself of how high up and exposed you are! For the rest our visit we just explored as there is lots to see, none of which includes all the tourist crap that is hanging around everywhere.

We stayed in Saint-Malo, which I was just expecting to be an ordinary seaside town, but instead we were greeted by a gargantuan sea fortress. 10 metre thick walls and in the realm of 20-30 metres tall situated on a harbour with smaller forts on the surrounding beach and islands make it a must see on any adventure to Brittany.

The beach and sea fortress as seen from the walls of St. Malo

Day three: Isle be darned

The typical colour scheme. A great contrast with the water

In the morning, the weather that Brittany is know for (that it, absolute rubbish) reared its ugly head. Brutally cold winds carrying a lot of moisture made visiting Pointe du Decolle, a very exposed point, pretty interesting. But it was an experience. Originally I had planned on visiting Île d'Ouessant, an island off the west coast, but by the time we would reached there it would have been time to leave, so we decided to visit the closer isle of Bréhat. The ferries run every hour to the island and a return trip was 9€. We unfortunately arrived to see the boat pulling away, so we explored the beach for 59 minutes. The island is really more-or-less two islands, which are connected by a narrow land bridge. We only had a few hours, so we stuck to the first south island, which I believe does have the majority of the sights, except for the lighthouse. Just wandering around the place was a real treat, it was just really relaxed and many houses had a theme of white and red, which went well with the pink granite of the island and the crystal blue of the water. The northern coastline was the most interesting for me, and the sheer number of islands in the area made it quite a sight.

After a ferry ride, we were back on the road heading for Brest. We found our accommodation and then headed to grab some food and then check out the most westerly point of mainland France. What we hadn't bargained on was Brest being an absolute dump. It is a monster industrial town with no redeeming features. We drove around for about 20-30 minutes and found nowhere that supplied food other than a McDonalds, so we continued to the coast. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as in Le Conquet, we found a traditional Crêpe and cider place, where the food was fantastic and the staff were super friendly. We headed for the point - Saint Mathieu - to catch sunset, which we did, but unfortunately there was a band of cloud just on the horizon, so the final sunset was obscured. The the point was fantastic. There was a ruined Norman cathedral, a walled monk’s garden, which served as a horse paddock and not just one lighthouse, but 4! All from different times, and 3 were still working. This part of the coast is the “shipwreck coast”, and judging by the density of lighthouses that were on the horizon and surrounding islands, I am guessing it is for good reason.

Day four: Bombed out

We left Brest and never looked back, and headed for the state park on the other side of the bay. Even though we were only going about 5 or 10 km south, we had to go about 30 km inland to get there and along small and winding roads, so it took about an hour and a half to get there. We visited a ruined Spanish fort, which was nice but the view was straight toward Brest, which does not make for pleasant viewing. Afterward, we headed south, and this is were the things got really interesting. There were many really nice beaches surrounded by large granite cliffs and islands. We got some lunch and took it out onto the beach which was really nice. Afterward we headed to La pointe de Pen Hir and Le tas de pois, which was one of the highlights of the whole trip. There is a war monument up there, but there are a series of islands forming a tail off the cliffs and it was simply breathtaking. There was also some war infrastructure nearby which was completely opened up, which was interesting to have a wander around. Seeing where the anti-ship cannons were and seeing the view of the horizon that one would have had whilst operating them was really quite something. There were plenty of other points in the area to see, but it was decided to head to our resting point, Lorient, and explore the town. Unfortunately, as we later found out, during the war this was the operations base for U-boats in France, so it was subject to bombing runs and eventually was deemed an expendable city and was razed in attempt to destroy the U-boats (which it didn't) and subsequently there is not so much to see there. Still, we found some tasty food, so all was not lost.

Day five: Get to the point

Our final day was only really a half day as we had to get to Rennes, where I would take the train back to Paris. The first viewing point was the so-called Carnac stones. These are a set of monoliths, some 3000 stones arranges in patterns stretching for many kilometres, with the oldest having been dated to around 4500 BC. I was blown away by the sheer magnitude of the overall scale, but the local scale was also very impressive. It is also really interesting to note how the modern word functions inside this monument, but houses nestled into gaps in the rocks and some places even using the array as a fence!

The main point of interest between Brest and Renne is really Belle-Île, however the ferries were impractically timed for us, and also very expensive (with car was about 200€). So we went to the departure point of the ferry, Quiberon, via the “savage coast”. The landscape was really impressive and I can only imagine what how pretty it would be if the waves were pounding in. Unfortunately, we had beautiful weather, blue skies and no wind, so the sea was like glass. So the savage coast was unfortunately rather tame. Quiberon was little more than a ferry town, so after that is was back on the road, back to Paris and back to Normal.

Adventures

Day one: Falaises

Day two: Landing at le Mont

Day three: Isle be darned

Day four: Bombed out

Day five: Get to the point