Best Breton Beaches

Damgan Brittany

We are often asked, where are the best beaches in Brittany?

What a subjective question. Everyone wants something different from a beach. Take us, Mark wants a beach to himself !!, Joe only likes the beach in the winter when he can wear wellies (strange child!)and go rock pooling  and Iona hates sand...

So here is what we think!..

Carnac (about a 45 min drive) is the most popular beach, miles of sandy beaches...

Carnac Brittany

La Trinité sur Mer is about 15 minutes drive from Auray and is one of France's biggest yachting centres. The immediate vicinity of La Trinité has some beautiful, stunning beaches, a large marina and some excellent shops and galleries

La Baule has massive bay with sandy beach. Very clean and scenic. Loads to do : water sports, bars, restaurants and shops plus a really nice town to walk around and there`s a market most days in the summer. La Baule is known as the Monaco of the North and is pretty smart! (bit posh for us !!)

La Baule Brittany

Lamor Baden and surrounding area. Along the Northern edge of the Golfe are numerous sandy beaches. Lots and lots of them in fact, and all generally deserted (a favourite haunt of Marks' !!) . Take a trip along the coast towards Lamor Baden and turn left towards the sea. Dozens of lanes wind down to the beaches. They pop out right on the sand so just stop and you 're on the beach. There's so many hidden coves you'll never have time to find them all

Larmor

Batz sur Mer is a really nice small town further along the coast from La Baule. The town square is traditional in every way, packed with flowers and cafes with tables and chairs filling every space. Not only that but there`s a great sandy beach which is perfect for sunbathers and walkers. It is a bit busier than the other beaches above

There are things for the children to do (trampolines etc) and loads and loads of rock pools to explore (perfect of wellie wearing Joe !!). Plus there`s a fantastic cliff-top walk along a rough sandy track which winds its way around the rocky headlands and coves. The views are stunning and well worth the trek !

Don`t forget to eat in one of the restaurants in the town square. The pizzeria is great

batz sur mer

The Quiberon peninsula stretches fourteen kilometres into the sea and boasts twelve sandy beaches and more than 2,500 hours of sunlight a year.  The main town of Quiberon is one of Morbihan's liveliest and most popular resorts with a large sandy beach, promenade and plenty of beach side bars, restaurants and souvenir shops. Departing twice a day from Quiberon is the ferry to the island of Belle-Ile

Our favourite haunt is Damgan, about 40 mins drive
There's a big selection of beaches around Damgan, which is where the French tend to holiday, the English are a rarer breed there. Damgan’s main beach is stunning and there’s plenty of places to buy food, ice creams etc. The main town and its numerous restaurants is just yards from the beach. There’s also a large play area just off the beach with swings, slides and roundabouts.

One great advantage of Damgan is that its choice of beaches are all close together. There are the busier beaches and also those that are very quiet. The beaches here are very gently sloping which means an adult can walk out half a kilometre on some of them and still not be submerged when the tide's in- the tide does come in quite quickly though.

On one of the beaches there`s an area of rock pools. See the locals scratching around for their dinner -mussels, whelks and oysters are abundant and free to anyone who wants to collect them

The sandy beaches of Damgan... where you will find more French than English!

To get a feel for the beach and the seaside town of Damgan, here is a little video !!..Damgan Beach

For lot more beaches, please see http://www.frenchgites.com/Tourism%20Brittany%20Beach.htm

La Bourbansais

Château de la Bourbansais

Yesterday we visited La Bourbansais, just north of Rennes in Southern Brittany.

A fantastic place, a zoo set in the grounds of a chateau. I am usually not keen on zoos, large animals kept in concrete compounds seems very cruel. At La Bourbansais the animals have large areas to roam, there isn’t any concrete and fences are kept to a minimum, the animals are housed on islands. The ‘moats’ surrounding their islands prevents them from escaping!

Not only are there all the animals you would expect, lions, tigers, energetic gibbons, screeching monkeys, pacing wolves, sleep panthers, grumpy camels and leggy giraffes but there is also a spectacular chateau. The chateau is still lived in by a family today, and it is nice to see their children’s bikes discarded in the courtyard and a their sullen teenaged son throwing a basketball through a hoop which has been secured to the chateau wall! Parts of the chateau are open to the public and it is well worth a visit.

There are also shows throughout the day. We watched the giraffes having ‘afternoon tea! A show demonstrating the hunting skills of big birds such as eagles, falcons and big owls. Amazing.

Giraffes enjoying afternoon tea at La Bourbansais Pleugueneuc

All in all a very good day and well worth a visit if you happen to be in Southern Brittany!

Lait Ribot

Lait ribot.... doesn't taste too good in tea!

Lait ribot is the by product of butter making. We call it buttermilk.

The Bretons are quite partial to a glass or two of lait ribot and quite often you will only find fresh lait ribot in the supermarkets. If you want ‘normal’ milk you have to drink UHT milk (not the same thing at all !!).

The Bretons add lait ribot to fresh fruit, they add it to soup and mashed potatoes.

I also know many Bretons who dunk their galettes (savory buckwheat pancakes) into lait ribot.

To me, lait ribot is very much like marmite, you either love it or hate it. When you are next in Brittany have a glass and let me know what you think !!

Vannes

One of the many portside cafes

We are about thirty minutes from the coastal town of Vannes. Here is our nearest civilisation!.. If we need shops we go to Vannes!..

Vannes has everything, culture (cathedral, gothic churches, medieval city walls, timber framed houses), shops (boutiques, clothes shops for teenagers(!) and  artisanal shops), HUGE extensive open air market on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, the port with some pretty impressive boats to admire and of course there is the Golfe de Morbihan..the beach!

To make sure you don't miss a thing... this little train will guide you through Vannes' history

Vannes dates back to the 5th century.

A bit of Wikipedia history for you !..

In 1342, Vannes was besieged four times between forces from both sides of the Breton War of Succession.

In 1759 Vannes was used as the staging point for a planned French invasion of Britan. A large army was assembled there, but it was never able to sail following the French naval defeat at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in November 1759.

In 1795, during the French Revolution, French forces based in Vannes successfully repelled a planned British-Royalist invasion.

Vannes is a great place to visit... and here is a little film to whet your appetite!..

Visit Vannes

For more information on what there is to see and do in Vannes, visit http://www.frenchgites.com/Tourism%20Brittany%20Towns.htm