Brittany: 8 things to do and 2 to know

 

If with Normandy it was love at first sight, Brittany involved the senses, soliciting them all! Well yes, here we have lost our heads just as we have literally lost ourselves among villages, gray skies, sunsets, small houses with thatched roofs, clad in slate or limestone and facades decorated with fairytale-like wooden beams according to the technique of colombage, reminiscent of the tales of Hansel and Gretel.

On the Breton coast between pink rocks and tides

1. The first nice surprise was Rennes, the current capital of the region, formerly the capital of the Duchy of Brittany. This past still shines in the wide streets and beautiful squares, where contemporary style and history alternate. From the Middle Ages of the half-timbered houses, of which Rennes holds the largest number after Strasbourg, to the seventeenth-century Parliament of Brittany up to the modern mansions along the Vilaine river.

On Saturday mornings, the Place des Lyces hosts one of the largest and most lively markets in all of France: it dates back to 1622 and 300 producers display fruit, vegetables, meat, cheeses, different types of bread, cold cuts, fish, dishes of all kinds cooked moment, flowers and of course oysters and coquilles Saint Jacques. Impossible to leave without tasting and buying something!

2. For the perfect lunch break, the Breton galette, savory buckwheat crêpe with gruyere cheese, cooked ham and egg, necessarily accompanied by cider drunk in a cup. And followed by a sweet crêpe with salted caramel: beware both are addictive! The coffee? In a charming little bar right in front of the Mordelaises Gate, the ancient access to the city from the Roman era. And then a tour of Thabor park, a ten-hectare green lung that contains gardens of different styles including a wonderful rose garden.

3. We then reached Perros-Guirec, one of the most sought-after holiday resorts in France, which includes the beaches of Trestraou and Ploumanac’h. The ideal place to explore the Pink Granite Coast and to go on a cruise to discover the Sept-Îles, a wild archipelago, a protected natural site since 1912 and a Nature Reserve since 1976, the undisputed kingdom of 27 bird species that can be seen during the navigation aboard one of the Armor Navigation boats, including the only French colony of Fou de Bassan, the Puffins that here they call Macareux-moines, and the Petits pingouins, actually razorbills, birds belonging to the Alca Torda species. Gray seals also live there but spotting them is not easy.

4. On the Pink Granite Coast we were guests of the Hotel de l’Europe in Ploumanac’h, a charming fishing village declared the “Village Préferé des Français”, facing the beach where, according to legend, Saint-Guirec landed in the 7th century , who came from Wales to evangelize the Bretons. The landscape with the huge stones changes continuously with the rhythm of the tides, covering and uncovering the bottom covered with brown algae and embracing or moving away from the statue of the saint kept in the Oratory above the cliff, a pilgrimage destination for girls who wish to get married within the year, which according to tradition must stick a needle in the face of the poor monk.

From here starts the most suggestive stretch of the Path of the customs officers who once patrolled the coast to prevent smuggling, which extends for over 1300 kilometers encircling the coasts of Brittany. The protagonists are the huge boulders of pink granite sculpted by the sea and in the most bizarre shapes: “Napoleon’s hat”, “the skull”, “the witch” and so on following the imagination.

5. Dining on the beach based on fruites de mer, coquillages and moules frites at the Le Coste Mor restaurant with the rays of a sun that sets very late and in the meantime colors the rocks of the bay in an even brighter pink was one of the most beautiful of our French trip. The pink of the granite is due to a particular mixture of quartz, mica, feldspar and iron oxide. This is a rare phenomenon and exists in the world only in Brittany, Corsica, our Sardinia and China.

6. Do not miss a tour of the markets where you can buy the products of the region. We went to the one that takes place every Monday morning in Trègastel where we bought rhubarb jam, the very sweet local strawberries and a bit of Brittany to take home: the typical oilcloths with blue and white striped cotton lining and the T-shirt with the Breton national flag, the “Gwenn ha du”, distinguished by nine black horizontal bands, representing the 5 countries of Gallic origin, and white for the 4 countries of Celtic origin, symbol of the nine countries of its territory and then of his nine bishoprics, accompanied by eleven black ermine tails in the white space present in the upper left corner.

7. We then moved to Saint-Malo, a splendid city whose oldest part is surrounded by a ring of very high ramparts that can be traveled on foot. We reached it with a long and pleasant walk blown by the Channel wind starting from our hotel, the Hotel Kyriad St Malo Plage, one of the few to have direct access to the main beach of the city, that of the Sillon. We entered by the Porte Saint-Thomas which offers an exceptional view of the National Fort and the islet of Grand Bé.

An advice? Climb the walls from the Bidouane Tower, a former horseshoe-shaped powder magazine that offers a panorama of the whole bay and the islands of Grand Bé and Petit Bé. Then you reach the Bastion de la Hollande which overlooks the beach of Bon Secours and go down to the beautiful historic center which boasts the palaces built by the corsairs, the rich shipowners who lived there.
If the long walk made you hungry, do like us who, upon returning, left Otto in our magnificent sea and tide view room at the Kyriad Saint-Malo and stopped for dinner at Le Sillon, a very chic restaurant with large windows overlooking the long beach of the same name, where however dogs are not allowed.

8. The last stop in Brittany can only be Cancale, a delightful seaside village, home of Breton oyster farming. We arrived at high tide which does not allow you to see the crops but the panels on the pier explain how the oysters are harvested and literally raked to the bottom of the sea.

Our destination was the market near the lighthouse with the stalls where the delicious oysters are open at the moment, of which Michele had a feast by drinking them on a nice glass of fresh cider. The empty shells are thrown onto the shoreline where they form a small mountain and a very white mother-of-pearl beach that glistens in the sun.
And with a bit of luck and the complicity of a beautiful clear air we were able to see the Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey in the background of the bay, which can only be seen on the clearest days.

9. To remenber that these are the places of the Celtic legend par excellence, that of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table: they would be buried in the mythical Avalon or just asleep, victims of a spell from the Morgan fairy.

10. Saint-Malo is famous for its tides, among the most evident in Europe: one of the great pleasures of our stay was to enjoy the tides and the changing landscape of the coast. Tidal effects occur on all bodies of water on the planet. But while the Mediterranean Sea experiences little impact because it is more enclosed, significant tides occur in the oceans. And in Saint-Malo they are part of the daily rhythm of local life, with 2 low tides and 2 high tides every 24 hours, with an average difference of more than 12 metres: the result is a totally altered landscape between low and high tide , with large areas of sand ideal for strolling and photographing the sun as it sinks over the horizon, while in the morning the waves roll in under the windows and daredevils in wetsuits enjoy strolling in waist-deep water.