We recently arrived back in Lourmarin after spending 8 days wandering about western France. One of our favourite things to do is amble our way through this beautiful country. We’ve driven north from Lourmarin, back to England, many times, sometimes with only one night stop and at the most three. This time, driving from England, we took longer, wishing to explore Brittany, the corner of north-west France we’d never visited before. We arrived in Calais on a momentous day, June 6th, but we were not headed to the Normandy beaches, as much as we’d love to visit there again. We’ve been to Normandy several times and on this trip were headed further west. Not surprisingly, as we drove through Normandy, many of the tiny towns were festooned with red, white and blue flowers and the flags of the Allies who’d rescued France 82 years before, to change the course of history. When we reached the tiny village of Troan, where we were staying, as we strolled besides the fields we stumbled upon a D.Day memorial, a special memory to some of the very many who’d given their all….

Night 1: 16th century Norman Manor

Our accommodation on our first night’s stop in Troan was an incredible Norman Manor house. The online photos barely did it justice. Sumptuously appointed, with just us and our 2 friends, we had the entire place to ourselves. It seemed extremely indulgent to disturb it for just for one night and it would be a fabulous place to return to and spend a few days with a larger group.

The living room

The kitchen

The dining room

Day 2 Saint Suliac and Dinan

Saint Suliac ~ Brittany

The next morning we drove into northern Brittany and after about two hours our first stop was in one of les plus beaux villages de France, Saint Suliac. Set above the salt marshes and an estuary close to St Malo, tradition has it that this beautifully preserved village was founded in the 6th century by a Welsh monk, Saint Suliac. During the Middle Ages it became an important maritime center, with many of the villagers earning their living from the sea, fishing mostly for cod and often joining the dangerous annual voyages to Newfoundland. The ancient granite buildings we see today were mostly built by fisherman between the 15th and 18th centuries who grew wealthy from these trips. As promised the area was very reminiscent of Cornwall. And in addition to French, all the sign posts were written in Breton (Brezhoneg), the traditional Celtic language of western Brittany most closely related to Welsh and Cornish, rather than French.

L’Église Saint-Suliac

The village church is one of the oldest in Brittany. It was built in in the 11th century as a Romanesque building before being largely rebuilt in Gothic style during the 13th century.

The stained glass window, built during a church restoration between 1902-1908, depicts sailors leaving on a fishing voyage to  Newfoundland and are portraits of real local fisherman.

Inside the sanctuary there are numerous maritime thanksgiving offerings—models of ships and mementos given by sailors seeking protection at sea.

We walked down to the shoreline, which was peppered with cafés and restaurants and enjoyed the harbour views.

We stopped to browse a seafaring brocante, before tearing ourselves away to our next stop, Dinan, a twenty minutes drive away.

Dinan ~ Brittany

Dinan is a delight and unsurprisingly is widely considered the finest preserved medieval town in Brittany.

Founded as the site of a 9th century Benedictine monastery, by the 11th century Dinan had grown to be an important commercial centre. Sat high above the River Rance, it protected Brittany from the ambitions of neighbouring Normandy.

Today its medieval character is remarkably unchanged with nearly 3 km (1.7 miles) of ramparts—the longest complete town walls in Brittany, a castle, churches, and more than 130 half-timbered houses still strung along the cobbled streets.

Many of Dinan’s half-timbered houses which lean over the street are not the result of  poor construction but built this way deliberately. Medieval property taxes were often based on the size of the ground floor, so owners built upper storeys that projected outwards, creating extra living space without increasing their tax bill. This distinctive architectural feature is one of the town’s enduring charm.

There are many places to eat and of course we had to indulge in the regional speciality, a Breton galette. A galette is a savory crepe made from buckwheat flour, although we did spoil ourselves with a sweet crepe too! Buckwheat has been grown locally since the Middle Ages, the poor Brittany soil being more suitable to this crop. This galette was stuffed with oozing local cheese and ham, accompanied by a green salad and glass of rosé, it was delicious!

After Dinan we continued to explore Brittany and headed slightly north about 112km ( 67 miles) to Plehédel and our second night stop.

Night Stops 2 & 3 Château de Boisgelin – Hôtel & Restaurant Mathieu Kergourlay

This lovely château, set on a golf course, was the perfect spot for two nights to explore Brittany. On our first night was spoiled ourselves in the restaurant where its owner and chef, Mathieu Kergourlay stunned us with his excellent food. His wife, Marine Kergourlay, has beautifully renovated the château, successfully blending her modern style within a formerly traditional family château home.

The beautiful grounds and golf course were tempting to some of us but we had places to be and sights to discover!

Day 3 Brittany’s Pink Granite Coast

We left our château on our third day headed to Paimpol. Chased by rain clouds and eventually a torrential downpour we sheltered at a local café by the waterside before heading towards the town of Perros Guirec 11 km away (6.5 miles). Hoping for the clouds to clear, we enjoyed a delicious lunch in Perros Guirec’s beachside village of Ploumanach. The wonderful restaurant by the water, La Table de Mon Père, is one we’d also highly recommend. Below is the stunning view from the restaurant. After lunch we were rewarded with cornflower skies and sparkling sunshine dancing across the pink granite coastline that the Côtes-d’Armor department of Brittany is famed for.

This pink granite coast formed beneath an ancient mountain range around 300 million years ago, created  by the intrusion of three coarse-grained red granites. The distinct pink colour comes from the rock’s high feldspar content, combined with quartz, mica and iron oxides, which give it its distinctive rosy hue—especially striking at sunrise and sunset. It extends over 15 km (9miles) from Trébeurden to Perros-Guirec.

Unique to Brittany, the three rock types are criss-crossed through thousands of fracture outcrops extending as far as the shores of the English channel. This is one of only three places in the world where pink granite occurs in such abundance, the others being parts of Corsica and China. Across the bay, sat on its’ pink granite shelf, was the fairy-tale looking Château de Costaérès. 

Oratoire Saint-Guirec

Dating from the late 11th century, the oratoire was probably built by monks from the nearby L’Abbay de Bégard and dedicated to Saint Guirec, the Welsh monk who in the 6th century founded a Christian community here. The legend is that he landed on Ploumanach beach in a stone vessel having miraculously been guided across the Channel. The original 14th-century wooden statue of Saint Guirec has been preserved and is inside the nearby Saint-Guirec Chapel. Damaged by its exposure to the sea and its many visitors, it was replaced by this granite statue in 1904.

The marriage legend of Oratoire Saint-Guirec

A charming Breton tradition, for centuries, unmarried young women would walk out to the statue at low tide and stick a pin into Saint Guirec’s nose. If the pin remained in place until the tide returned, the legend promised they would marry within the year. Over the many decades this practice wore away the nose of the original wooden statue. Today, visitors often continue the tradition using a pine needle or placing small pebbles near the statue so as not to damage it.

Often considered the jewel of the coast, this former fishing hamlet, was voted in 2015, one of France’s favourite villages.

Saint-Guirec Chapel

The chapel houses the original medieval statue and also has many maritime thanksgiving offerings.

Inside the Saint-Guirec Chapel

Sentier des Douaniers ~Coastal Path

A spectacular customs officers’ path runs along the shoreline between Perros-Guirec and Ploumanach. The customs house is  open to visitors. The 4–5 km walk passes rocks resembling rabbits, turtles, mushrooms and castles, shaped entirely by nature. Allow  a couple of hours if you enjoy stopping for photographs! The pink granite lighthouse, standing among giant rose-coloured boulders along the coastal path is one of Brittany’s most photographed landmarks.

Trégastel
Known for its beaches, granite outcrops and the beautiful Renote Peninsula, where another superb coastal walk winds through the pink rock formations. Just offshore lies Sept-Îles Archipelago, France’s largest seabird sanctuary. It’s possible to  take boat trips from Perros-Guirec to visit the islands.

Before returning to our hotel for the night we went back to Paimpol to have dinner by the harbour side. We discovered that unlike nearby Saint-Malo, a city of merchants and privateers, Paimpol had become known as the home port of the Iceland cod-fishing fleets, giving it a unique place in Brittany’s maritime history.

The next day we’d be heading south to explore the coastline around the pretty fishing village of Camaret-sur-Mer. A bientôt ~ until next time!