DINAN
DINARD
After spending a lovely afternoon in Nantes, we hit the road early, heading into Brittany along its south coastal road that led all the way out to Brest on the English Channel. Our destination was Carnac on Quiberon Bay, an area famous for its megalithic sites, dating back at least five thousand years.
Brittany is famous for its beautiful villages and there is a competition to see which town can make it into the top ten. A serious tourist of Brittany would spend many weeks making the journey around this arrow head of a peninsula pointing out to the new world across the Atlantic Ocean. We only had five days, two spent in the lovely Le Dolmen Camping site in Carnac and three in St Lunaire on the Emerald Coast on the northern coast of Brittany.
On the website, the ‘Ten Most Beautiful Towns in Brittany’, the town of Auray was considered number one on the list. It was only a twenty minute drive from Carnac so we were able to spend a lovely morning there, particularly visiting its harbour, St Goustan, that sits on a well-protected river, meandering down to the Gulf of Morbihan.
From Carnac we then headed for the northern side of Brittany to our Camping ground in the beach town of St Lunaire. It would be our base for visiting some of the towns in the area, particularly St Malo. On the way we spent a few hours visiting the river-cruise port of Dinan, coming in third on the list of beautiful towns as well as one of “Brittany’s best preserved medieval walled citadelles”
From Dinan it was a short trip to St Lunaire, past the international airport at Dinard along the way. The Camp Site was in the street behind the beach-front at St Lunaire and we were a little concerned at the huge number of cars in the streets around the beach as well as the large population of French sunbathers on the beach. We had noticed similar huge numbers of locals at the cafes of St Goustin on the previous day. When I inquired of the lady assisting us in the Camping Ground the reason for the crowds, she explained that it was the last day of a four-day holiday in France for the ‘Ascension’; I was surprised the Catholic background of the French was still providing them with holidays!
In between St Lunaire and St Malo is the city of Dinard as well as the geographical boundary of the River Ranche. We were able to have a brief tour around the streets of Dinard but only enough time to realise that you would need a lot more time to do it justice.
Our camp site was a 30 minute drive to a campervan parking area on the outskirts of St Malo. We then were able to ride our bikes into the centre of the old fortress with only minor dangers from careless truck drivers. After our excursion around the streets of St Malo, our next destination on the following day was Mont Saint Michel, an hours drive along the coast, but over the Couesnon River into Normandy.
Our Brittany Itinerary!
DINAN
DINARD
FOGTRAVEL 