We are planning to spend a week in Brittany on the eastern channel coast following two weeks in burgundy this July. We don’t like moving around— we’d rather go a mile deep in one place than rush to see everything. That said, want to enjoy the coast, see mont st michel, and soak in some of what Brittany has to offer. We will have a car and prefer small towns to cities. Suggestions for where to stay for the week? Also curious if you would reverse to spend one week in burgundy and two in Brittany. Thanks!
Posted by
11127 posts
We are also considering a trip to Brittany. We have been to Normandy once before and toured Mt St-Michel which is in Normandy on the border with Brittany.
We’ve traveled to Burgundy several times, enjoyed it all. I will follow your thread!
Posted by
Corvallis OR
7025 posts
When I explored that part of Brittany I stayed at a B&B outside the town of Dol de Bretagne (commonly just called Dol). I loved staying in, or near, a smaller community and it was easy to drive to lots of places for the day - Mont St Michel, St Malo, Dinan, Fougeres, Cancale (if you like oysters), and wonderful drives along the coast, including some easy hikes - one that I loved was Cap Frehel.
Posted by
Washington DC
27052 posts
I've only made one trip to each of those areas, so I know there are people here with a lot more experience than I have. I don't rent a car in Europe. And I do not like wine. With those caveats, I would reverse the times. My research provided more sightseeing targets in Brittany than in Burgundy, and average mid-summer high temperatures in Burgundy are about 9 degrees (F) hotter than in Brittany. Heat waves are very unusual in Brittany, and when they occur they're likely to be brief. You'll probably have much more pleasant walking-around weather in Brittany, though there are likely to be some clouds and rain.
However, I would not want to spend one week, much less two weeks, in a single location in Brittany. That would either severely limit what you could see or lead to extremely long drives. I've not covered the entire province by a long shot, but I enjoyed my stays in Quimper (with boat trip to Belle Ile), Vannes and Rennes (day tripping by bus to Fougeres and Vitre on separate days). I liked Dinard and Dinan as well, which I visited from St-Malo. While I understand the attraction of St-Malo, I found it unpleasantly overrun and could only tolerate a few hours in the historic center; I know that others disagree. With a car you could easily cover many more places (Mont-St-Michel, Cancale for the oysters, etc.), and I don't think two weeks would be too long. If you had extra time you could branch out slightly to Nantes, an attractive city formerly part of Brittany or Le Mans, which I've read has a very attractive historic center.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks so much. I think you are right. We do drink wine but we not in large quantities and we are not so knowledgeable. One week in burgundy and two weeks in Brittany is probably right for us. And that will give us a chance to spend one week exploring the channel coast and one week in the west/southwest/Atlantic coast. Still Interested to hear suggestions for where to stay for each week especially in a smaller town/ village.
Posted by
Tacoma, WA, USA
517 posts
FYI —We really enjoyed Carnac for the standing stones and Quiberon for the beach town. We spent three night at Auray and made day trips.
This article gives you an idea of the standing stones throughout Brittany
https://www.archaeological.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/aia_megaliths5-19_rev.pdf
Posted by
France Southwest
1792 posts
Like acraven, I would recommend staying longer in Brittany, which has far more variety of landscapes and places to see than Burgundy.
Wine is not a Breton specialty, but you will still drink excellent ciders there (while eating crêpes)