Brittany 2024 - Driving Itinerary - 1.5 Weeks

The places I've slept in that area are Rennes, Quimper, Vannes and Nantes ( the latter Breton but no longer officially part of Brittany). I liked all of those cities; they all have attractive architecture (as does Limoges, incidentally). While in Rennes I day-tripped to the picturesque towns of Fougeres and Vitre. See what your guidebook says about sights in each place. Maybe some of them will have a special attraction for you.

Absolutley! Thank you.

In addition to Vitre and Fougeres, there are also Josselin (with great castle) and Dinan (with beautiful medieval center) that would be great based on your preferences - both are also easily reached from Rennes.

From Concarneau you could visit Pont-Aven, not a lot to do but it was popular with the impressionists and it's quite pretty, Quimperle, maybe even Quimper (for a larger town) and Pont-l'Abbe (pretty harbor area).

Then I'd probaby plan to visit Carnac on the way to wherever you're going to stay for Oradour-sur-Glane. It's obviously the best megalithic site to visit.

Thanks Nancy. Dinan is high on our list, as are the Carnac stones/menhirs. The Cairn of Barnenez looks incredibly interesting. The more research we do, the more we realize that there is much to see, and not a lot of time to see it. It's clear that we will have to do our research and prioritize as best we can. The medieval towns are always a high point for us .... Thanks for the great suggestions!

A small medieval village you might enjoy is Locronan. We were there in mid August and they had a summer/evening market with small "celtic" show afterwards.

A different megalithic site is the Valley of the Saints by Carnoet.

Thank you Dlindstrom. I have to admit that before beginning our research into Brittany, we were unaware of the strong Celtic influence and the many megalithic sites, other than the stones of Carnac. Locronon and the Valley of the Saints sound like a must-see. Thanks so much!

We have driven through Brittany twice and absolutely love it. Our favorite areas were around Quimper, the Roscoff / Morlaix region and then we stopped off in the Pink Granite Coast region on our way to St Malo. We took a day trip by boat to ile-de-Brehat which was really wonderful.

Rochefort-en-Terre is lovely, flowery, and mega-touristy, but it is so photogenic that it's worth the stop to walk around for an hour or so.

Brittany has Villes d'art et d'histoire.
http://patrimoines-de-bretagne.fr/vahvh/

It has four of the Plus Beaux Villages de France.
https://www.les-plus-beaux-villages-de-france.org/fr/nos-villages/?locality_id=3030293&latitude=48.16667&longitude=-2.83333&latitude_min=&latitude_max=&longitude_min=&longitude_max=&locality=Bretagne%2C+France&thematic=

We will go out of our way to see a PBV so it's worth keeping that in mind for your time in Normandy and your drive to Limoges, as well as your stay in Brittany.

Brittany has a lot of villes et villages fleuris. The list changes from year to year. By August, the displays should be spectacular.
The website was hung up just now, but googling Bretagne villes fleuris should get you the list and map.

Thanks Jim and Crumbs. All great suggestions. Bayeux is going to be our home base for the majority of our stay in France, and I think we were a little too ambitious in thinking we could cover both Normandy and Brittany in one trip. We're going to try to work in a few day trips and overnighters from Bayeux to St. Malo, Dinan, Vitre, Fougers, etc., but Brittany being the size it is, we're realizing the north and west coasts may be a little too far and would probably merit a trip of its own.

Thanks to everyone for all the great suggestions.

I just met a lovely Canadian couple in the laundromat in Bayeux. They have been here for a week using it as their home base, and said it’s been wonderful. Now that I’m here, I think it’s a great idea. We only have 2 nights here. Wish we had more!

Hi KD. We know that laundromat well LOL. Bayeux is not only a perfect location for day tripping to much of Normandy, it is packed with history and a charm that captivates. We love it! Enjoy your time there.

The Michelin Green Guide for Brittany covers just about every town, have suggested driving routes, etc.
Request Stu Dudley's Normandy & Brittany itinerary; see https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/normandy-and-brittany-stu-dudleys-updated-itinerary-1670294/ We used this in addition to the Michelin guide when planning our trip to Brittany a few years ago. You can also find many videos on YouTube exploring the area.

Of the places we visited our two favorites were Rennes and Dinan. Parc Thabor in Rennes is spectacular and we enjoyed the pedestrian-only downtown. We used Dinan as a base for a few nites, great for reaching the coast and some inland towns.

Although the historic places are more important, you might check to see if you are near any estate gardens that are open to the (ticketed) public, if that interests you.

Isolated megaliths can be hard to find without GPS coordinates, but maybe ? Waze has learned them.

Thanks Bill G and Tim. We requested and received Stu Dudley's Normandy and Brittany itinerary. It's great. As we've decided to pare down our trip to Normandy, using Bayeux as our home base for day trips including to Dinan, St. Malo, Rennes. We look forward to exploring these beautiful towns. We've also ordered the Michelin Green Guide for Normandy. Awesome resource that will allow us to make the most of our time in both Normandy and Brittany. While I'd love to be able to take in some of the megaliths of Brittany, I think they will have to wait for another trip. Thank you both for the info and recommendations. Cheers!

I recommend you spend a night in Dinan. A day trip will be rushed as that’s about 4 hours of driving. I did the opposite. I stayed a week in Dinan with one night in Bayeux in the middle (yes I paid for two accommodations that night but it was worth it to both get the weekly rental and not be rushed with a day trip).

For those of you who may be using this discussion as research, Gavrinis is one of my favorites in all of France.

My favorites are, north to south: Mt. St. Michele (right on Normandie/Brittany line), St. Malo, Cancale (for oysters), Dinan, Ft. La Latte, then south to Carnac, Auray, Vannes, Cairn Gavrinis (by boat tour from Larmor-Baden). I went a lot further west, I liked Locronan, but generally felt you could save the drive and see the top sites without going west.

If you're there in the summer, I would try hard to add a Pardon. They're local festivals that run somewhere every weekend in summer.

Brad

Thanks Matt. Great advice. We'll probably stay a couple nights. Like you, we don't mind paying for accommodations at both locations. When you rent for longer periods (we've rented for the month), your rental cost is significantly less, making overnighters (or more) doable. Thank you!

Thanks for the great advice and info Travel Boss. Many of the locations you've recommended are on our wish list that we'll try to do on another trip devoted to Brittany. I didn't take the time to plot out the distances before posting - I now realize Brittany is worth a trip of it's own. We'll be sure to save all the great advice on this site. Thanks to everyone. Very much appreciated. xoxo

Here’s a route through some of my favorite places

https://maps.app.goo.gl/5mrsfEqEPrvVwFx29?g_st=ic

Stops are

Starts in Dinan
San Malo
Sculptured Rocks
Cancale
An oyster farm that has an oyster and mussels shack that I love
Dole cathedral
A single huge menhir
Mount st michel

All really fun and easily linked together

Also, in Dinan the rs recommended Creperie Anna is fantastic and the Rance River walk to Lehon is my happy place.

Enjoy!

Thanks Matt! This is perfect, thank you - covers many of the things we were hoping to see in that area. Saved and printed!! (I'm old school, like to have hard copies. lol). Thanks again, very much appreciated. Janie