Brittany-driving in August

I haven't driven in Brittany in August but I did drive the area you mention in late July a couple of years ago. The only place I ran into any heavy traffic was in the Dinan to St Malo area, and then it wasn't total gridlock. In fact, I found most of the roads, even the major roads, in Brittany to be relatively light traffic. I assume because you mentioned Rennes and Josselin (sp.) that you do plan to go there. I pretty much just blew through Rennes (meaning I didn't spend any time there) but I really like Josselin, both the castle and the town itself. I happened to be there for the Saturday morning market and I love the French markets. I stopped in several small villages to see the parish closes and the calvaries at the local churches ( https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclos_paroissial). The most interesting of these were Saint-Thegonnec and Guimiliau, both cute little villages. I also stopped in Pontivy for a break on one of my drives. It was nice if it's on your route, but maybe not worth going way out of the way for. Fougeres is definitely worth a stop and worth going a bit out of the way for if it's not on your route - interesting castle and it has a nice old town with a great market if you're there on Thursday.

When in August will you be driving? And -- is this for 2017 or another future year?

I ask, because traffic in France in the summer can be terrible on Autoroutes and major national highways on certain days. I suggest you bookmark http://www.bison-fute.gouv.fr/ and check it periodically. Ignore the Native American cartoon character -- that's not as sensitive a topic here as in the U.S. (for example, there's a clothing store chain in France called Redskins).

Back to the when: if you're planning to drive around the first weekend or last weekend in August, count on heavy traffic. Traffic then is described as "extremely difficult" and is assigned a black color code (black is heavily congested, red is congested, orange reflects some congestion, and green is free-flowing). The media will refer to that as "black Saturday" or "black Sunday." The first weekend in August traffic will be heaviest heading out of Paris and lighter returning to Paris (due to the smaller number of vacationers who venture out in July versus August). The last weekend in August traffic returning to Paris will be bad.

Also, festivals may generate hot spots of traffic. In Bretagne, for example, the Festival Interceltique de Lorient (NW of Vannes) covers a 10-day period and draws over 700,000 visitors. Its grand parade day on the first Sunday of the festival draws particularly large crowds. I'd keep track of when that is occurring in 2017 (not sure if they've posted their schedule yet) and either try to avoid it or jump right in and enjoy.

I've only been to Bretagne on business, so you'll have to rely on others for tourist information. I can tell you that Brest, for example, was heavily bombed by the British and Americans targeting a German U-boat base in WWII and in the subsequent battle to recapture it where American artillery destroyed much of the town, so a lot of the town looks as if it was constructed in the late 1940s and early 1950s. However it contains a branch of the Musée National de la Marine (a military museum) in a surviving oceanfront medieval fortification, as well as an aquarium (Oceanopolis).

Saint-Nazaire has a large shipyard -- it's where the gigantic MS Harmony of the Seas cruise ship was built and launched in 2016.

I've been through Nantes airport on a business trip but haven't seen the town. I've heard it's quite nice, though, and has a giant mechanical elephant that people can ride (the Grande Éléphant: http://www.lesmachines-nantes.fr/en/machines-de-l-ile/the-grand-elephant/). Kind of a steampunk contraption, I suppose.

K, very good advice about festivals and the first/last weekends of August as being "black days." I'll put the "bison" website on my phone for future use. Hope to participate in FIL (I've got the dates) despite the huge crowds. Thanks, Steve

Hello Nancy in Corvallis. I'm in Portland, OR !! Thanks for the encouragement about my upcoming drive through Bretagne. I'd heard about "calvaries" and "paroissial's"; web site was a big help understanding their significance. I do plan to go to Fougere as I drive from Bayeux to St Malo. Think I'll add Josselin to my itinerary.

I think everything will be crowded to some extent, especially in Dinan and St. Malo in August. I'm not sure how it will be in Vannes but I don't think driving between will be the biggest issue, it will be parking and traffic in the cities themselves.

Favorites in Brittany that I think would be generally appealing were Ft. La Latte (not far from Dinan by car), Locronan, and Auray. If you can catch a Pardon, I'd try to visit to see Breton traditions. They're all over the area from late spring through late summer, some are larger than others.

Other favorites that might have more limited appeal were the parish closes in the small towns of St. Theggonac, Guimillau and Lampaul-Guimillau; and Cairn de Gavrinis by ferry from Larmor-Baden.

Just thought I'd add another suggestion. I'm not sure how much of the north coast (Cote de Granit Rose) will be included in your 'perimeter' drive, but if you'll be near Paimpol and have the time (at least a few hrs) I would definitely recommend taking the ferry to Ile-de-Brehat. The ferry I took basically circled the island like a cruise, with views of the island and the very unique lighthouse there. The island itself is a great place to rent bikes or hike around and have a picnic. It was beautiful when I was there in July, with tons of flowers everywhere. Besides the Paon lighthouse (which is about an hour hike, at least for me it was), there is the Chapel of St Michael, a 17th mill with demonstrations, there are cafes and shops and several glass blowers in the town, etc. It was just a very lovely place to spend a few hours in nature. You can check it out here: http://www.brittanytourism.com/discover-our-destinations/saint-brieuc-bay-paimpol-les-caps/unmissable-sites/brehat

Note that many of these destinations are approached by a single, two-lane road. In the case of Dinard and St. Malo, for example, some are located on peninsulas, which makes the approach and departure more congested - and sometimes a drawbridge can be involved. St. Malo has a huge yacht marina, which could well be expected to be busier on weekends, all summer.

I don't mean to sound like the voice of doom, but you need to realize that the world has embraced the U.S.'s auto problems, as well as its vehicles. You should rent the smallest vehicle that serves your needs. We chose our Dinard hotel partly because they had private parking. We had to hunt for a space, the day we went to St. Malo. That was in June.

Note that Brittany and Normandy have a lot of public gardens, and public gardens of estates that don't show their house interiors. That happens to be an interest of ours. We liked Dol de Bretagne, and Vitré could substitute for Dinan if it's impassable with tourists. Most scenic towns are not right on the motorway, so you'll have lots of local roads. We found that some of the public gardens were on well-paved roads that weren't two lanes wide, like in England.

We will also be driving around Brittany in August, but in the opposite direction (Vannes to Dinan). The information here was very useful to me.
Still, I have a question about driving into Paris on the last weekend in August, which is what we expect to be doing. This year, the last weekend is August 26 & 27. That leaves 4 days of the next week that are still in August.
That makes me think that a good number of Parisians will want to stay on vacation for at least some of those days, thus making the August 26-27 traffic not-so-heavy.
Is this a reasonable assumption?

Hey Bob,

I wouldn't count on it. If you check the Bison Futé calendar (http://www.bison-fute.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/Calendrier_2017_WEB.pdf), it's predicting that weekend will be heavy. Not black heavy, but red heavy, which may be adjusted to black as reality unfolds.

However, the "rentrée" (restart of normal life after the summer, specifically school) isn't until Monday, 4 September, so you never know. Best to monitor the Bison Futé site and perhaps French media to see what's happening to help you make real-time decisions that are as efficient for you as possible.

Thanks K. We'll keep watch.

Bob, is Paris an intermediary stop on your drive or the final destination? If it is your final destination, then I would suggest you drop the car somewhere outside of Paris and take the train in. You won't need (or want) a car in Paris. Chartres worked well for me. I dropped my rental car and spent a few hours looking around and then took the train to Paris. It's a short 1-1/4 hr train ride and it avoids all the mess of driving into (or even close to) Paris proper.

Nancy, Paris is our final destination, and we are quite comfortable driving into Paris. It seems preferable to transferring from car to train to taxi on arrival day.
Traffic on the last weekend of French vacations is something we'll have to monitor.

The "direct" road between Dinan and Vannes is a secondary one, so it is never really crowded, even in August (around Vannes it may be a bit more tricky on Saturdays/Sundays). On the contrary it can be pleasant to see the rural Breton landscape. You could stop in Josselin, or in the Broceliande forest (especially if you are interested in Arthurian legends).

Korriganed, we're not driving direct from Dinan to Vanne. We're staying along the coast of Brittany so we will get to see plenty of countryside I'm hoping.

Brad, I'm not familiar with a "Pardon" mentioned in your posting. Can you (or anyone else) enlighten me?

Google 'pardons in Brittany' for general information about them - Wikipedia's info is very good. This website has a link to a schedule for the current year: http://www.brittanyholidayguide.com/brittanyfestivals.html.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend one when I was there, but heard that they are quite interesting, and unique to Brittany.