Brittany France

Brian, I highly recommend a day at Locranon and Douarnenez, close to Quimper, and Dinan, Dinard and Saint-Malo. Dinan is a half timbered town. Dinard is a beach town with a retro vibe. We loved Dinard for something different from other charming French towns. We stayed in Dinard and visited Saint-Malo and Dinan from there.

We love Bretagne. We spent about 5 days near Quimper in 2017. There are numerous seaside villages with active fishing boats. Not a tourist thing, an actual occupation. November might be getting a little on the chilly side, especially at the beaches.

We stayed in Hotel les Voyageurs in Ploneour-Lanvern. Very small, E65/night, wonderful breakfast. Checked prices, they are now E70/night. Whew!! Inflation. Restaurant for the hotel is a gem - they say "2 stars", but don't say in what rating system - we had a great dinner there for our 35th anniversary.

We enjoyed Concarneau and that area. Look at a map, and see the various small towns in that area.

Don't forget Brest and the more northern parts.

To whet your appetite for Bretagne, check out the Brittany mysteries of Jean-Luc Bannelac (he's actually a German) - "A murder in Brittany" is the first.

Thanks for the ideas. We have been to the northern Breton towns before and we’re planning touring just Rennes, Josselin and Quimper. We like taking each region in small bites so we can spend time exploring the town and learning about the people so we try to spend a minimum of 3 days in each town we pick so we don’t feel like we are just running from place to place.

I second Jules' suggestion for Locronan and Douarnenez. In November, the beach is probably not on you list of things to do.

We enjoyed the La Vallee des Saints and the Muesum Abbey of Landevennec

In winter you are likely to be free to wander among the stones at the Neolithis sites -- during tourist season they are fenced off -- you can see them but not wander among them. We found the sites near Carnac very interesting.

In August, 2021, we were working on Plan D of our 2020 European vacation having lost to Covid restrictions on Plans A, B, and C. We had a flight to London planned but the English were still insisting on a 10-day quarantine upon arrival unless....you were transferring to another flight without leaving Heathrow. So we bought RT flights to Paris, consulted an old Lonely Planet guidebook (France's Best Trips by Lonely Planet), and settled on a 9-day, 9-town tour of Brittany. The drives to and from Paris were a little tiring but once there, the towns were quite close together and the one-night stands manageable. It turned out to be our favorite European vacation of all.

Throw in Mont Saint Michel which is technically in Normandy because you'll see that image thousands of times in the future. (Stay on the Mont if you can.)

Quimper was one of our stops. You'll love it. Dinan and St. Malo were stand-out towns, too.

I go to Quimper on a regular basis for work. It is a pretty town in itself (although there is not much more than 1/2 day's worth of sightseeing) and a good base to explore the region: Locronan, Crozon peninsula (though not in bad weather), Concarneau...

In terms of restaurants, I can recommend:

• Bar Iodé for fish and seafood. There is no other option on the menu. It is delicious, and November is a great time of the year for seafood.
• L'Epee for good French fare with a Brittany twist
• Ti-Coz, a few km out of town, if you want to treat yourselves to a higher-end restaurant
• Café du Port in super-cute Sainte-Marine, a tiny harbor a 20-min drive from Quimper. Might not be open in November.
• for simpler meals, many good crêperies in town, I like Vieux Quimper but there are many others.

If you like mysteries, there's a series of books by Jean-Luc Bannalec called the Brittany Mystery Series set in various locations. They mix in a lot of history and information about Brittany. Audible has them. We also found a couple in our local library.