Recommendations For a Week in Normandy/Brittany

I used Dinan as a base last fall and did a day trip to St. Malo so you can easily do the reverse. Dinan is a great town to visit, a great medieval center, town walls, and if you walk down to the river you can have a nice lunch there (or in town, too). For Dinard its just a ferry trip across the river from St. Malo, it is nice to walk around and look at the belle epoque mansions near the water.

Since you have several nites in St. Malo you can explore the region to your hearts content as well as relax on the beach. If you like oysters you have to visit Cancale! You also have time on your trip to drive thru the Calvados region. I didn't have a chance to do it but the small towns and scenery are supposed to be quite nice. BTW its worth getting the Michelin green guides for these 2 areas, they have suggested driving routes and info on just about every town a tourist might want to visit.

You didn't mention Mont St-Michel but if that is of interest do what RS suggests and arrive late in the afternoon, perhaps 4pm or so. The crowds are thinning out then, still plenty of daylight left. Then have dinner on the island or the town just across the bridge. I had dinner at Le Relais du Roy where I was staying and it literally was one of the best meals I've had in France, a complete surprise since restaurants in touristy places usually count on a captive clientele and offer mediocre food. Note that at any restaurant in the area you need to be seated around 7pm, they don't stay open late. After dinner take one of the frequent trams back across the bridge to enjoy MSM all lit up, maybe walk around it a bit, then return to Dinan. As a bonus if you make a dinner reservation you can park in their lot close to the bridge rather than the ordinary lot; see http://www.le-mont-saint-michel.com/en/parking

If you like cathedrals then perhaps Chartres instead of Rouen on your way back home if that is more or less on the way? Rouen is nice, but it is city size. Chartres is much smaller (but be sure to look up the days when just about everything is closed, maybe Sun and Mon?) and also has a great cathedral. Or perhaps Reims, also a nice town.

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the great advice. We are already planning on visiting Cancale. I went to the region 5 years ago with my in-laws with the express purpose of going to Cancale, but they ended up wanting to do Mont St. Michele. Without a car, we were reliant on a lengthy bus ride to get to MSM from St-Malo and it took pretty much the whole day, so we didn't get to go to Cancale. I've been kicking myself ever since!

So no, we won't be visiting MSM this time. While it's lovely, there's just too many other things to do, and given that we're going in August I just don't want to deal with the crowds. We will definitely visit Dinan, and I'll look into Chartres, it would break up the drive even more than staying in Rouen so it's definitely a possibility!

Your post is so long that I will confine my answer to Dinard, where we slept (to make day trips in a car) 3 nights, about 5 years ago, and Dinan. While Dinard has its own history, for example with Picasso, it is a sleepy Channel resort with good seafood and a huge British clientele. (And British weather ... So why do they come?) While it is nicely under-developed, it is completely missable. Like St. Malo, it is on a peninsula, which guarantees a choke point for leaving and returning each day. One reason we picked our small hotel is that it had private reserved parking. (Reine Hortense, small rooms, charming owners and staff, waterfront/beachfront, many steps.)

I might comment that coastal Americans like me may have higher beach expectations than many Europeans. For example, I find Positano's beaches underwhelming. Dinard at least has sand.

St. Malo is a nicer city visit, but in high season it has huge traffic and parking issues, not to mention Times Square depth human-crowds inside the walls. I suspect that you have underestimated crowds and traffic for your trip.

Unless your room is firmly within the old town of Dinan, there's no need to sleep there. While pretty, it is a "Disneyland" medieval center of a modern city. You can find much prettier and older towns in Brittany, if you have the time to drive there. Our prime objectives were public gardens, which turn out to require a lot of slow local/rural driving with a GPS, and Mont St. Michel. If you have been to the better Fachwerk towns in Germany, you can skip Dinan, and maybe try for actual medieval or even Neolithic Brittany - if that interests you.

Welcome back Sarah. I'll address your August 3rd Normandy beaches day. The museum in Caen is spacious and encompasses a lot of WWII details. Since you are staying in Bayeux (highly recommend the tapestry museum) you could go to a similar but good museum in Bayeux.

I prefer a smaller, not commonly known to most Americans, slice of history museum that tells the story of the artificial harbor built at Arromaches harbor in just 48h. Don't waste your time at the 360° Experience but the D-Day museum at the town harbour will really bring this engineering feat to life for you. There is a nice restaurant with lots of windows overlooking the harbor that serves great seafood too.

If you are still looking for places to discover in Bretagne, not far away from Saint Malo, you can consider Cancale and a walk around Pointe du Grouin. If you are interested in small and old towns, you could go to Becherel (small town with amazing old bookshops), Fougères and Combourg (castles), Dol...
Dinan is also well worth a visit in my opinion, there are not only half-timbered houses but also a castle, a good panorama over the Rance river and the bridge, with great walks around.

We stayed in the sweet little town of Les Andelys along the Seine with a view of a Richard the Lionheart castle, kinda near Rouen. Not the country, but not Rouen either.

The Memorial de Caen (aka WWII museum) really blew us away, we spent half a day there. It covers the whole European part of the war -- origins, invasions, battles, occupations, deportations, aftermath -- well beyond what went on in Normandy. One of the most amazing experiences was to hear the recording of the phone conversation between French Gen. Weigand and one of the other generals about the "armistice" of June 1940 -- what would happen, where they would go, etc. A real insight into the collapse of France and how France's world changed. Just one of many compelling exhibits.

The museum has a separate section on the Cold War which was also interesting but took less of our dwindling time. And recently they've opened up the big bunker that served as HQ for one of the big German military units, for occupation and invasion defense.

I haven't been to the WWII museum in Bayeux, which certainly has its fans on this forum. But my understanding is that it's focused mainly on the events in Normandy. For a "bigger" picture, go to Caen.

We, too, stayed in Bayeux to do our own self-guided tour of Normandy sites. Our first stop of the day was the German cemetery at La Cambe. We found it very moving -- most of the time we were the only ones there (could have been due to rain). We were also taken with the hundreds of trees that have been planted there, and along the road entering the cemetery, in memory of loved ones. I don't think it would be too far out of your way, and wouldn't take too long -- I suggest you check it out.

Hi from Wisconsin,
On my first visit to France we had three weeks. I thought I would limit our travel/driving time by limiting ourselves to only two counties, Normandy-Brittany. Well. From one end of Normandy to the far end of Brittany is a VERY long drive. Brest to Rouen is 5 hours on the major motorway. I would suggest one county or the other, and not both. Unless, you are straddling the two counties and plan to only visit contiguous areas.

And so you know. Normandy was pretty much destroyed by invading forces (and occupiers) during WWII. If you are looking for old buildings, Normandy really isn't where you should go. True, Bayeux was captured so quickly it is original, but many villages (I read hundreds) were wiped off the face of the planet never to return and some that did reemerge are in great shape because of Marshall Plan spending money to rebuild them. From the ground up, as many were flattened. SO they aren't original, no wonder they looked so good.

Eat at lunch and enjoy some of the best food bargains in the world. And that means showing up at NOON, not 12:30. You will likely be turned away if you arrive late. The more rural, the better the bargain (price to quality). Here is an example: Duck breast on a bed of fresh pasta, coffee, wine, dessert 7.80 euro.

wayne iNWI