Small Towns and B&Bs in Brittany & Normandy

Hi! Interesting trip project. Where do you actually start biking? I recommend a route broadly going east due to prevailing winds from the west.

Of the places you list, lovely as Morlaix is, it is also out of the way from all other places... Also, there are a few towns you list that I don't care for
- Lorient: largely rebuilt post WW2. Useful pit stop and train station though.
- Redon: few sights of note - nearby La Gacilly is more interesting.
- Never been to Chateaubriant, but I'm equally unsure... it's also not towards Normandy

Conversely, can you go further west than Lorient? If so, Locronan, Quimper, Concarneau, Pont-Aven, also Quimperlé (never been to that one) are all fairly interesting. They are all very close to each other, so even by bike, they are only 2 hours apart.

North of Rennes, your route should take you to Saint Malo and Cancale between Dinan and Mt St Michel. East of the Mont, you have a long "voie verte" (cycling "greenway") that takes you from Pontaubault to Domfront, then north to Flers, from where you can continue north to Caen through some very pretty countryside ("Suisse Normande"). I never attempted that "voie verte", it's simply on my map.
For more info on such voie verte routes, look here: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/fr/map/carte-des-veloroutes-et-voies-vertes-de-france_45562#9/48.9622/0.1758 and use google translate as needed.

David, two places a little off your path are Quimper, and a bit further on to the west is Locronan.

Locronan is a very small little town, very charming, and during the summer they have a night market with a street theater, well worth the visit. Going that far west, you could go to the coast, and visit Douarnenez, a lovely little fishing port. Lots of sardines. When you head back north to Morlaix, stop at Menez Hom for and incredible view of the Finstere area.

If you prefer to stay close to your route, visit the Valley of the Saints in Carnoet. It is modern day monolith site that was founded in part to compete with Carnac.

Thanks for the recommendations (and not!) on those towns, Balso and dlinstrom. I think some of the coastal towns and villages may offer some of the finest scenery - a priority.

Balso, tell me more about La Gacilly. What makes it appealing...a better choice than Redon? Any B&Bs there you'd recommend?

I never have a set route on my bike trips until I'm on the road - only a general idea beforehand of where I want to go. So at this point nothing is "out of the way". Flexibility, options, what I see in the way of roads and terrain on my map, what's appealing, what I read and what I hear from others help determine that routing. Day by day.

By the way, I'm beginning in Orleans, then cycling along the Loire and into Brittany and Normandy.

Oh, with an Orléans starting point, maybe biking all the way to Quimper and back to Normandy will be a stretch. You'll see how fast you are!

Regarding La Gacilly, it is a pretty village that has a thriving artisan community. I can't recommend B&Bs there however, I've only passed through (went to a wedding in the area once). Same for the Quimper region, I go there for business a lot (unlikely as it sounds), so I'm not staying in B&Bs.

Also, having done some bike touring in France a while back, I can recommend the "Geoportail" app for free and very, very detailed maps (hiking maps actually) of the entire country. This will help you avoid fast roads. The maps loaded on the app are not always the latest ones, but they're recent enough. Perhaps the app is only in French but it's very straightforward.

On the way from Orléans to Rennes worth to visit are Le Mans with it’s lovely historic centre, Sainte-Suzanne and Vitré. Never been there, but think Laval isn’t bad too. From Vitré you can go to Le Mont-Saint-Michel via Fougères and as visiting Rennes this way meaning a serious detour you can do that for instance later on the way from Vannes to Caen. Cycling further west from Le Mont-Saint-Michel in Roz-sur-Couesnon you can have a panoramic view over the bay with the iconic island at the horizon. Saint-Malo north of Dinan is worth a detour and I found the coastal road from Cancale very scenic.