holiday WW2, Brittany, Loire Valley

If you get a car for a week, a small car is going to run about twenty-five to thirty bucks a day. (Without the extra insurance, with a manual transmission - - and the daily cost will go up if you have it for less time.) The roads are so well-marked that you probably won't have to look at a map that much. What I do when wandering alone is just scribble the route numbers and change points on a scrap of paper and leave the map alone for most of the day. Three tricks for your Brittany and Normandy spots: Coming from the Contentin Peninsula to MSM, about five miles south of Avaranches, get off the freeway onto the N176, stay with it for about a mile and then hang a right onto the D42. If you're using a gps or the most tempting way on a map, it will take you to Pontsoron and you'll have to chug along behind a million tour buses the last five miles. For Saint Malo, come in on the D137 until you hit a big traffic circle with the train station on the right. Go three quarters of the way around the circle (since you can't hang a left) and you'll wind up on Ave 'something' Martin. Follow it until you see the walls and park on the left just past the recreational marina. It's pure murder trying to drive around inside the walls. For Dinan you want to wind up in the upper town, so come in on the D2. The road probably changes names and numbers, but keep working south on whatever appears to be the major roadway and you'll wind up on the main square. There's plenty of parking right around there unless it's market day (which I forget when is). The rest is pretty straight-forward. Enroute to St Malo, you might want to stop a bit a Dol de Bretagne for the all-time high menhir. On your way south, lunch at Fougeres would be time well-spent.

Thanks Ed, a fountain of info from you. To continue to Angers from these 3 sites, what is the best way? If I kept the car I would drive to the Loire Valley and drop it off there somewhere(hopefully)before I returned to Paris or Burgundy.

From Dinan to Angers it's the good old D137 toward Rennes (take the west, not the east bypass) and press on in more or less a straight line southeast to Angers. I don't know the route numbers, but Pouance is halfway twixt Rennes and Angers on the path. When you get to Angers, you'll have to worm across the river to the old part where the cathedral is. There's some kind of southwestern bypass that should do the trick, but I don't know the number of that either. I'll pass on where to drop the car. I drive smack dab to where I'm done with it. Others will have a million ideas on where to turn it loose and start using public transportation for the last little bit.

Thanks again Ed. The only thing different I could do is take the ferry to St Malo and start from there. So many decisions, thankfully I have till Sept. to decide.

To save back-tracking, you might want to consider taking the ferry to Ouistreham (Caen ferryport). Buses (timed to ferry arrival) go in to the Caen train station and there are car rental places right there.

Hi Helen: By all means, don't miss Honfleur, the cute harbor town where the Seine flows into the English Channel. If you're driving from there to the Loire Valley, check out Chartres, in my opinion the most beautiful cathedral of all time. Catch a tour with Malcolm if he's still giving one. Cary T
Brea, CA