Brittany

Ted. Judy and I have always loved France. While we enjoy the history and food, a big reason is that we are both comfortable with the language. It's a big country, though, so it becomes a challenge to visit a new region every time we return. 

Knowing that we would be based in Southern England this August, it didn’t take long to realize that we were only short distance from Brittany, a part of France that we had always wanted to see. When we found a daily flight from nearby Gatwick airport to Rennes, the ancient capital of Brittany, we quickly decided that this city would be the perfect base for our explorations.

Canal in Rennes

We took a late night flight on EasyJet, a British low cost carrier that frankly wasn't bad, checked into our hotel near the beautiful old town and got a good night's sleep. We wanted to see a bit of the countryside so, the next morning, we jumped in a rental car and drove south.

Our first stop was Paimpont, a village deep in the ancient forest of Brocéliande. According to Arthurian legends, this is where Merlin and Morgan le Fay lived and died. The town was charming, the forest more so.

Wizard shop - of course!

Continuing south, we entered Auray. This is another beautiful old town with a lot of history, which includes an American twist. The tiny port here is where Benjamin Franklin landed on his visit to France in 1776. 

Auray River

Bar Franklin

Brittany is famous for their galettes (huge buckwheat pancakes that come with a variety of fillings), so guess what was for lunch? After stuffing ourselves, we headed on to the site of much older history. 

On the edge of the village of Carnac can be found the Carnac stones; the largest collection of menhirs (prehistoric standing stones) in the world. Over 3,000 chunks of granite, weighing up to several tons, stand upright in various configurations. There is a lot of speculation as to their age and meaning but some believe that the oldest stones may have been standing for as many as 6,500 years.

From here we continued as far south as we could go to the tip of the Quiberon Peninsula. If one were to draw a line due south for 300 miles from Quiberon, across the Bay of Biscay, one would arrive at Bilbao, Spain. [More on that in October] 

This was a good spot for an ice cream before heading back to Rennes.

Le Normandie - apple ice cream + Calvados