Brittany - North Coast

Pink granite, purple sunset, seafood galore and much more!

This blog is about our experiences along the north coast of Brittany in August 2012 and then 10 years later in June 2022. These months are in our opinion great climatewise and touristy-wise, both times the weather was warm and stable and there weren't many tourists except at the absolute hotspots.

Meneham

Côte d'Abers

The western part of the north coast is notorious for its rough seas, strong currents, dangerous reef and bad weather conditions. Lighthouses surround to help provide ships with safety and prevent nasty accidents. But unfortunately some have happend, the worst one in 1978, when the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz carrying 223'000 tons of crude oil, crashed near Landéda, causing a huge catastrophe for the marine life and nature.

Our amazing and resilient nature has recovered in the meantime though. Today, Landéda ist a small seaside resort with a yacht harbour. Right near our campground "Des Arbres"are the dunes of Sante-Marguerite. It's a very lovely place where you can wind down and just relax. We guess that's what Jane Birkin thought too, when she bought her house here.

A bit further east is the beautiful coastal region of Meneham near Kerlouan. We loved it here and it's a quiet alternative to the hotspot at Côte de Granit Rose. The white sandy beach encompassed by granite rocks and turquoise sea truly is a beautiful sight.

On the way to Côte de Granit Rose we stopped at Guimiliau. Here you will find the most beautiful Calvary. These Calvarys are typical for Brittany and were constructed during the 16th century when the region's economy was blossoming due to the cloth trade with England. Along with the church, approx. 200 figures have been chiseled into the granite stone depicting the story of woe of Christ. We were quite astonished as yet again, the place was empty - really quiet.

Côte de Granit Rose

Later that afternoon we arrived in Perros-Guirec. We'd visited this place in 2012 and loved the beauty of this rose-granite-coast, so wanted to spend a bit more time here. We booked a 5star campground Le Ranolien for 4 nights thinking we'd see the coast from our spot and generally have a nice place to stay.

Unfortunately we were given a sloping pitch right at the back. It was here we learnt that 5star campgrounds are more for families and people looking for entertainment etc. and absolutely not our cup of tea - lol! In comparison to the ones we'd just stayed at on this trip we were really disappointed so decided to move on to somewhere closer and quieter to nature.

Nowadays, the real hotspots don't just get overpopulated by tourism in the high season. We did the beautiful Sentier des Douaniers coastal walk amongs lots and lots of other visitors. When we arrived at the little town for lunch, we ended up at the exact same restaurant we had lunch at 10 years ago, with our beautiful Mungo labby - the Restaurant La Coste Mor. The view here is nice and the food really good.

The best time for photography here was at sunrise. Especially, in June when you have to get up at 5 am, you'll have the place to yourself! In order to find the way in the dark just before dawn, we did a recon the day before so Aaron knew where he had to walk. He used the Photopills app to find out where the sun will rise and his goal was to catch the lighthouse "Phare de Mean Ruz" and the rocks and see with the sun rising behind. We think he did a beautiful job with this one too 😊.

Getting this shot to soften the look of the sea, he used a tripod and it was a bit difficult to find the right spot that was even enough to stand it on.

Saint-Quay-Portrieux

After checking other areas to stay we decided on Saint-Quay-Portrieux. We found our perfect paradise at the campground "Bellevue". Such a peaceful and beautiful location and the view - wow! We'll return there one day for sure!

To get to the town we walked along a lovely coastal path which took us about 30 minutes. The views were spectacular and the temperatures were perfect. There's a nice beach in the town and some good bars too.

The next day we booked a table at the Restaurant Le Vivier de Saint-Marc, a tip that the campground staff gave us. Bookings are essential as it serves the freshest seafood! To get there, we walked around 30 minutes along the coast again, but in the opposite direction as the day before. The bay there is well known for scallops, but we wanted more super fresh oysters and to try the lobster. We splurged and enjoyed this beautiful food.

Emerald Coast

Our next destination was Mont Saint-Michel and as we'd visited the region in between there on our last trip 10 years ago, some of the following photos, sights and tales are from then. The Emerald Coast begins as you go further east. The name was given in 1890 to compete with the famous Côte d'Azur in Southern France. The area around Cap Fréhel is a real highlight and in Sable-d'Or-les-Pins you'll find one of the most beautiful sandy beaches in Brittany. In the 1920ies, tourism was well on its way and this place was a favourite among the rich and famous.

A visit to Cap Fréhel is a must. The best way is to start the walk along the Sentier des Douaniers from the beach at Pléherel-Plage. You can then take in the spectacular view over to the cape. There are 2 lovely lighthouses and some really steep (around 100 metres) cliffs.

And it gets better 😊 - looking south is the Fort La Latte, which is an elegant fortress built in the 14th century. It's in a strategically good location and was also once used for a film set.

Further along the path we found some beautiful stone steps leading down to a remote beach. At first it seemed as if Mungo wasn't sure if he should follow us, but suddenly something interesting found its way to his nose and off he went 😊 - mussels galore! We'd already become accustomed to the French cuisine but Mungo had never tried a mussel - fortunately he didn't here either!

Around Saint-Malo

In 2012 we stayed at the small and lovely Hotel Villa Reine Hortense in Dinard. From the hotel we had a great view down to the beach and across to famous Saint-Malo - a walled city with lots of history.

Dinan is worth a visit, it's a well preserved little town with some great restaurants. Another relaxing thing to do is taking a boatride from Dinard or Saint-Malo on the river Rance.

Being a fortress town, Saint-Malo was was where the famous French King Louis XIV officially deployed pirates in the 17th and 18th centuries. This enabled them to indirectly attack their English rivals and weaken them. Nowadays, pirates no longer leave the harbour, but ferries to Jersey and Guernsey do!

After taking a walk around the city walls, we crossed over to the island with the fortress Fort National at low tide. The tides differ here between low and high tide by more than 12 meters! Make sure you get the tide times when you do this to avoid having to swim back 😉.

On the way to Mont Saint-Michel we stopped at Cancale, where oysters are not a luxury! Since November 2019, the oysters from Cancale even belong to the immaterial World Heritage of UNESCO! Apparently they have a slight hazelnut taste here because of the high proportion of plancton due to the extreme tides. Well.. we couldn't really detect these finer details, but we loved them just the same 😊.

You can either buy oysters at the harbour market or of course enjoy them in the restaurants. We picked the gourmet restaurant Le Coquillage that has a lovely terrace too. It's a must for lovers of seafood and is a highly rated place to dine. Their seafood platter is an absolute highlight and delight. Bookings are essential and early in advance - even months in advance!

After a short drive the road ends at Pointe de Grouin. There is parking available here, but if you're by campervan you'll need to park a bit further back and walk a little bit further, because of the reduced height into the parking lots. The little island opposite is a bird sanctuary, Île des Landes. From this path you also see the famous monastry mountain of Mont Saint-Michel on the horizon.

Mont Saint-Michel

10 years ago we also visited Mont Saint-Michel but drove there from Saint-Malo which takes about an hour. Like most tourists coming from outside of it, we arrived around midday, took the bus from the parking lot to the island and walked up the monastry mountain along with hundres of other tourists 😉. This time we did it a bit differently.

We booked a room with a view of Mont Saint-Michel - we used the Hotel Le Relais Saint Michel. This was great, firstly with a complete view from our room and secondly we could wander over early in the morning (30-45 minutes) when it was cooler and hardly any other people around.

We spent the evenings walking along the paths and found an amazing spot where Aaron could take some fantastic photos of this wave-like shallow gorge in the field. There were some other photographers there and we had a beautiful time watching the sun set. During the day there are sheep on the fields "mowing" the grass to make it all perfect for the best shot!

It was nice to just meander around and spend the time in the cooler late night hours - there was a heatwave during our visit and it was around 35°C during the day. The atmosphere was really mystical with Mont Saint-Michel alight. You can take the bus to the island up until 1 am but dogs aren't allowed on the bus.

On the second evening there was a huge storm and we were able to watch the spectacular activity from the comfort of our room. This was a great ending to our beautiful trip throughout the north west of France.

"One crowded hour of glorious life is worth an age without a name"

(The Call - Thomas Osbert Morsdaunt, 1730-1809)

Travel blog and travel guide by Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker

© Aaron Matzinger & Clare Walker