A week in Normandy or Brittany in June

[Pauline]

This is it. We are going to take our British-drive car onto a ferry and go to France. Then we will take our North American wired brains and drive that car on the opposite side from which it was intended, but which is the side of the road we have both driven on for 40+ years. That should be okay, shouldn't it? Keep in mind that I occasionally drive on the wrong side of the road in the UK and I always drive on the wrong side of the road at least once on each trip to Europe (with a Europe-drive car). But driving aside - help me figure out where to stay.

Ferries no long go from Weymouth (which is close to us) but I think we can go from Poole to Cherbourg. From there we drive south and then west. Where should we stay? We will want a week in a vacation rental. We don't want to drive too far, since the arrival day will be our first driving day. We could overnight somewhere, an hour's drive or so from the ferry, and then go on for our week somewhere.

I want a village or small town, something historic and beautiful. In this area we've been to Bayeux for a few hours to see the tapestry and spent a few hours at the WWII beaches. I would love to visit Carnac, the standing stones, but should probably leave that for another trip. If we feel confident driving, we could drive to it.

Recommended towns? Recommended vacation rentals or agencies? Should we stay in Normandy or go into Brittany. I read @Eleanor 's trip report on Brittany a while ago - must read it again to refresh my knowledge.

(One last thing about driving. I love driving. We always share the driving here and when we travel. I am sure we will adjust to driving on the right with a drive on the left car. I don't know why we have put this off for so long - we've been here for 7 years now!)

 

[Kathy]

I haven't been to Brittany but would love to spend time there.

We spent a week in Honfleur, 10 years ago now. It has a beautiful port and is an interesting town (not too big though). I really liked the outdoor market. If you found the right accommodation, this could be a good base.

 

[Pauline]

When I look at the map Honfleur is across from Le Havre - a big industrial port. Did you see Le Havre from Honfleur? It looks like it would be an easy drive.

 

[Kathy]

I went back and looked at my old "Trails Our Thing" blog on SlowTrav (still there but no formatting). Here's what I said about Le Havre:

"Later in the afternoon, when the sun was not so hot, we spent an hour on the small beach just west of Honfleur, probably a spot that Boudin painted many times. Honfleur is on the estuary of the Seine, where the river meets the English Channel (Le Manche) and the water is a mix of salt water and fresh water. Kelly was anxious to swim; Charley and I planned just to watch. It was a pleasant beach, though strange to see the oil refineries and other industrial buildings of Le Havre on the other side of the river."

But you couldn't see this from the pretty town or the port... just from the beach. I remember really liking the Eric Satie museum.

(You could look at the other few entries on either side of this: http://www.slowtrav.com/blog/wood/archives/000971.html)

 

[Ann]

Several years ago we spent a week with friends here near Morlaix, in the Finistère department of Brittany -- http://www.coat-amour.fr/gite-de-lecurie/#!prettyPhoto[Ecurie]/1/. There is also a 1BR cottage on the beautiful grounds -- http://www.coat-amour.fr/la-maison-du-jardinier/#. It's a great location for seeing the northern coast of Brittany, which is the wildest and loveliest. Also a good location for seeing several of Brittany's famous calvaires. You could take the ferry to Roscoff from Plymouth and avoid the 4-hour drive from Cherbourg to Morlaix. Of course then you'd have the drive to Plymouth! BTW, our cottage was spotless and comfortable.

 

[Roz]

I have not been there, but you might want to look into Dinan. I know several people on Slow Trav loved that town (in Brittany). We only spent a couple of nights in Brittany, along the coast, but it was an absolutely beautiful area, and I'd like to go back to see more of it. We were there in June a few years ago and had really nice weather, although I know the weather in Brittany can be iffy.

Our daughter-in-law (who is an artist) also fell in love with Honfleur when they visited there.

 

[Ken B.]

Granville and St-Malo are beautiful towns, with narrow streets, stone cliffs, and pounding waves. Neither is very far from Cherbourg. On the east side of the Cotentin peninsula you have Barfleur (pretty port), St-Vaast-la-Hougue (famous for oysters). and Crosville-sur-Douves (Renaissance castle).

 

[Pauline]

@Ian Sutton sent me a link to a Wine Forum for a thread about Normandy. I am posting it here so I have all my info in one place. Thanks Ian!

http://wine-pages.com/community/threads/normandy-holiday.3999/

 

[Colo]

Pauline,

A close friend and neighbor grew up on a farm in Normandy and is chef. Her sister owns a B&B in Normandy. ( http://www.lemanoirdelariviere.net/ ) and she to is a chef. Le Manoir is in a rural setting, but very close to Utah and Omaha Beaches and not from Bayeux. We have not stayed there, but my cousin did a few months ago and said it was great. Isabelle and Gérard, the owners, I am sure would treat you well and I know for sure you would not go hungry. I am not sure that a B&B is what you are looking for this trip, but may be a nice for some countryside time in the future.

As for driving on the on the wrong side or the road with the vehicle's wheel on the other side is no worries for me. We go the Virgin Islands as frequently as possible, and they drive with American Cars, but with British Roads rules. There are TONS of “Keep Left” signs. Because I am ambidextrous & dyslexic everything makes sense in my head and adapt quickly. I heard a statement in Malta, and holds true for the Virgin Islands. "In America you Drive on the Right; In England they drive on the Left, In Malta we drive in the shade avoiding pot holes." Have fun and Safe Driving.

 

[Pauline]

Granville and St-Malo are beautiful towns, with narrow streets, stone cliffs, and pounding waves. Neither is very far from Cherbourg. On the east side of the Cotentin peninsula you have Barfleur (pretty port), St-Vaast-la-Hougue (famous for oysters). and Crosville-sur-Douves (Renaissance castle).

Those places are all close to Cherbourg where the ferry comes in. That might be a good start for us. A short drive to a vacation rental then we can do some drives during the week. I'll add Dinan to that list, but might opt for places closer. I'll see what rentals I come up with.

I would like to do the Plymouth/Roscoff crossing sometime.

 

[phirhon]

We spent a week about 20mins south of Dinan near the village of Yvignac la Tour in 2012. Dinah is indeed a lovely town with an interesting old centre. From our base we went across to the coast at Erquy and also to Cap Frehel and Fort la Latté and Pointe de Grouin. The coastal scenery is lovely. We also went to St Malo and Cancale one day. Another day we went to Mont Saint Michel which was about an hour's drive. There are some attractive villages such as Moncontour, Becherel which is a book town, Jugon les Lacs. There are also some chateaux in the region. We did not visit any but they were mentioned in the info in our gite.
Visiting France always means driving on the opposite side of the road for us, but as we hire in France, the steering wheel is on the correct side of the car. My husband does all the driving in France and after six trips, he now adjusts very quickly.
Bon voyage.

 

[Pauline]

I made a Google map with the suggested towns. Now to see if embedding google maps still works.


View on Google Maps.View: https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1XeEF4FaXaBlgINo5H4GJiaP1JHo

 

[Colo]

Very Nice!

 

[jonathan]

As @Pauline knows, I've done lots of driving our own British cars on European roads - and there are definite advantages to being on the right hand side of the car when you're driving on the right. If the road is really narrow, or the edge of the road looks dodgy, you can easily see just how close you can get to the edge without scraping something/falling off the edge

 

[Joana]

Pauline, I don't know if you have settled on a place/area to stay yet, but if not, here is an option our French friends had recommended in 2013. La Bergerie is located near Roz-sur-Couesnon. We ended up staying closer to Mont-St-Michel, but it did look interesting. They have one cottage with kitchen, plus B and B rooms.
www.la-bergerie-mont-saint-Michel.com

 

[Pauline]

I haven't booked anything yet but have a few maybes. I want to get everything booked in the next week. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll have a look.

 

[Ian Sutton]

Another advantage of a RHS drive car for RHS driving, is that if you have a passenger, then they are on the correct side to put the money in, leaving the driver to focus on the driving

 

[Pauline]

I found a nice vacation rental in Cancale. I looked at Granville but could not find anything I liked. Same with Dinan. If we stay in Cancale, I think we will take the Condor Ferries from Poole to Jersey to St Malo. That will give us a couple of hours out and back on Jersey - and then a 30 minute drive from St Malo to Cancale. The ferry gets in at 9pm (but it will still be light because it is June and Brittany is an hour ahead of us even though it is straight south - so the light will be like 8pm here) and we will either check in late in Cancale or spend a night in St Malo.

There is a coast path from Cancale to St Malo!

I am going to book everything tomorrow unless someone posts to tell me I've made a big mistake.

Cancale is the oyster capital of Brittany, which is a bit off putting, but what do I expect on the coast?

 

[Pauline]

We are booked! I have planned this trip for the last 3 years, but never managed to book it. We booked an apartment with nice outdoor space in the residential area of Cancale.

Originally I was looking at earlier dates in June and the ferry schedule changes a lot from early June to late June. This ferry gets in at 5pm, so we can drive straight to Cancale.

 

[Pauline]

We leave on this trip in less than two weeks. I ended up booking a hotel (Premier Inn) in Poole, 10 mins from the ferry terminal, for the night before, because even though the ferry leaves at 9:15, you have to be in line by 8:15 and we both dislike getting up early.

The ferry ride will be interesting. When I was planning this I wanted to take the ferry to St Malo, but the one to Cherbourg is more straight forward. A friend here with a house in France told me he always takes the St Malo ferry and likes it, so I booked it.

It leaves Poole at 9:15 and arrives in Guernsey at 12:15. Since this is still the UK I assume that is UK time. Then you get on another ferry leaving at 13:50 and arrives in St Malo at 16:45 (4:45pm), which is one hour later than UK time. So, a 3 hour ride, 30 minutes to explore Guernsey then back in line, and a 2 hour ride.

Then we have a 30 minute drive to Cancale (in Brittany but close to Normandy) - driving our left-side driving car in a right-side driving world. That should be fun. I'll let Steve do that drive and I will start practicing after.

We are only staying for 6 nights - a short trip for us but if we can't adapt to the driving it will be long enough.

We will do a few short day trips (30 - 45 mins drive away). I was thinking a day trip to Dinan, another to Dinard and one to St Malo. There is a coast path and I bought a hiking book, so it looks like we can do a good walk from Cancale to the peninsula and a walk from Dinan. We will probably drive towards Mont St Michel so that we can see it, but may avoid visiting because I read that it gets very crowded.

Cancale is famous for oysters and neither of us eat oysters, but I am looking forward to seeing the oyster beds (long poles set up in the bay). It probably won't be much hotter than the UK, but maybe a bit sunnier. On the map, St Malo is directly south from where we live in the UK.

Any advice for other things to do in this area? If all goes well, next time we will take the ferry to Roscoff and see western Brittany.