Dan and I have travelled through a lot of France, but we’ve really fallen for Brittany (and we didn’t really see the main “tourist” sites). If people outside of France know Brittany, it may be for Brest or the St. Malo area. We stayed in southern Brittany, and toured around the coastal areas and the gorgeous old villages. The area has an interesting history, and is simply beautiful.

Our hosts told us some spots to explore, which meant we ended up hiking a trail that priests used to hide out during the French Revolution (the hidey hole is still there in the forest), and exploring a fort occupied by Germans in the Second World War. The fort now houses two museums, one on the French East India Company, and one on Maritime history.

The villages along the sea felt very Celtic, and the road signs in the area are in both French and Breton, which looks like Welsh to us. It was an intriguing area, and we would love to come back. Three nights just isn’t enough time to explore it all.

Our visit to the area was certainly enhanced by our B&B experience. We stayed at a place called Talvern, and our host Patrick first had a career as a chef in Paris before buying and renovating one of the outbuildings of a castle. We ate each night at his table d’hôte, and had incredible food and wine. Local food and cider, excellent wine…. maybe that’s why we loved it so much!

Here are some other assorted pictures from Brittany. It was hard to pick favourites, as there were so many gorgeous ones!