France - Brittany & Normandy - Travel Story
Written by Dorothy Pan Thursday, 06 October 2011 01:45
Brittany (Bretagne) & Normandy, France, Travel Story
Brittany is a region steeped in tradition and history and is a captivating mix of medieval towns, dramatic cliffs, stunning coastlines, and islands so enchanting they seem almost unreal. Located in the northwestern corner of France, Brittany sits between the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay. During the Neolithic era Brittany was at the core of megalithic constructions. It was later taken over by Celtic tribes and thus became known as one of the six Celtic nations. Although French, the only official language of the French Republic, is spoken throughout Brittany today the two regional languages, Breton and Gallo, can also be seen and heard. Breton is a Celtic language that is closely related to Cornish or Welsh, and Gallo is one of the langues d'oil – a group of dialects spoken today in the northern half of France.
Whirlwind Day Trip From Paris
Most tours to Brittany and Normany start in the region because getting there from Paris is an easy train ride. Many of the companies give 3 options – 1. just the tour, which means you arrange for your own transportation, 2. 2nd class train ticket to Brittany plus the tour, and 3. 1st class train ticket to Brittany plus the tour. We opted for option 1, with a tour run by Westcapades, just because getting train tickets was a fairly easy task and it was much cheaper for us to do it ourselves.
Wandering the Walled Bretton Town of Dinan
We made our way from Paris' Montparnasse train station to Rennes train station in Brittany and were picked up promptly by our guide. Once everyone was accounted for we headed to our first stop, Dinan. When we arrived it seemed as though the town was still sleeping so we had a great opportunity to experience Dinan in peace. Much of this beautiful walled town sits along a hillside overlooking the river Rance. It is incredibly well preserved and is listed as a "ville et pays d'art et d'histoire" – a title given to villages that have been kept their architecture and surroundings well kept. We had just enough time here to take a brief walk around the centre of town, get a panoramic view of the river and houses from behind the Basilique St. Sauveur, and grab a delicious buckwheat crepe that Brittany is so famous for. One could easily spend an entire day here taking in all the history and culture that Dinan has to offer; unfortunately we did not have the time to do too much exploring. Some sites to consider visiting, if you do have the time – La Bourbonsais, Chateau de Dinan, and a tour along the river Rance on the Vedette Jaman IV.
The Magical Mont Saint Michel
We visited Mont Saint Michel next, a small tidal island best known for the stunning Norman Benedictine Abbey of St. Michel that sits at the peak of the island. Narrow winding streets and elaborate architecture was built around the abbey turning it into a medieval town. Mont Saint Michel is surrounded by water only during high tide. Low tide exposes the man-made causeway that is used to get to this small village of 43 inhabitants (as of 2011) and 3 million visitors annually. This large, magnificent island that protrudes from the middle of nowhere is a truly extraordinary sight. We were hoping to see it as an island, but during the time when we were there it was still low tide – high tide would not be coming until later in the evening. The tides in this area change quickly making it dangerous to walk along the salt marsh rather than staying on the causeway. We were warned, but found it hard to stay on the road amongst all the pedestrians and cars – it just didn't make for very flattering pictures. We decided that it was far more important to get the overall shot of this spectacular site, so we walked out for some photo ops before heading in to the narrow streets.
If you walk along the fields you might notice groups of grazing sheep that like the taste of the salty meadow. These sheep, known as "agneau de pre-sale" (salt meadow lamb), are a specialty here and can be found on several restaurant menus. We made an attempt to approach these sheep, but due to the overwhelming number of tourists attempting the same thing they were scared off and we did not have time to follow them.
Once we were done with our photos we made our way in to the actual city where we made a valiant effort to fight the crowds through the extremely claustrophobic streets. We made it about halfway up before we became overwhelmed and retreated in to a small bakery selling traditional Breton pastries for an afternoon snack. We saw row upon row of golden little cinnamon-bun-looking pastries called Kouign Amman (Kouign meaning "cake", and Amman meaning "butter" in Breton) in the stand in front of the bakery and decided we couldn't resist. We ordered two puffy, caramel crusted cakes and were in heaven. I don't know what was more decadent, the sweet and slightly salty caramel glaze on top or the butter that oozed out of the pastry with each bite. Either way my stomach was happy, while my head counted the number of calories I now needed to burn.
The Walled Port City of Saint-Malo
Our final destination was the port city of Saint-Malo. The nautical theme was ubiquitous, from the abundance of fresh seafood offered, to the clothing being sold at shops. It is considered by many to be the most beautiful port in France and I could see why. The old city, known as Intra-Muros ("within the walls"), was bursting with activity. I watched as artists sat painting their vision of Saint Malo, tourists darted in and out of beautiful little shops, and admirers of this lovely old city walked the cobble stone streets smiling ear to ear.
Saint-Malo is dense with seafood restaurants, and actually has one of the highest concentrations of seafood restaurants in all of Europe. They are known for oysters from the nearby village of Cancale. Despite this, and my love of seafood, we decided to have our last meal of the day at a charming little creperie. My travel buddy was not a fan of seafood, so we compromised – he got his ham and cheese crepe, and I got a delicious seafood crepe
with a white cream sauce. Besides seafood, Saint Malo is also known for their salted caramel. As luck would have it, there was a salted caramel crepe on the dessert menu so of course we had to try one...each. I'm glad we didn't share because it was one of the best desserts I've ever had. So simple, yet so incredibly luscious!
After our wonderful meal we solemnly made our way back to the van. Not only was this the end of our Brittany excursion, but it was also nearing the end of our amazing France experience. Luckily, we still had a full day and night in magnificent Brussels to look forward to. Onwards we go.
Related Photo Galleries
