Road Trip Report – Brittany Part 2 - Misadventures with Andi

Having secured our picnic beverage for the remainder of our trip, it was time to pick up some food stock. And there is nothing better for a picnic than sardines from Brittany! Luckily there was a very convenient La Belle-Iloise store in Roscoff. When it comes to sardines and other conserved seafood you cannot beat this brand. Their stores are located all along the western coast of France (with a few in the lower southeastern regions of Var and Alpes-Martines also, check out the map of stores on their site under Constact us – French only).

The store itself is beautifully designed and lighted and it was hard to resist purchasing everything. We bought canned sardines, tuna, mackerel and spreads, everything we could eat for picnics and to take home as well.

La-Belle-Illoise-Roscoff-Guard-Cat — Who better to guard a sardine store than a cat??

Properly supplied we headed out to wander. The one thing we learned during our stay in Brittany is that if you want to get to the ocean-side you have to be determined, stubborn, down-right tenacious. There are a ton of towns on the water, but they are not connected, or if they are it is with unmarked roads.

I am not sure if it is a form of protection or if it is just bad road design, but to get from town to town you have to drive back (sometimes 20-30 minutes) to a main road so that you can find the next road that takes you down to the coast again. Sometimes we were just able to follow our nose and take roads that we believe led to the water. Sometimes we were right and sometimes we were wrong and would have to try and find another route in. Believe it or not it is exhausting!

When we were right, we found beautiful spots like Landunvez where we found a small route tourtistique to follow. It began with a designated picnic area that faced a beautiful alcove and a family of horses with several babies:

But we chose to get away from anything official and drove further up the route where we had a lovely picnic (cider, sardines, fresh bread and strawberries bought from the Roscoff outdoor market) with a glorious view of the sea.

Several hours later we were rewarded again with a sentiers côtiers at Guillec – Pointe de Theven where there was an amazing white-sanded beach that stretched for miles and miles.

The walking path was very nice as well and we spent an hour walking around, happy to be along the water.

We had walked in on the beach and walked out on the trail above. The trail brought us along artichoke fields, which were a constant presence during our stay. They are fun to take photos of (as well as eat) with all their different sizes. I liked the purple flowers that were along the field (and if you look close, I captured a little bird perched on one!).

That night we had our epic dinner at the restaurant in the Hotel Brittany, Le Yachtman. We took a walk post dinner to digest our food before dropping into bed. The sun was setting and the port of Roscoff was absolutely gorgeous.