Road Trip Report – Brittany Part 7

Home stretch! Our final days in Brittany we were a bit road weary. And despite the fact that we adored our hotel and their amazing food, we did not have the best time in the surrounding area. It was very remote and we had a tough time fighting the ever obstinate villages who did not want to make it easy for us to be a tourist. Impossible routes to the beach, poor signage (well that is France-wide…) and a really terrible allergy attack made the last few days long.

We did make the best of it and searched out places to visit the best we could.

Our first attempt was to visit the marais area known as le Parc naturel régional de Brière. We wanted to picnic somewhere within the park but were frustrated time and time again by not being able to find roads to take us deeper into the park rather than just off the autoroute. We took a few photos at one stop, but eventually gave up and moved on to trying to check some beaches.

We headed to the Bay of Biscay picnicking on the way to a beach in Poudrantais. At least it provided us with a beautiful view and fresh air, and with sardines and cider, we couldn't complain!

From there we headed to Pénestin known for its beach the plage de la Mine d'Or because it shines like gold at sunset. But we couldn't really get to the beach [again] so we moved on. We decided to head back to the hotel to enjoy the property stopping for a tour through La Baule. La Baule is like the St. Tropez of Brittany and it is quite fun to drive along the beach and look at all the condos and beach people milling about. Staying along the coast to get back to Le Croisic proved to be another baffling adventure and we gave up after 20 minutes!

The next day we headed to Vannes for lunch. We found a lovely brasserie with a terrace to have a pre-lunch drink and I marveled at the number of hipster-type young-ins that seemed to be everywhere. We strolled around the historic old town area, but it was rather small so it did not take us long to complete the tour, but I did enjoy the architecture.

We decided to eat in the port de plaissance area chose a restaurant called L'Atlantique. Having enjoyed the amazing langoustines at L'Azimut the day before, I did not hesitate to order them again. Unfortunately, they weren't as good (and they were very stingy). I would continue to be disappointed the rest of our trip. For my entree I selected a salmon tartare which was lovely and beautiful, look at the color:

Vannes has an amazing harbor and marina area and we walked up and down it for more than an hour. There is only one place to cross, so once you start you are committed. There are many sailboats, other little restaurants and lots of schools along the tree-lined path and we enjoyed the sunshine and water as we digested our food.

We headed back to Le Croisic to pick up fresh bread and allergy medicine. Le Croisic is a fishing town and we stopped at one of the piers and watched the fishing boats come in from their daily outings. There is a big fish market and the boats come right up with their catch of the day and it is immediately taken inside to be sold – can't get fresher than that!

Here is a boat that brought in lobster – yum! My video skills leave a lot to be desired (AND I could not figure out how to rotate the video despite several “Help” searches!), but it was fun to watch them pull them up, check it out nonetheless!

The end result was this:

We stayed around to watch for awhile and then headed back to the other end of the pier where we had left our car. I took several photos along the way including this one of Mr. and Mrs. Misadventures exchanging a kiss:

I think we were happy that our road trip was over. We had a great time but were ready to give back the car and enjoy a few days in Paris before heading home.