Brittany guide - a short guide to holidaying in Brittany

Popular Brittany - Brittany weather - Brittany is... - Breton food - Getting to Brittany - Main towns

For greater detail, visit the Gitelink Brittany guide

Brittany is a very popular holiday destination; until the age of high-speed trains, it was particularly popular with Parisians, being somewhat closer to Paris than the French Riviera. In the last twenty years, it has become highly popular with people from all over northern France and northern Europe on account of its easy access, and is now the fourth most popular tourist region in France, and the most popular in northern France.

    The reasons that have made Britanny a popular tourist destination with Parisians for many years now make it particularly popular with visitors from Britain and Belgium, and large numbers of holiday cottages in Brittany have been bought up in the last fifteen years by British purchasers looking for a second home or just an escape from the pressures of life in southern England. This means that there are plenty of holiday cottages and gites in Britanny with UK owners who accept payment in sterling and can provide help and local information in English.
    However, there are also plenty of holiday cottages in Brittany with French owners and caretakers.
    The Gitelink directory, being bilingual, caters for property-owners and visitors from anywhere, whether they speak French or English. Each property in the directory is presented by its owners on its own website, and most of these sites are fully illustrated and provide more useful information about local events and things to do.

When to book ?

   Brittany gites tend to be quickly booked up for the peak season, notably between mid July and mid August, so booking early is a wise move; but unlike parts of the south of France, the holiday season falls off quite sharply at the start of September, so there are plenty of holiday homes in Brittany available for bookings late in the season. However, if it is sun and the seaside that you are after, as well as escaping from the crowds, it is probably best to take your holiday in June or early July when the days are longest, rather than at the start of Autumn.

Brittany is....
    France's Celtic region. Some two thousand years ago, the Romans spread across north west Europe, driving the existing populations into the farthest reaches of the continent and its islands. In Britain, that meant Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall, in Gaul (as France was then called) it meant Brittany - the western tip of which is called "Cornouaille". The Bretons are thus the cousins of the Britons, and to this day Brittanny and the celtic parts of the UK share much in common, including similar languages. If you happen to speak Welsh, you may get on well with Britanny's Breton speakers. Indeed, about 250,000 people in Brittany speak or understand Breton - generally as a second language.
    Bretons are proud of their identity, and many think of themselves as Bretons before calling themselves French. However, in centralised France, there is no devolution, and while the Breton language is taught in many schools, there is no Breton parliament, just a regional council that meets in Rennes. The Breton identity is expressed through folklore and customs, which include bagpipes and harps. The annual InterCeltic festival in Lorient (in the first half of August) is one of Brittany's great cultural events, attracting visitors and performers from all over the Celtic regions of Europe.
    Brittany is a granite peninsular jutting out into the Atlantic - which makes it fairly similar to Cornwall. Like Cornwall, it has plenty of prehistoric sites, most famous of which are the megaliths of Carnac in southern Brittany, France's equivalent of Stonehenge, with its 3000 blocks of granite. But throughout the region, there are dolmens and standing stones whose origins are lost in the mists of time. Like the West of England, Brittany is a land of moors and agricultural land - less moors perhaps, but plenty of agricultural land. Breton villages are built of stone, and houses are traditionally slate-roofed. A specific feature of many villages are the famous carved crosses "les calvaires", some of them very old.
    The western tip of Brittany, France's equivalent of Land's End, is the famous Pointe du Raz, with its high granite cliffs defying the Atlantic breakers. An environmentally sensitive area, the headland and the land behind it are one of the many protected areas along Brittany's beautiful coast.


Brittany Weather
    In terms of climate, Brittany is warmer and drier than the south of England, particularly in summer. The south coast of Brittany can be scorching in July and August, if the weather conditions are right. However, being in the north western part of France, the weather can also set in cloudy and wet at any thime of the year, just as it can in Devon or Cornwall. The Finistère area of western Brittany tends to be the coolest in summer, while the south coast of Morbihan is the warmest. In winter time, Brittany benefits from a remarkably mild climate, particularly in the extreme west where frost and snow are relatively rare.
    Further details on the Gitelink Brittany Climate page

Brittany food
    Like virtually anywhere in France, Brittany is a region with fine gastronomic traditions. Popular local specialities include, of course, shellfish (fruits de mer) and fish in general; but other delicacies for which the region is famous include "crêpes" (pancakes) and a variety of Breton pastries, the most famous being the Breton butter cake or Kouign Amann . Brittany has a strong agricultural tradition, and is famous for its early vegetables and its salted butter, which many restaurants will find the most mouth-watering ways to combine.
    Further details on the Gitelink Brittany Food page

Travel to Brittany
    Access to Brittany is fairly easy. Travellers from Britain who don't want to drive can fly by Ryanair or by Flybe ; but if you want to travel to Brittany by car, Brittany Ferries have direct services from Plymouth to Roscoff, and from Portsmouth to St. Malo . The alternative solution is to take a short Channel crossing from Dover, then follow France's northern coastal motorway via Boulogne and le Havre. Brittany is very well served by motorways and dual carriageways.
Further details on the Gitelink Brittany Travel page

Main towns in Brittany
Rennes, with over 200,000 inhabitants, is the regional capital and the largest city in Brittany. It is a major industrial centre, with two universities, and is also the cultural capital of the region. Situated in the east of the region, it is the hub through which all main lines of communication between Brittany and the rest of France pass. It is not a very historic city, since most of the city burned down in 1720; but the centre was largely rebuilt in the eighteenth century, and retains plenty of narrow streets and old buildings.
St. Malo, population about 50,000, is a magnificent island walled city on the north coast of Brittany. Heavily damaged in World War II, it has since been rebuilt virtually as it was, and is an architectural gem. In a way, it is France's equivalent of Plymouth, the seaport from which many merchants and adventurers set out in centuries gone by, to seek their fortunes trading and privateering in distant waters. The walth that they brought back is reflected in the city's magnificent architectural heritage.
Vannes, population 50,000, is a port on Brittany's southern coast.
Lorient, west of Vannes in the Morbihan department, now a fishing port of about 60,000 inhabitants, was founded as a company town by the French East India company in 1664 - hence its name, which means The Orient.... or the port from which ships set sail for the Orient. Today Lorient is most famous for its sailing and its annual Celtic festival.
Brest, population 150,000 is home to the French Atlantic fleet and is a major naval port. It has a modern university. The old walled city was fortified in the seventeenth century by the great military engineer Vauban, though much of the old town was destroyed in 1944. Today the city is an industrial centre and a popular sailing port. The city is sited at the end of a large sea inlet, the Rade de Brest.