Recommend part of France for holiday

Afternoon all

After having her leave cancelled repeatedly by NHS, wife and i now find ourselves with a week off with my daughter but with short notice to arrange much holiday wise.

Plan so far is to see family quickly in Portsmouth and get ferry to Cherbourg and look for somewhere with hotel/ Airbnb within 2-4 hours drive on the other side as i don’t want to spend too long in car.

We did Caen area and round Bayeux a few years ago, so would like to head further south and to the west coast I think, ideally with a half decent beach not too far away, but also some pretty towns and places to explore, as we’re not really a beach holiday family and will be bored of that after a day…

All suggestions welcomed?

Somewhere on the Loire close to the coast to give you access to the cycle paths and some days on the beach

Saint Malo is about 2.5 hours from Cherbourg. When our Kids were young we used to go every Summer. My in-laws always took an apartment in Dinard just over the estuary of the river Rance.

You’ll pass by Mont-Saint-Michel which is worth having a look at, if you want to pay for the parking.

Edit: This is the time of year when the whole of France goes on their vacations.

Certainly not the Seine valley, if its a swimming holiday.

??? ☠️

Rent a canal boat?

Not long back from a fortnight on the south coast of Brittany, lovely part of the world – long beaches, lots of cycle paths, interesting things to look at and less busy than the west coast will be right now.

Not what you asked, but I think Brittany ferries have a 7 day deal on at the moment. Will slightly soften the blow of the last year or so’s pricing.

Not long back from a fortnight on the south coast of Brittany,

…would be my recommendation. Beaches if you want them but just nice rolling country, beautiful villages and towns and a laid back vibe. Gets pretty busy round carnac and quiberon, but always pretty quiet towards finisterre, which is like a quiet cornwall. We did a week in Penmarch earlier in the summer and it was as good as I remember from when we holidayed round there a lot when the kids were kids.

Yeah, can’t go wrong with Brittany

Thanks, runs off to search for places to stay in Brittany….

Any towns particular to aim for?

Somewhere on the Loire close to the coast to give you access to the cycle paths and some days on the beach

We kayaked the Loire a few years ago, it’s bloody lovely. There’s a cycle route along it, also bloody lovely. Lots of kayak rental places etc

Any towns particular to aim for?

Depends what you’re after

I really only know South Finisterre, towns would be Pont Aven, Concarneau (both worth a visit, draw tourists), prob not Pont l’Abbe as more of a working town, Penmarch I’ve mentioned – basically three villages, and then Audierne – v small town on huge Audierne Bay I like. Surf being a big motivator for me mind. It’s all good round that peninsula round to Douarnez, and then the crozon peninsula is more remote feeling. Depends what you’re after.

Inland Quimper is worth a visit too but more of a small city. Pont Croix and Loctudy are incredible. As are doubtess countless other places

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Any towns particular to aim for?

Well, we ARE quite happy on the beach – we camped just outside Lesconil, and the coast from Phare d’Eckmuhl along to Loctudy was as much as we needed! Didn’t touch the car for a fortnight after getting there, just ride along until you find a nice beach or a town with something going on – I don’t know if this happens all through the summer but there were loads of free gigs and village festivals going on. If we wanted more to do, we’d probably havecgone inland to, say, Quimper – only been to Brest once, that got hammered during the war so lots of concrete, but there’s no end ofvlovely little towns and villages elsewhere.

Stayed in Quiberon in ’22 – loved it but very busy, rode past long tailbacks when we left the peninsula.

Vanne Brittany

Thanks all..

We like to go to a beach for a swim or activities, but none of us is very good at just sitting in the sun and doing nothing..

Vanne Brittany

Was just about to post this. Vannes is really, really nice. I’d be finding a gite with a pool near there…

Golfe de Morbihan: so effectively Vannes.

My wife and I spent a weekend in Brittany a year or two ago. We stayed in La Trinité sur mer, which was tiny but lovely. I personally didn’t like Vannes much, but loved Auray. The place we visited that I liked the best was Quiberon. We also liked Carnac.

i guess this thread makes it obvious that there are 100 lovely places to stay in Brittany. There were beaches in Quiberon and Carnac.

we previously spent a week in Dinard, just close to St Malo, which was also lovely. There were beaches almost round every corner.

Was in Vannes only last week and it is lovely. Not sure I’d recommend it as being “beachy”. We tooled around the Morbihan by boat, and a lot of the beaches are pretty small and/or have Oyster beds nearby. That said, the Ile Arz was very nice.

I can also recommend St Malo. We had a couple of days on a campsite just outside. The swimming was nice and the town, despite being heavily bombed in ’44, is worth a visit – you wouldn’t starve that’s for certain.

Further along the North Coast the region around Perros Guirrec (sp?) – the pink granite coast – is beautiful.

Finally, at the very limit of your range, we had a couple of holidays in Benodet when the kids were younger, and the area around there is pretty nice.

LR

Thanks all…

Well every Portsmouth-Cherbourg ferry we could get on timewise is booked, but we can do Dover- Calais and pay with Tesco vouchers, so booked a child friendly campsite not too far from Vannes and i just have the 6 hour drive overnight to get there….. but never minded driving in France, much prefer it  to UK and we haven’t lost a ton of money if they cancel wifes leave again (one of three NHS consultants doing her role, one has handed in notice and other goes on mat leave)

My car was showing 42 degrees yesterday in the south of France. Stick with Brittany!

We are currently in Bénodet, south Brittany. It’s very lovely.

If you look at Crozon we recently stayed in a fantastic Air BnB. The costal hiking there is stunning!

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/631077346670915296?viralityEntryPoint=1&s=76

puy du fou. For something different

Vendee

do not travel on Saturdays if you can avoid or at least only short journeys

Had a lovely city break in Nantes with the family last autumn. It’s got a lot going for it, good food, plenty of interesting cultural stuff, some great kids stuff, bike friendly. Chosen mainly on the basis of half term flight prices not being too astronomical.

This place was one of the highlights:

Le Grand Éléphant

puy du fou. For something different

Vendee

Good shout. We camped a couple of times on Ile de Re, it’s lovely there.

Gets pretty busy round carnac and quiberon, but always pretty quiet towards finisterre, which is like a quiet cornwall.

They share a common language.

Puy du founis awesome. Went last year.

If you are now going to be near Vannes, then certainly Auray is very nice (as stated above).

Might be a bit of a long drive.

But we got a boat over to Iles de Glenan once when we were holidaying in Brittany.

Magical day out it the islands are absolutely stunning!

Thanks all, gives me some more options for day trips too

We’ve stayed on Île de Bréhat a couple of times, a small island near Paimpol, it’s really nice.

Can get crowded in parts during the day as all the tourists come but there’s plenty of areas to escape, especially if you like walks and not only interested in the tourist spots.

We’re lucky enough to have a family member who owns a house there, so can stay pretty much when we like 🙂

Not sure what accommodation is like on the island but the nearby coast and Saint-Brieuc area is lovely too.

Benodet is lovely, as is Auray (though it’s easy to miss the bit by the bridge if you don’t know it’s there).

We’re not long back from a week near Royan which is a bit off the beaten track – about an hour from La Rochelle and two hours from Bordeaux but a pretty seaside town, and the butcher in Les Mathes does excellent mergeuz. Also many bike paths and on Euro Velo 1 if you have bikes with you.

Think it took us about 4h30 to drive from Caen on the autoroute.

They share a common language.

Cornish and Breton are different languages.

heading to france in september to cycle the length of the Loire, from Mont gerbier de Jonc to the coast past Nantes.

cant wait.

holiday with the kids have been in brittany.

Carnac is a fave, as is La Trinite sur Mer.

but all brittany is good.

@ton – the chateau east of Blois are very nice. Blois is also a great place for lazy afternoon beers  ?

Saumur is very pretty too

We were in Brittany last month and chose to spend the first night in Cherbourg.  We wished we’d spent longer there, it’s a lovely town.

We spent the night at Hotel du Louvre.  Perfect for one night, clean, comfortable, friendly and has its own parking garage. 10 minutes walk from all the best bits and (like me) on the cheap side.

Saturday morning seems to have markets springing up everywhere, so worth it for that alone.