Bretagne, or Brittany in English (it is the "Little Britain" to the "Great Britain" of England), is the French version of Cornwall - it's the Celtic region of France, it has its own distinct language and culture, and it is similar in appearance to Cornwall. In fact, there is a section of western Brittany called "Cornouaille". The Breton language is also similar to Cornish and Welsh, although few people speak any of them anymore. Brittany also has its own flag, which, like the Cornish flag, is black and white. Here it is.
We planned a six days - five nights trip to Brittany with bases in two towns - Josselin, located in the center of Brittany, and Dinan, located in the northeast portion of the region. We chose these towns based on our reading of The Rough Guide to Brittany and Normandy. We also wanted to get a sense of both coastal and central Brittany. Here's a map of our route.
The English Channel is wide at the Cornish end of England and the ferry took eight hours to cross, giving us a chance to spend the night on the ferry in both directions. The ferry, the Armourique, is less than two years old and was a beautiful ship. Just as we had expected for France, the food available on the ship was a cut above what I would expect on a comparable US ferry. We had great cabins both directions and the girls slept well, even with a bit of swell on our return voyage. Here they are at one end of the cabin, showing off our porthole and the four bunks.
Here I am at the other end of the cabin, showing off our TV and, behind me, our ensuite bathroom, complete with shower. The ferries have improved quite a lot since I took ferries across the English Channel back in the early 1980s. In fact, I remember sitting outside for most of a crossing, and it was a cold day! Kids these days have it so easy ...
We were awakened at 6 am by soft music on the ship's intercom the next morning. Here is the happy, well-rested family arriving in France,
and here we are backing into the port of Roscoff.
Before coming to France we had been a bit nervous about driving on the right side of the road on the wrong (right) side of the car, but it turned out to not be an issue. In fact, we took right to it. The only problems we found were when we were trying to pass another car, and we kept this to a minimum. We had a fairly easy, 90-minute ride to our first stop in Josselin. We took our time and stopped for a coffee break in our first, of many, French cafes, and a stop at a playground for the girls. We arrived in early afternoon at the Hotel Restaurant du Chateau, which, as the name suggests, is right across the Nantes-Brest canal, also the Oust River, from the town's chateau. Here's the hotel from across the canal,
and here it is up close.
The chateau is right across the canal from the hotel, and it is visible from the windows of the restaurant, bar, and the more expensive rooms at the hotel.
This is a family-run hotel with a wife/husband ownership team and has a bar and restaurant on the ground floor. It had been highly recommended by our copy of The Rough Guide to Brittany and Normandy and we have to agree that it is an excellent hotel. Our family room actually consisted of two rooms, one for the girls and one for the parents.
Our first order of business, after a brief rest, was to explore the town. The weather was perfect, if not a bit warm, and we made our way across the canal and up the hill to the center of town. We didn't really know much about the town other than it had a great chateau, a doll museum (the girls were psyched about this!), and would be off the beaten track. Next to the chateau, which housed a door to access the town,
we encountered the first of two holy wells in Josselin. Rebecca didn't like the gargoyle through which the water spouted out (behind Gwendolyn's head).
Josselin, as well as Dinan, are both well-preserved Medieval towns. We continually marveled at the architecture that still is used throughout these towns, such as this set of half-timbered buildings around a square that we walked through at least ten times while we were in Josselin. Both Josselin and Dinan look like they could be sets for a movie, or the real version of cartoonish copies that you might see at a theme park like Disney.
Those of you that know us well know that we eat all the time, so it was difficult to resist our first opportunity to have a crepe, which Brittany is famous for. We found out while we were there that the galette, a savoury version of a crepe with fillings of eggs and cheese, is the traditional way to eat them. We enjoyed galettes for about the first three days of the trip, but then soon craved other food, only to find that there wasn't all that much else to eat! Here's where we had our first crepes.
And, of course, there is a large church at the center of town, the basilica of Notre Dame du Roncier. It is famous for its gargoyles, one of which you can see at the bottom of this picture.
We also checked out the canal running through town. It makes a beautiful frontage for the chateau,
and the towpath that remains along its length is a nice place for a walk.
After a brief rest, the girls had some much-needed pretend play time and we read in the ground-floor hotel lounge
and also enjoyed our first Leffe in France. This was one of our favorite beers when we traveled in Belgium eight years ago and we were happy to see it all over France.
After our break we went for a walk downstream to explore a different part of town. This view of the canal gave an interesting perspective of the chateau - it is actually rather narrow!
We were also able to see a lock on the canal, and I attempted to explain how locks work to the girls. I'm not sure that I was successful. At this point we were in search of a playground, so we walked on a different road toward the center of town looking for a park-like setting. We found a park, but all we found there resembling a playground was a balance beam. Here's Rebecca doing a nice pose on the balance beam.
We also found our second holy well at the park. This one was much more elaborate than the other one in town with a sunken pool, stairs leading down to the water, and plaques on the walls. We had been told by friends in Cornwall that the holy wells are much more plentiful and elaborate in Brittany, but this was the last one that we saw.
We returned to the hotel by way of the chateau, and were welcomed on our route by the gatehouse and a beautiful flowering tree.
We were looking forward to the evening because we were eating in the nice restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel. When planning the trip, we were intent on staying in hotels that have the "Logis de France" designation, meaning that the place is as well-known for its food as for its rooms. We were not disappointed. We got dressed up for dinner each night throughout this trip. Here we are with our travel partners, Rebecca and me,
and Christine and Gwendolyn.
The food was fantastic. We enjoyed an opening course of tomato and mozzarella salad, well presented and possibly the inspiration for the tomato and mozzarella salad that the girls served us two weeks later (some of you may have seen the blogpost about that meal).
The second course was whitefish rolls in a cream sauce with rice and spinach.
Dessert consisted of some local strawberries with cream, served on a caramelized cookie.
as well as a nice fruit stand, where we bought some of the season's first strawberries,
After all of the shopping and looking we were doing, we headed to an outdoor cafe to relax, soak up some sunshine, and get some much needed coffee. Here is Rebecca sporting her brand new shirt in front of our first cafe, the Hotel du France. We were very interested in getting cafe time and made it a priority on this trip.
while Christine and I enjoyed coffee.
After our delicious morning coffee, we set out again in search of a playground. We spotted a woman walking with her young daughter, so we decided to ask her in halting French about the location of a playground. She directed us to the same park that we had been to the day before. At least, that is what I think she said, but my French is rather poor. We never found the playground, but we did find nice trails along a small wooded stream,
several displays about geology and water (two of my favorite topics!),
and some metal sculpture chairs that the girls liked, but didn't look very comfortable to us.
Climbing all of the hills looking for the playground was tough work, so we headed back to the town center to look for another cafe for lunch. On the way we got to see a sculpture of the French national symbol, a rooster (Le Coq),
as well as the market closing down.
We found another great cafe on the square, Le Guethenoc,
which had a great staff, a nice atmosphere, and great pizzas. Here's the pizza that Christine and I shared, accompanied by frites,
and here is Rebecca quite content with her Pizza Marguerite selection. I was quite happy about this pizza, too, because I had to finish it for her.
Once again, we were glad to see our favorite Belgian beer, Leffe, on draught at this cafe.
We must have spent two hours just relaxing and enjoying the food and drink. The girls had plenty of time to read and rest up for the afternoon.
Christine was amused by the mini street sweeper, the Cyclone, cleaning up after the market.
Our plan for the afternoon was to tour the Chateau de Josselin, really the Chateau de Rohan that is still owned by the Rohan family, and visit the Musee des Poupees (the Doll Museum), which is part of the chateau grounds. We were looking forward to visiting the chateau because we had been walking around it for two days. We started in the doll museum, which contained around 600 dolls, and then headed for the chateau for the tour. The grounds were beautiful, with gardens
and nice views of the back side of the chateau.
We even posed for a family picture here. Perhaps it will show up on this year's Christmas card?
The tour of the chateau was good. The only problem was that during April, all tours are in French. We were able to follow along fairly well, helped out by an English guide to the chateau grounds. We were unable to take any pictures of the inside, which had some fabulous rooms, most of which are still used by the Rohan family, but here are a few more of the outside. Here is a picture of the River Ouse from the castle walls with our hotel in the background and the girls for scale.
There is also a lone tower in the middle of the grounds. It was tall, but the tree in the foreground dwarfs it.
The chateau itself has some ornate carvings
and nice doorways like this one, with Rebecca resting in front.
We finished our tour with a trip to a little rook,
and past the doorway that we had walked past on the other side many times before.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Josselin and were sad to say goodbye. It's not a town on any guidebooks' "Top Ten Things to Do in Brittany", but we found it to be a perfect introduction to France. We checked out of the hotel the next morning. The wife owner of the hotel was very nice to the girls and gave them some candy as a parting present. As we pulled out of the car park to head to our next destination, Dinan, the husband owner of the hotel came out to our car to say au revoir and shake our hands. I was completely impressed.
I want an egg and cheese galette please! What a wonderful stay in Josselin
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