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For an account of our time on the Cote d’Armor, Brittany see
Coat Aillis Normandy-Brittany Part 2
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22 September 2009
September is a great month to visit Brittany. The weather is still
pleasant and the summer visitors have gone home. The children are at
school and the adults are back at work. That means we have the area to
ourselves, almost.
Ray and I flew to Paris overnight 7 September and spent the next day
with our daughter Erica, son-in-law Andrew and their two children
Atticus 4 and Roman 2. It had been six months since we had last visited
and we found the two boys growing like weeds. We just had time for them
to get used to us again before we were off to Normandy and Brittany.
One of the reasons we chose Brittany was that it is close to the home
of Liz and Yves Dat. Liz would be joining us in Brittany (see
Normandy-Brittany Part 2) but Yves was
travelling to London and Scotland to visit their two daughters who live
there. Ray and I also enjoy visiting Yves, so we made a detour on our
way to Brittany to have lunch with the Dats in Lion sur Mer, on the
Normandy coast.
After a leisurely meal and lots of chat we continued on to Bayeux.
Ray had not visited the famous tapestry in Bayeux, so we booked a very
nice B and B through Gite de France for the night. Since we had enjoyed
a full meal at lunch time, we had a simple supper in our room of bread,
cheese and wine. That became our evening meal for the next two nights as
well. Those “formule” lunches offered at the restaurants were too good
to pass up.
Bayeux canal
Even though this was my fourth visit to the Bayeux tapestry, I was
still impressed. The exhibit has improved at each visit and I learned
more about 1066 every time. The old town of Bayeux is certainly worth
exploring on its own, so our visit stretched into the early afternoon.
Our next stop was Mont St Michel. Once again this was a repeat visit
for me and the first visit for Ray. We got there shortly after it opened
in the morning and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We managed to include
an excellent English guided tour of the Abbey and ended with another
great Formule lunch overlooking the mud flats. If we had more time we
would have investigated a guided walk around the bay. There was a group
of young people doing just that and it looked like fun.
Chateau De Tonquedec
We spent the last night before meeting up with the group in a country
B and B just north of Guingamp. The city was once a weaving center and
the origin of gingham, but we didn’t visit. We chose our B and B so that
we would not have a long drive on Saturday. In fact we had time Saturday
morning for a short stop at the ruins of Chateaux Tonquedec and still
arrive at Coat Aillis by 11 AM.
We saw a little more of Brittany on the way back to Paris. We had
time for a brief visit and lunch in St Malo and then an exploration of
the lovely half-timbered town, Dinan.
For an account of our time on the Cote d’Armor, Brittany see
Coat Aillis Normandy-Brittany Part 2
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