Travel France-Brittany

This has been so since the Breton sailor's reputation for navigational talents became a well-known fact. Breton sailors know just what navigating along the ragged Breton coasts and the stormy islands of Ouessant, Sein, Molène and Groix entails. The great sailors of French history are often from Brittany; from Jacques Cartier to Eric Tabarly, to Surcouf and Duguay-Trouin.

It just goes to show that this nation knows a thing or two about travelling and are excellent at welcoming travellers! Bretons love to offer hospitality as much as receive it.

A bowl of cider, buckwheat galettes (pancakes), andouille sausage from Guémené, oysters from Cancale, kouign aman, a dish of seafood, and a glass of beer...you can't help thinking how pleasant it is to be welcomed to a region where the locals like to eat well.

In terms of the sea, Brittany is rich. Generous, with a strong character, maritime Brittany is a succession of landscapes where the land and the sea appear, by turns, to be in harmony with one another, and engaged in bitter conflict.

The result of this turbulent relationship is an indent of coasts, each one more beautiful and wild than the one before it: côte d'Emeraude (Emerald coast), côte de granit Rose (Rose granite coast), côte d'Amour (The Love coast), or côte Sauvage (Wild coast).

The blue of the sea often makes way for the green of the forests, which are well-known for their legends. You only have to take a few steps into the Brocéliande Forest to enter into the world of Merlin the Enchanter, and Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, in Huelgoat Forest with all its rocks and hundred year-old trees. At nightfall, Korrigans (Breton goblins) sometimes escape and head for the Monts d'Arrée (an ancient mountain range), dancing the farandole all the while. An historic Brittany can also be observed with its megalithic stone alignments (in Carnac), its fortified cities (Saint-Malo, Concarneau), its city centres with half-timbered housing (Vannes), its Parliament (Rennes) and its numerous wayside crosses, churches and other religious sites.

When visiting Brittany, one will realise that music is an intrinsic part of life here. Bignous (Breton bagpipes), violins and bagads (Breton brass bands) form the base of Breton's musical culture, which animates festivals in cities like Saint-Malo, Rennes, Brest, Dinard, Quimper and Vannes.