Brittany

[pastaparadise]

Still trying to work out our summer holiday and getting a bit panicky!

One option is ferry to Roscoff in Brittany, then either gite or camping, or split for a week each. We've been to Benodet/ Quimper area a while ago and it was lovely, but wondered

• recommendations for camp sites with pools?
• any other areas that are recommended within southern Brittany?
• is weather usually reliably warm in August? The only time we've been before there was an untypical heatwave but also been told its usually like Cornwall (which has been v patchy weather in my recent experience!)
• what is there to do apart from beaches? Dc aren't that keen on beaches, cycling or castles, and looking at trip advisor they seem to feature pretty highly on things to do!

Many thanks

I'd recommend the Vendee over Brittany, thinking of the times I have driven under the grey skies of Brittany, and seen the blue sky of the Vendee beckoning on the south side of the Loire estuary! The Finistère area of Brittany tends to have the coolest weather in summer, while the south coast area of Morbihan seems to have its own sunny microclimate and is usually a couple of degrees warmer.
what do your dc enjoy doing?

We recently stayed at Les Menhirs in Carnac which was very nice. Our DD is only a baby so we mainly did beach and pool with a couple of trips out, but it looked like there was a high ropes type place nearby and other bits for older children.

La Grand Metairie in Carnac has great pool with lazy river and slides, high ropes on site, and other stuff going on.

If you do opt for the Vendee, Puy Du Fou is a memorable day out.

agree carnac is good and weather is generally better than rest of brittany/cornwall. went to grand metairie several times but that was a long time ago. puy du fou great but we found the rest of north vendee a bit dull - i remember lots of bungalows. Brittany has lovely old towns like auray.

our kids used to make friends on the site, play lots of sport whilst i read and drank wine. We visited lots of villages/towns/ports and picnicked/ate pancakes apart from the beach.....from what i remember. Its like cornwall without the tat and better weather and food.

la garangeoire was the site we went to in vendee which was good and quite popular.

The Quiberon peninsula has a micro-climate so it's consistently sunnier and a couple of degrees warmer than the rest of the south coast of Brittany. And you are near Carnac for the stones, plus the adventure park mentioned by previous posters.

It is definitely not reliable weather, go further south, quite a bot further tbh.

Ooo, this is good to hear, we’re going the last week in august.
any recommendations for food places please? What’s the food/shop like on site?
xx

brenda - which site are you going to?

Our favourite site in Brittany is Camping Les Embruns in Clohars Carnoet. It's quite a small site, but is in a village location and 5 mins walk from a beautiful beach.
Depending on the age of your children, our daughter (6 at the time) loved Camping Kervilor near Trinite Sur Mer. It's got a great pool complex, amazing playground, bouncy castles, kids club and lots to do in the local area. Not walking distance to the beach, but there's a free minibus service I think.
We went to the Vendée one year, and it rained constantly for 2 weeks.
Always had reasonable weather in Brittany, but that could be just good luck.

Weather is generally better in Vendee (or at least more reliably warm and sunny) but Brittany has far more beauty, charm and things to do. That said if your DC don’t like those things, what do they usually like on holiday? That sounds like quite a classic French holiday to me! There are usually pools and also areas where kids can socialise/play sport at campings.

Ooo, this is good to hear, we’re going the last week in august.

any recommendations for food places please? What’s the food/shop like on site?

Weather is not reliable in Brittany but warmer than Cornwall. I went for about 5 years in a row and the temperatures varied from 21- 38 degrees. Have never had a holiday there without at least one day of rain but it has always been mostly dry.

I have been to the Vendée twice and the weather there is equally unreliable although it can get a bit warmer. Once we were very unlucky and it rained about 10 days out of 14.
I would take Brittany over the Vendée because there is really nothing to do in the Vendee other than beaches whereas Brittany has many charming towns and villages, rock pools etc that you can do in less good weather.

We tend to get gîtes rather than camping if in Brittany as the weather may not be reliable and you have more indoor space. We have done split holidays - a week camping somewhere inland like the Loire Valley where the weather is usually better then a gîte in Brittany for a week. Golf of Morbihan is nice or I like further South near Guerande/Le Croisic. It's not strictly speaking still Brittany but they fly the Breton flag everywhere. I don't think there are any of the Eurocamp style sites in the area though.

Be warned if you haven't booked your ferry that Brittany Ferries seem to have put their prices up this year.

Previously stayed at la grande Metairie circa 15yrs ago and was great esp location and facilities. Also had holidays in the Vendee / more cycle paths boardwalk style as well as beach style holidays. Have you considered the ferry from Quiberon to Belle ile? Also has great microclimate, surfing beach and cute towns/ports? Added an extra sense of adventure.

The shop is very very small, with not much of a selection if you're thinking of shopping there to cook. I think the only 'meal' I could buy there was a bag of pasta and some sauce - though we went early June so it might be better in August. The pastries are very nice and you can pre-order them the evening before. Plenty of nearby supermarkets.

There's a takeaway on site which serves pizzas, burgers and various things with chips - we used it once and it was fine. Only open in the evening and shut on a Monday (again might be because it was June!)

Carnac Plage is only a few minutes walk away and had a large selection of restaurants, we didn't have a bad meal there - being on the coast we tended to go to the places serving fresh fish but there's also a couple of Italian/pizza places and creperies, I think there might have been a kebab shop too. I'm afraid I can't remember what any of them were called though 😆.

Thanks for all the previous advice. We plumped for a cabin at a campsite near fousenet but have a few days to fill before we get there so looking at gites/ air bnb. Few more questions!

• Is larmor plage nice as a town?
• is quiberon/ gulf du morbihan very busy in august ie bad parking when getting around, busy beaches etc?

Any particular recommendations for places to stay (if we can get anywhere!)?

Thanks in advance

It's like England weather wise. Go further south.