Summer in France: Brittany

We knew we wanted to visit Brittany during this trip, but we weren’t exactly sure where we wanted to go. When we found out that our friends Seth and Kerry from back home were going to be in Carnac and the Quiberon Peninsula, we decided to overlap. We ended up loving Brittany! The Breton culture is slightly different from other parts of France, so we enjoyed experiencing another region.

Carnac

Our first stop in Brittany was the coastal town of Carnac. It was probably our least-nice hotel of the trip, since it was basically just four white walls and a bed with very little space around it. And the wifi was just barely strong enough for a Zoom call, so I had to do my calls from my hotspot on the outdoor patio in the day and night. But most visitors don’t come there to work, and the town itself was quite charming.

There was a very big and very nice market in the morning across from our hotel. I wish I had more time to browse, but we’d already made plans to meet our friends at the menhirs—the alignments of prehistoric stones for which Carnac is best known, kind of like a Stonehenge of Brittany.

We walked through rows and rows of the stones, taking our best guesses at what their purpose was back in prehistoric times. We walked through the forest, too, plucking wild blackberries straight from the bush for a snack.

Afterwards, it was time for a beachfront picnic and a dip in the sea. I thought the water was suprisingly warm compared to July in New Jersey.

For dinner, we ate mussels on the promenade and then ran into a reggae concert. We’re used to going to summer concerts together back home, so this was a welcome substitute.

Then it was time to bid adieu to our friends, hoping our paths would cross again along our separate journeys through France. And we set off for a new part of Brittany.

Penmarch

As we headed further west, the beaches became more rugged and the crowds less touristic.

We stayed at a nice bayfront hotel (Les Ondines). The town was quiet, and we enjoyed our peaceful morning and evening walks along the water. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any swell to surf, so we found ourselves venturing out to sample the Breton cuisine. Crepes and cider became obvious favorites. We liked both the sweet and savory crepe varieties from Creperie Amzer Zo. We also tried Far Breton—a prune cake, which sounds weird but I l loved it—and kouign-amann— sweet rolls from a really nice bakery (Boulangerie Du Phare).

On our walk back to the hotel, we saw that they were setting up for some kind of festival. There was a Surfrider Foundation booth—an organization that Bryan used to volunteer with, so we went over and talked to them. We learned that there would be a summer music festival later that night.

We decided to return later on, and we were treated to an awesome summer music festival (Kerity Summer Party)! There were three bands and a DJ set. We had a great time listening to Petit K, and then we were blown away by the punk rock music and bagpipes from Leex. It was an incredible show! It was cool to see an event that felt truly local. We were too old and tired to stay for the DJ set, so we headed back to the hotel and said goodnight to Brittany.