Discovering Brittany in 10 Days

Ruben

Today, I want to recap on our last road trip through Brittany we did last summer in 2025. We spent an incredible 9 days on the road and 1 day in Nantes, sleeping on parking lots as well as beautiful campsite, enjoyed the rawness of the Atlantic Ocean, and enjoyed the local cuisine (as well as the local Cidre!!).

This will serve as more of a personal diary-like overview of our trip, though I'm sure you will also find this helpful for your own travel-plans to that region.

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Overview

Day 1 - Arriving in Nantes

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After 8h travelling by train, with stops in Strasbourg and Paris, we arrived (without delay!) in the beautiful city of Nantes. We picked up our VW T6 California Camper Van from roadsurfer.com without any problems and immediately hit the road. The first drive took us to Saint Nazaire, where we found a parking spot to spend the night and took our first (of actually not that many) swims in the Atlantic Ocean. We finished the day with our signature meal: spaghetti, cherry tomatoes, and Burrata.

Highlights:

  • The parking lot we spend the first night is highly recommended. It is located at the Plage de la Courance and can be found on park4night here. It even has a pretty clean public toilet!

Day 2 - La Petite Maison Aux Volets Bleus and the First Cidre

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We started our first official road trip day with the obligatory coffee, packed everything up, and headed towards the Marais salants de Guérande. These 2'000 hectares of salt marches provide a unique landscape and is definitely worth a visit! We made a quick stop on the side of the road (photography-time for me, and Nutella bread for Rahel), took in the almost outer worldly view, and continued towards Quiberon. Close to the Château de Turpault there is a parking lot which provided us with a great option for strolling along the coast and having a lunch break.

The final stop of the day took us to the Camping de Saint-Cado. Once arrived, we explored the Île de Saint-Cado, took the obligatory pictures of the La petite maison aux volets bleus, and enjoyed our first local Cidre and some food at the local bar Le Saint-Cado to end the evening.

Highlights:

Château de Turpault
La petite maison aux volets bleus
Loca Cidre at Le Saint-Cado
Marais salants de Guérande

Day 3 - Beaches of Poulhan

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The third day of our trip began with a hot shower - a very welcomed change to the sometimes harsh weather in Brittany. We then headed towards Lorient, went down towards Plomeur, and spent our first break near Le Fort Bloqué to look at the Fort de Keragan (though only from a distance as it is located in the ocean).

The next part of the day took us over quite a few bridges, which resulted in a very enjoyable and scenic drive: Pont de Saint-Maurice, Pont du Guilly, and Pont de Cornouaille. In between we stopped in Pont Aven for a coffee break and a stroll through the village. We ended our day on a parking lot in Pors Poulhan where we again were very lucky with the camping spot: direct access to the sea, just one other van on the other end of the lot, and beautiful views of the sunset (it also had a public toilet, but I would not recommend this one).

Highlights:

  • Definitely our parking spot for the nigh which is also available here on park4night.

Day 4 - Not Pointe du Raz

  • Route: Pors Poulhan to Pen an Ero via Plogoff and Pen Hir
  • Distance: 130km
  • Overnight spot: Camping Gwel Kaër
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Unfortunately, day 4 did not surprise us with good weather. Even though we set our alarm clock the earliest we had so far this trip, we were not able to enjoy the sunrise from the roof tent of our camper van. Nevertheless, the first goal was clear: visiting the infamous Pointe du Raz to see the up to 72m high cliffs. What we did not know was how famous Point du Raz was - there is a touristic center some distance away from the cliffs, where you park your car and are shuttled with a bus from there onwards. We quickly decided that this was not for us, and instead enjoyed breakfast in a small coffee shop we discovered by chance called Monsieur Papier.

Since the weather still wasn't any better, we headed along the coast through Douarnenez up to Crozon where we decided to give Pen Hir a try (similar to Pointe du Raz, but a tad less touristic). This viewpoint was also packed with tourists, but we were free to discover it on our own and the views were stunning! I would definitely recommend visiting.

The day ended with us driving to the Camping Gwel Kaër, visiting Le Fret by foot and enjoying some Apéro and Cidre in a local bar called La Jetée café de la Tour du Fret, and then heading back to the camping for dinner - self-made burgers with rice. Warning: Cidre is very very tasty, but as it is made from apples it can have a laxative effect when consumed in big amounts - and camping toilets are not really the place you want to spend more than 5 minutes.

Highlights:

  • Monsieur Papier is definitely a hidden gem. It is both a coffee shop and a stationery shop, with good coffee (hard to find in France!) and different snacks.
Monsieur Papier
Pen Hir
Camping Gwel Kaër
La Jetée café de la Tour du Fret

Day 5 - Brest

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The goal of day 5 was to visit Brest - the biggest city in western Brittany with its important harbour and the second largest French military port. With ~140'000 inhabitants, it is actually quite similar in size to Bern. The Parking Château was very well located to visit the city for one day. It is in the middle of the city and close to all major sights.

We started the sight-seeing by walking around the Château de Brest, heading towards the Pont de Recouvrance which gives an impressive view of the military harbour. Next on the list was the Téléphérique de Brest, the cable car which connects Brest over the river Penfeld. We can definitely recommend taking the cable car, it's cheap and gives you a unique view of the city. After enjoying the view out of the Téléphérique, we head towards Rue Saint-Malo - the oldest street in Brest which was not bombarded during World War II. There was much less going on than we expected, but the street lined with plants and the small gardens one can explore is definitely worth a visit (and also a lot of cats, which was a big plus for Rahel).

We ended our visit of Brest with lunch at the harbour and headed towards Argenton. Enjoying the views of the coast and with some good music (or was it "Die Drei ???" ?) we drove along the coast to finally end up in Saint-Cava. I again spotted a nice-looking parking lot on park4night (with free public toilet) right at the beach, and it did not disappoint.

Highlights:

Day 6 - Rain, Rain and Roscoff

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Day 6 started as another rainy day in Brittany. We actually somewhat enjoyed these days - sleeping a little bit longer and listening to the rain hitting the roof-tent, driving along the coast and looking out towards the rough sea, stopping occasionally for coffee and food. This is also pretty much everything we did on day 6.

We drove from Saint-Cava straight to Roscoff, where we made our first stop. After discovering the city (or maybe village) we had the first Galette Bretonne, a specialty from Brittany which is very similar to the more well-known Crêpes. The afternoon took us all the way to Saint-Quay-Portrieux, where we were lucky again and found a beautiful camping with views directly towards the sea. The rest of the day was spent with discovering the local coast, some local beer and dinner (I can't remember what we had, but most likely self-made burgers with rice again or vegetarian chicken nuggets with rice - haute cuisine).

Highlights:

Day 7 - Saint-Malo

  • Route: Saint-Quay-Portrieux to Saint-Pair-sur-Mer via Saint-Malo
  • Distance: 189km
  • Overnight spot: Camping l'Etoile de Mer
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The trip was slowly coming to an end, meaning we needed to make up some distance to be back in Nantes on time. The 7th day of our trip took us to Saint-Malo, a historic French port and a walled city which was very touristic. The walls around the city and the way it is built in general was quite impressive, though I'm not sure if it would make it into the highlights of this trip.

Once in Saint-Malo (it was very hard to find a parking spot, most parkings are limited to 1.90m, but we found this one that worked) and after having some hangry discussions, we ended up eating a Pizza, strolling through the city, and buying some jewellery.

The afternoon was spent on the road, taking us all the way up to Saint-Pair-sur-Mer, where we again found a very well located camping and took our final swim in the ocean during sunset-time. 100% recommended!

Day 8 - Uniqlo and Rennes

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Day 8 was the last full day on the road. The goal was clear: Uniqlo, and maybe also Rennes itself. Therefore, after some coffee and a quick breakfast, we head straight for Rennes. We were lucky again and found parking spot right in the middle of the city, located here.

After our visit to Rennes, we headed towards Nantes where we needed to drop off our van the next day. We found a cosy camping in Le Lion-d'Angers which was pretty much empty (there were maybe 4 other campers) and spent our last night there.

Day 9 - Dungeon and Dragons of Nantes

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Day 9, the last time waking up in our small cozy camper, enjoying the sunrise and some coffee. It is amazing how fast time flies by when you're just driving around a country without a real plan, but we enjoyed every minute of it.

The last stop on the list was roadsurfer Nantes where we dropped off our camper van without any problems and then headed to our hotel. The Hotel Billie we chose was located in the center, somewhat cheap and cute - I would definitely recommend it. After checking in it was time for lunch, hangry was on the horizon. After some back and forth we decided on Indian food which turned out to be a great decision (we landed on Restaurant Shalimar which was close to our hotel and it was very good!). The afternoon was spent with strolling through the city, discovering the local Uniqlo (yes, again) and then heading back to our hotel to prepare for a night out.

The goal for this evening was: good cocktails and good food. The first we achieved, the second not. The start was Santeuil Café, and even though the cocktails were good, the place just didn't feel welcoming, everything seemed somewhat old and rund-down. Next up was La Taverne Des Aventuriers - one might think why the name is weird, but we didn't think, we wanted good cocktails. Only after ordering the first round we realised we were in some kind of Dungeon and Dragons bar (that was maybe also the reason that everyone else in the bar was playing table games?) but nevertheless, the drinks were superb! Last up was food and I though I made a good call with A Cantina - I didn't and there is nothing more to say about that, just don't go there, not worth it.

And that was it. We headed back to our hotel for our final night and took the train back to Bern on the next day - à bientôt!