Showing posts with label Mont St Michel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mont St Michel. Show all posts

Saturday, 26 May 2012

Brittany - a great destination for a holiday

One of our favourite holiday destinations is Brittany in the North West of France. What does Brittany mean for us ?

Crepes...galettes.....rugged beaches with beautiful white sand...coves and inlets, blue/green seas.... rocks and lighthouses and the ancient Breton language which you see in road signs and place names...granite cottages with colourful hydrangea bushes outside and fishing ports.

The campsites we have visited offer all of these aspects of Brittany and by visiting them all over the years we have learned more about Breton culture and history. But if you are just looking for fun, relaxation and a great holiday by the sea they also offer all of those ! Let us take you on a quick tour ! The following campsites : Le Chatelet and Chateau le Galinee at St Cast or Chateaux des Ormes in the north of Brittany offer a great introduction to Brittany without being too far from some of the main ferry ports.

You can visit the famous tourist attraction of Mont St Michel which is on the border with Normandy on the north coast.

You can also visit the historic walled town of St Malo and learn of its history of pirates or corsaires and also of the history of how it was largely re-built after World War 2 - all very interesting.

And you can enjoy a range of meals or takeaways in the various restaurants inside the walls. Then finish your day with a walk around the ramparts - a total distance of about 2 kms, although you can chose to walk just certain sections of it as there are plenty of exit and entrance points !

There is an interesting aquarium to visit at St Malo as well.

Other locations which make a great holiday include Carnac and its close neighbour Trinite Sur Mer.

You will marvel at the thousands of standing stones that stretch for a couple of miles. What were they for ? Who put them there and how did they manage it ? You might find the answers while you are there !

There are a few interesting museums to visit in Carnac - one lovely one that was founded jointly by a French man and a Scotsman - the Museum of Prehistory (Musée de Préhistoire James Miln-Zacharie Le Rouzic) and also a more modern museum near the Standing Stones, Archaeoscope.

Les Deux Fontaines campsite and Raguenes Plage campsite allow you to visit a quieter and possibly more scenic area of Brittany but with one of the most beautiful beaches, Tahiti Plage ! In that area we enjoyed visiting a lovely old village Kerascoet and also a botanic gardens.

Benodet is a favourite for many and British people have been visiting this resort for about 100 years and there is a flavour of that when you are there. From here you can take a glass bottomed boat so you can view fish on a visit to the beautiful îles Glénan, an archipelago of islands twelve miles out to sea.

Quimper was nice to visit and has a very historic cathedral, as has St Anne d'Auray. I would also recommend a visit to Pont Aven - a beatiful village sitting near the mouth of a river. This village is proclaimed as the Capital of Crepe making ! And we certainly enjoyed a delicious crepe in a restaurant which was previously an old mill sitting on the river. It has also been home to numerous artists over the years and you can visit quite a few art galleries and see if there are any paintings you would like to take home with you. There was art to suit all tastes, from modern to more traditional. And a final favourite in Pont Aven was a lovely glass blowing workshop and shop where you could watch the glass blowers at work and then buy some of their beautiful glassware.

This year we are heading to the North West of Brittany, an area we first visited about 20 years ago. What are your favourite things to visit in Brittany ? Would you recommend a visit to this area or have you other areas of France you would suggest for a visit ?

If you would like to stay at some of the great campsites we stayed at in Brittany then we have listed them on our websites at www.bestfrenchcampsites.com

Sunday, 21 August 2011

World Heritage Sites in France

Here is a list of all the World Heritage Sites in France as listed by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.  Currently, thirty-seven properties in France are inscribed on the World Heritage List. Thirty-three of these are cultural properties, three are natural properties, and one is mixed.

These are the ones currently listed and I have put the Region afterwards so you can see if you are going to be holidaying nearby.
Have you been to see any of these and what are your memories of them - which ones would you recommend to other holidaymakers ?

1 Abbey Church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, a 9th Century Church with 11th and 12th Century murals in Poitou-Charentes

2 Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay, a 12th Century Abbey in Burgundy
Pont du Gard, Nimes

3 Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

4 Vézelay, 12th Century Church and Hill in Burgundy Bourgogne

5 A 13th Century - 20th Century transboundary property in Belfries of Belgium and France Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Picardy

6 Bordeaux, Port of the Moon - Aquitaine

7 Canal du Midi (17th Century) in Languedoc-Roussillon, Midi-Pyrénées  (for more information about the Canal du Midi plane trees and a fungus that is threatening them see http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/27/french-axe-thousands-plane-trees)

8 Amiens Cathedral, 13th Century in Picardy
Mont St Michel

9 Bourges Cathedral in Centre 13th Century

10 Chartres Cathedral in Centre 13th Century

11 Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Abbey of Saint-Remi, & Palace of Tau, Reims Champagne-Ardenne 13th Century - 16th Century

12 The Causses and Cévennes, Midi-Pyrénées, Languedoc-Roussillon

13 Historical center of Avignon : Papal Palace & Avignon Bridge in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur 12th century - 16th century

14 Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France
15 Episcopal City of Albi in Midi-Pyrénées

16 18th Century Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans Franche-Comté

17 17th Century Fortifications of Vauban

18 Jurisdiction of Saint-Émilion, Aquitaine

19 Le Havre, the City rebuilt by Auguste Perret Haute-Normandie 20th Century

20 Mont Saint Michel and its Bay, Basse-Normandie

21 Palace and Park of Fontainebleau, Île-de-France

22 Palace and Park of Versailles, Île-de-France

23 Paris, Banks of the Seine, Île-de-France

24 Place Stanislas, Place de la Carrière, and Place d'Alliance in Nancy, Lorraine

25 Pont du Gard, 1st Century Roman Aqueduct in Languedoc-Roussillon

26 Provins, Town of Medieval Fairs, Île-de-France 

27 Historic Old Town center of Lyon, Rhône-Alpes

28 Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps transboundary property, shared with Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland

29 Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley, Aquitaine

30 Strasbourg – Grande Île, Alsace

31 Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the "Triumphal Arch" of Orange, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

32 The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes-sur-Loire Centre, Pays-de-la-Loire

33 Cité de Carcassonne – historic Fortified City of Carcassonne, Languedoc-Roussillon

34 Gulf of Porto: Calanche of Piana, Gulf of Girolata, Scandola Reserve, Corsica Corse

35 Lagoons of New Caledonia Nouvelle-Calédonie in New Caledonia Barrier Reef

36 The Pitons, Cirques and Remparts of Réunion, La Réunion

37 Pyrénées: Mont Perdu Midi-Pyrénées, transboundary property, shared with Spain

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