Brittany. If you are one of the reader that followed me from the beginning of the paddling and photography journey, you will remember my posts about Brittany from before the pandemic. Between 2012 and 2019 I have spent at least a few weeks every winter training there. Here are two old blog posts from 2016 as reference: Bretagne Recap and Finistère Movie . As life gets busy and France has seen extreme lockdowns during the pandemic, I did not get a chance to return since then. In short: it was very much time to return and also introduce Angela to the life “à la bretonne.”

As a lighthouse afficionada, Angela had a whole list of them to check off. Here are some of the favorites: Perdrix, Petit Minou, Saint Matthieu and of course the view from Pointe du Raz:

Lighthouses were of course not the only thing to explore. We took our time to travel along the coastline between Kermorvan and Concarneau. Some of our highlights include the coast of the Crozon Peninsula, especially Pen Hir, the coastal trail from Douarnenez towards the Pointe du Raz the beach in Kerlaz and of course Douarnenez itself.

But not only the coastline has its charm in Brittany, there are also some lovely spots to explore inland. Well one is technically still surrounded by the sea, but still: Three things that stood out were the village of Locronan, the walled city of Concarneau and the flower fields in La Torche. If you visit Concarneau and especially Locronan, make sure it is the off-season and you go early morning, it can get touristy.

And speaking of La Torche: Yes, of course I went to surf as well. Conditions were not great and the water at a fresh 10°C, but it felt good to be back. And as always, the food at the Rayon Vert made the struggle worth it.

That’s it from the Brittany shenanigans, after that we travelled on over Paris to Italy, which will be covered in a separate blog post. Let me only say two words: Amalfi and Sicily.