One of our long-term bucket-list items is to visit Mont-Saint-Michel and Belle-Ile-En-Meron the far west coast of France, and a family Christmas in Perth gave us the opportunity to "quickly" get to Europe from Western Australia on one of the new direct flights to London, a mere 17h45 duration. How would we handle such a long stint in an aeroplane? Well, we would soon find out, although we've done the epic Sydney - Dallas-Fort Worth hop enough times to know that it should be bearable!
Afternoons at Perth's Scarborough Beach always seem to feature a southerly gale which attracts dozens of kite surfers.
Our plan is to get over jet-lag in London for New Years, then take the Eurostar under The Channel to Paris. After a few days, another train will take us to Rennes where we will rent a car for a drive around the Atlantic coast of Brittany. We plan to visit Belle-Ile early, and Mont-Saint-Michel late in the drive, and spend several weeks in between exploring what we hope will be picturesque locations on the way.
Aerial image of Mont-Saint-Michel at low tide from Wikipedia by Ryan R Zhao.
The map shows our intended route, but its not fixed. We've made bookings at critical hotels on Belle-Ile (Sauzon) and near Mont Saint-Michel but we'll just wing it with what's in between. It's winter, so we don't expect big crowds, but not everywhere will be open. The overall drive is less than 1000km, so we'll be able to take it easy.
Map of intended driving route around Brittany
Brittany (Region Bretagne) is the westernmost of France's 13 regions, set on the Armorican Peninsula, and takes pride in a Celtic heritage which distinguishes it from the rest of the country. The name comes from the Britons who crossed the English Channel south from Cornwall and Devon in the dark ages (450-600AD) to escape Anglo Saxon invaders.
