Sites in Brittany.

[Alan D]

We expect to travel over to France at the week-end, hopefully, and although it may be a little late in the year for weather and of course some sites are closing, we would appreciate any recommendations for good sites and aires in Brittany. We expect to drive the north coast, around the west coast and then arrive in Carnac. If the weather is ok we will take it leisurely, if not we will quicken the pace and from Carnac we will head south until we find some sunshine. Thats the plan . We do use aires as well as sites but as we have not travelled this route before, so all suggestions welcome.

alan.

[John J Thompson]

St Cast-Le-Guildo Aire in Brittany 48°36'30.07"N 2°13'48.00"W (Pointe du Baye) which is a free Aire, but has no services.

 

Pleneuf Val Andre N 37.523 W 002 34.000 the Aire here is next to the marina with a view over the masts to the town.

 

Plouha N 48 40.554 W 002 53.107. The Aire here is level grass for a change as all of the others we had used so far had been on dry bare earth or tarmac.

 

Tregastle N48 49.464 W003 29.881 the barrier was only working intermittently. The Bourne is custom made and whilst being quite good the tap for rinsing the cassette was in a position that made it difficult to get the water to go into it. There is a charge of 7 Euro a day to use this Aire and the borne if free. The ticket states that a stay of 7 days is permitted. Payment is by credit card (not Mistro or Visa Electron) but as the system was not working it turned out to be a free Aire for our stay.

 

 

Ploudalmezeau – Portsall N48 33.961 W004 41.918 This is a reasonably level grass field with plenty of space even for the largest unit. The Toilet block was locked and it looked like a new Bourne had been installed. This takes a card (debit or Credit) and dispenses 5 minutes of water or 55 minutes of electricity for 2 Euro.

 

Lampaul Plouarzel. The Aire is in the dunes at N 48 28.824 W 004 46.584. This Aire is on a number of levels on a sloping site as well as a Euro Relais borne there are toilets and separate wash rooms in two buildings. There are many good sandy beaches here with cliff to walks. At 18:00 a young gentleman calls to collect the fee of 3.50 Euro each day, There is no stay limit . The borne takes 2 Euro coins and dispenses 10 minutes of water as well as Electricity.

 

 

Camaret Sur Mer N 48 16.418 W 004 35.693. The Aire is divided in bays separated by flowering shrubs. Payment of 4 Euro per day at the machine at the entrance. The Bourne has places to dump from a toilet tank as well as the usual services at 2 Euro for 10 minutes of water. We had to use a pen to press the button mechanism as the button was missing, electricity is 2 Euro for 80 minutes. We went for a walk to the Menhirs (standing stones in lines) that are just outside of the Aire and then to the runes of a Manor house build by a French poet and then walked along the top of the cliff to the Musuem of the Battle of the Atlantic which is situated within the massive German gun battery that protected Brest during WWII.

 

Cleden-Sap-Sizen N 48 02.915 W 004 39.030 has a nice spacious under-used Aire which is in a large car park just on the outskirts of the town opposite the cemetery. The Bourne had one side not working and care is needed when discharging the cassette. drinking waterat 10 minutes for 2 Euro.

We decided to stay here and explore the Pointe du Raz area using the car as the roads around this area are very narrow. 26th June we went to Point du Raz and parked in the visitors centre there are Motor home parking bays here and you can stay overnight without any services for 15 Euro The Aire at Cleden Sap Sizen is free. The streets here are very narrow and there is a very tight blind area by the medieval church.

 

 

28 June. Pont L'Abbe (E.LECLERC) N 47 51.849 W 004 14.152. Nice supermarket Aire with borne and 12 marked Motor home bays. Four of these bays are against the back fence and have 230v hookup facilities. We hooked up and put our money in for 3 x 7 hours of electric but it cut out after 30 minutes. We sought help and they restored our connection. You can only have 7 hours at a time putting in extra coins does not increase the time as we found out. They gave us our money back though.

 

 

Quiberon on the Spit of land just before Port Maria to the Aire at N 47 29.500 W 003 08.334, adjacent to the Municipal Camping at Kerne. This is under redevelopment with new tarmac and a barrier system is being installed. The cost is 5 Euro per night plus water at 1 euro for 33 litres. The Borne is a custom one with all the usual facilities The ticket machine (Horodateur) was unreliable and we learned not to park near these machine as lots of people wanted change from us if we could supply it. We had problems ourselves in keeping enough 1 and 2 Euro coins for the machines and bornes.

 

Vannes (Camping de Conleau) The Aire here is at the entrance of the Municipal Campsite N47 38'036 W 2 46'48,67 but as we were in need of using the Laundrette we decided to stay on the camping site instead.

 

Arzon on the mouth of the Gulfe du Mobihan. This Aire N 47 32.365 W 002 52.841 was quite confusing for us to use as it has a ticket machine at the entrance that requires you to book in for one, two or three days and charges you for your stay and 100 litres of water per day. Three days cost us 20.10 Euro and we had to pay this on a visa card. In the proce but it asked us for our Metriculation number? despite the rest of the information being in English. We asked a person who was on site and they came to look and explained it was the vehicle registration number. We found a pitch in a corner that was able to accommodate our 10.3 metres length, most of the sites were strictly for 6 to 7 metre camping cars. We noticed that all of the electric points were occupied by a multitude of adaptors and plugs of many types. The electric points were all hogged so we stood no chance if we could have we wouldn't have been able to reach a point. We also noticed that people were getting water in containers from the same points as the electric hookups. We looked all over for a Borne and it was the day after we arrived that we discovered it on a street outside of the Aire. From the Aire you had to go out onto the main road, turn left into another road and then do a u-turn to get back to the borne. We needed water do decided to try this maneuver. We pulled onto the borne and entered the pin number on our ticket from the machine at the gate that operated the Aire barrier. We tried and tried and then realised that there was no spilled water anywhere and realised that the borne water was not working. We were able to empty our cassette and wash it out with some of our waste water and then had to negotiate our way back into the Aire through the barrier and find a connector for a tap that pushed on as the interior taps were all smooth. They were also the push for on types that cut off when you let go so filling our tank was performed by having to hold the pipe on with one hand and push with the other, while Joan checked to see that the hose didn't jump out of the filler and tell me when to let go to stop filling. Other people wanted to empty pans and dishes into the drain as we tried to fill.

 

Damgan (Kervoyal) N 47 30.876 W 002 33.623 This is a very popular Aire and houses over 70 Camping Cars in bays between pine trees. We paid the lady that called for our money at 18:00 at 6 Euro per night. The next night I checked the ticket number and she had issued about 100 tickets in 24 hours. The maximum stay here is 72 hours.

 

John

[Alan D]

Thanks John, anymore recommended aires and sites from anyone would be welcomed.

Alan.

[Harcourt3]

Hope you enjoyed Brittany, but why do people just head for the coasts. Whats wrong with Central Brittany. It has beautiful scenery, lakes and forests as well as the Nantes Brest canal. All coastlines can be reached for day trips to the coast so you can see more of Brittany from one location.

[Alan D]

Yes I did enjoy the trip and were lucky to get the last of some good weather. Being a coastal type of person, I do not think I have been on holiday unless I have seen the sea , but I take your point and Brittany proved far larger than anticipated and there is plenty to see. Thanks to John Thompson`s recommendations we had a good time on the Aires just as well as most of the sites were packed, even that late in the year. At Vivier sur Mer one weekend the whole of the village turned out to clean the beach, to be rewarded afterwards with free oysters and wine on an impromptu area set up on the Aire. That`s community spirit for you.

Alan.

[tazdog6007]

Brittany is a great area for campers.tons of free stopovers.St nicolas du Pelem is a nice town with a site which was closed but stayed open for out of season campers.will go there in summer as the local lido is opposite the site