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Saint Malo

Dinard

Cancale

Dinan

Cote Emeraude to St.Brieuc

St Brieux to Paimpol

Paimpol and the island Brehat

Belle-Ile intro

Belle-Ile-a bicycle tour

Treguier, lawyers pilgrimage and Lannion

Rennes

Lorient-St.Louis

Carnac-Trinite sur Mer

Auray, St.Goustan and the Quiberon peninsula. 

Vannes

Gulf of Morbihan, its fisher ports and more

Guerande and  salt, and La Baule, beautiful beach resort 

St.Nazaire to Nantes (1)

Nantes, visit of this elegant city, shopping,churches, museums(2)

Brest - Douarnenez - Pointe du Raz

Quimper-Concarneau

Pont Aven -Quimperlé

Brittany-Belle Ile-A bicycle tour in this savage Island of beauty

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Introduction

Climate

Bretons

Music

Cuisine

History

The moment we arrived, we tied our car to the parking lot and didn't touch it since. We rented a pair of bicycles and went off to the discovery of the island. , every day a new village or special spot. Sometimes (but not often, I am a cold fish) we dove into the sea in a secluded bay area like the one in Kérel and Herlin. Or we started a collection of mussels or coral splinters on the kilometres long beach of Samzun (Plage des Grands Sables) where bold surfers show you their crazy skills. Constantly we avoid the larger roads, where our two wheelers are chased by the stinking four wheelers. Cyclo paths are rare, that's the only flaw I could find on this island. 
The peasant we encountered previously gave us a good advice: from the little place Donnant, there is a bumpy but car less road to Bédex. From there a dirt road to Sackgassen-Schild and Ty-Néue. Soon we arrive at our first "Ria", one of those typical valleys on the island where walking and cycling REALLY becomes a sport. The roads are steep, out hollowed by many rainfalls and the sticky broom, blackthorns and thick blackberry bushes form an impenetrable wall. It's a surprising sight to enter Keroyan. Old, white chalked houses have blue window shutters competing with the hydrangeas: who sparkles most! We continue direction Kerlédan. We cross the street between two, menhirs listening to the names of Jeanne and Jean. Now we drive along a crawling path leading us to the idyllic fisher port Sauzon. 
In an old fashioned small hotel, Le Phare, indeed next to a light beacon, we order seafood wit a bottle of Gros Plant, dry white wine. In the bowl we admire oysters, Bigorneau snails, praire mussels, langoustes and large, red brown North Sea crab. Between the ices cubes we discover unknown little creatures, a thumb high, looking like animal claws. "Theses are "pousse-pieds", says the waiter with a professorial attitude, "more expensive than lobster!" Theses are very rare crustaceans, family of the sea pox and only growing on the cliffs of Belle-Ile. They taste like oysters, but finer and spicier.
The GROS PLANT bottle gives us the courage to continue to the "Pointe des Poulains", northwest. The famous actress Sarah Bernhardt had a summerhouse here where she stayed for 30 years. She took her whole Parisian court with her. From this period only a shabby blockhaus stays.
She was not the only one who fell in love with island. Claude Monte was one of them and he painted in 1886 ten works of the fisher village "Kervilahouen". His love for Belle-Ile grew from day to day and produced finally 39 paintings, all showing the cliffy coast. They hang today in the most prestigious museums in the world, glorifying the Brittany beauty of Belle-Ile.