Naturally, showing my parents Le Mont Saint-Michel with all other beautiful things on the way to Brittany, was compulsory – no question about that. Still, in this article I want to keep only the part about Brittany, as for the rest, I will find a solution later.

Entering Brittany via Cancale is the best thing in the world – starting the trip with a huge welcoming package in the shape of dozens of oysters can easily beat any other way to meet a new place. In one of the previous posts, I told and showed more of Cancale (and Mont Saint-Michel for that matter), feel free to check it – and sorry in advance for the salivating the pictures of oysters may cause. My parents were not completely sure about this gastronomic experience – we don’t have oysters eating traditions in Ukraine and I remember perfectly the first time I tried this sleazy delicatess – it took me some time to appreciate and actually love them, so I can’t blame anyone for not showing too much enthusiasm about the oysters.

Don’t ask why, but somehow a boat cemetery made it to our itinerary. Personally I loved it – a very haunting place it must be by gloomy weather, but under the soft summer sky it looked more nostalgic and dreamy than anything else. Although it was a nice spot to see, I still felt a little bit ashamed as we deliberately skipped Saint-Malo. All these years later I still consider Saint-Malo as one of the most beautiful cities of France but discovering something new for us too won in the list of our priorities…

However, I am happy to say that my parents seemed to love Saint-Suliac, and how could it have been otherwise? I think you know what comes next… Why, me mentioning for the thousandth time our favorite list of the most beautiful villages in France! Although in my opinion, Brittany and Normandy have much more amazing villages than what is listed on the official site, Saint-Suliac is truly a pearl we all fell in love with at once.

Not only is it beautiful with amazingly well preserved authenticity, it was also quite an educative place to visit – thus we discovered the story of the local fishermen who used to spend a bigger chunk of the year in the waters of Newfoundland. Which means almost all male population of Saint-Suliac. The conditions of work back then weren’t as comfortable, if this word can be applied to this activity at all, as they are now, I can only pity those, who represented this profession…

Anyway, it looks like today things are going much better for Saint-Suliac. It was almost completely empty the day we visited it although it was the high tourist season, I guess we might bookmark it among the ideas for the place of our retirement.

The town Xavier and I were looking forward to seeing the most, was Dinan. Despite its geographical proximity with Saint-Malo, it has nothing in common. What it does have though, is an amazing medieval architecture with typical timber-framed houses, a whole web of charming cobblestone streets, loads of small artisan shops and beautiful inviting restaurants. Dinan looked a lot like some old parts of Rennes – Brittany’s capital, but much better preserved and wholesome.

Almost an entire day flew by in Dinan without us noticing – with a slow rhythm and thanks to Dinan’s welcoming atmosphere, one can easily lose track of time, especially when coming down to the lower part of the town, buying some ice-cream and laying down for a chill. A charming place which looks like a fairy tale town.

Our next goal was finding a place to camp. I haven’t mentioned yet that camping was the only accommodation type we used for this entire trip – financially for 5 persons during high tourist season it was the most reasonable option. Frankly, I wouldn’t want any other. Over the years we had so many beautiful camping spots that I lost count, but two will always immediately pop up in my mind : the one in Yport in Normandy and the Camping du Pont de l’Etang on Cap Fréhel. Dozens of tents on the dune among the pine trees – that was amazing. It also has access to the beach of Anse du Croc, so our morning started with swimming in the waves…

After this refreshing start of the day, we took the car and went to see the famous lighthouse of the Cap Fréhel. I was very jealous of everyone, who had a bicycle to cover this way, but I’m not sure we could have done it all together with my parents. Or probably I underestimate them. As I already said, it was the middle of July, so you can imagine that we were far from the only people wishing to visit such a notorious spot on the Emerald coast… I wouldn’t much complain though as there was enough beauty for everybody.

That was an intense trip for all of us and, unfortunately, the last one for the time being. In 2020 we wanted my parents to come to Toulouse but everything went wrong: first Covid, then the war in Ukraine that doesn’t let my father leave the country. My brother is a student in Krakow, Poland. Who knows when will be our trip together and if it will be at all.

Not to finish on the pessimist note, here is the hugest menhir I’ve seen in my life. People of the past definitely had some weird hobbies.