The route I’m about to suggest starts in the city of Rennes, the capital of Brittany. Most travelers in France start from Paris, so first you need to get from there to Rennes.
How to Get from Paris to the City of Rennes
You can get there quickly and easily on the A11 highway. See the blue route on the map below. Some sections of the road are tolled; recently that came to about 30 euros. You can pay in cash or by credit card. You can also bypass these sections. If you don’t take the tolled sections, the drive will take about 3.5 hours.
I think it’s worth taking the opportunity to drive through Normandy (the green route on the map below): the landing beaches, Bayeux and its tapestry, the fishing villages, Mont-Saint-Michel, Sainte-Mère-Église. I won’t go into detail here, since that’s a story for another article. Either way, if you choose this route, plan on at least two days for it. On the times I did this, I stayed in one of the hotels right on the coast. It’s quite an experience to hear the sea return at night, after low tide. And of course, even during the day, the sight of fishing boats resting on the sand at low tide, oyster cages exposed, and tractors driving out to them, is something you don’t forget.
Of course, you can also get from Paris to Rennes by train. The fast train makes the trip in two hours. Prices range from 10 euros (at inconvenient hours, of course) to 70 euros for first class whenever you like. It’s best to check close to your travel date, since strikes are common. As far as I know, they’re part of the pushback against President Macron’s attempts to streamline France’s public services. You can also go by bus, or even take a domestic flight from Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) to Saint-Jacques, a suburb of Rennes.
I won’t go into detail about Rennes itself, since it also deserves its own article.
These are the main waypoints of our route, but what’s between them is just as fascinating.
Port de Roche
Ahead of us is a circular day trip, from Rennes and back, about 350 km. A bit packed, but worth it. Two fast, good roads run south from Rennes: the N137 and the D177. If you’re in a hurry to reach the first stop, the resort town of La Baule, I recommend picking either one.
But why choose? Let’s combine both, and pick up a story along the way.
I suggest leaving Rennes heading south on the N137. After about 40 kilometers, start looking for the exit to Grand-Fougeray. Drive through the village (on its southern side there’s a good grocery store, part of the Super U chain). Continue on the D56 to the bridge over the Vilaine river, cross it, and stop after two hundred meters. You’re now in the tiny village of Port de Roche.
Why did I bring you here? Ah, I live here… welcome. A glass of wine is guaranteed for every visitor. The house I live in is an old stone building whose foundations date back to the 12th century, called Le Manoir de Port la Roche. They say that one of the routes known as the “Camino de Santiago,” or as it’s called in France, the “Way of Saint James,” once passed through here. Its branches lead from across Europe to the city of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. I walked it recently, but that’s also a story for another article, and your valuable time is dedicated to the story you came here for.
My little village, Port de Roche, sits right beside the Vilaine river, about two hundred meters from the iron bridge we crossed. The bridge was dedicated to Napoleon III after its completion, and was considered at the time the height of technological progress. Before the story, here’s a picture of the spot where you’re standing, with your back to the Vilaine:
A memorial. A Cross of Lorraine. Le Manoir de Port la Roche. It will all connect in a moment.
The Boy Who Didn’t Sound the Alarm
On one of my first days here, I sat in a small bar in a nearby village called Langon, known as “Annie’s Pub,” even though there’s no “Annie” anywhere to be found. The bar was packed, and people holding glasses of cider (the national drink of Brittany) stood waiting for a seat to open up.
In the middle of the room sat an old man who looked about a hundred years old. There were a few empty chairs near his table, but to my surprise, no one sat in them. No one spoke to him either, and he didn’t try to speak to anyone. He drank his cider quietly, wiped his nicotine-yellowed mustache, and left.
When I asked around about it, I got evasive answers. Little by little I gathered information, and eventually I learned the connection between the shunned old man and a memorial marker standing at the intersection near the house where I live, right across from the Vilaine bridge. The memorial is dedicated to seven Resistance fighters (the French underground that fought the Germans during World War II) who fell there on August 6, 1944. Below their names are two more names, apparently of local casualties who also fell; next to one of them it says he died “en déportation,” suggesting he may have been Jewish. At the bottom of the memorial there’s a separate plaque dedicated to a man who was deported to Bergen-Belsen (a Nazi concentration camp in Saxony, Germany). He, too, may have been Jewish.
It turns out that by August 1944, about two months after the Allied landing in Normandy, the Resistance was no longer focused on sabotage, but rather on the opposite: protecting strategic infrastructure that the Germans were trying to destroy. As part of this effort, a unit of Resistance fighters took control of the Vilaine bridge I mentioned. A sixteen-year-old boy was posted as a lookout, two hundred meters from the bridge. A force approached, led by an American Sherman tank painted in U.S. colors. As it later turned out, this was a captured tank. Behind it marched a Wehrmacht battalion. The Resistance fighters neither opened fire nor fled: all of them were killed on the bridge. In that same incident, the Germans also executed the gardener of the château where I live, and buried him right next to the château’s fence:
The only one who was released unharmed was the sixteen-year-old lookout. Did he freeze from fear and fail to raise the alarm that a German battalion was marching behind the tank? Was he a traitor who deliberately misled his comrades? No one knows, but 73 years have passed, and to this day, no one speaks to him.
From Port de Roche we continue south first, and at Langon we turn west, connecting to the D177, which will lead us to La Baule.
La Baule
Today’s tour begins in the upscale resort town of La Baule. The town itself is fairly ordinary, but its beach is considered one of the most beautiful in Europe. I think that’s an exaggeration, but there’s no doubt it’s the most beautiful on the Atlantic coast. Along the bay, about 7 km between the villages of Pornichet and Le Pouliguen, stretches a promenade. Sadly, the old houses have been replaced by modern apartment buildings and hotels. But the beach and the sea remain just as they were.
After a short walk along part of the promenade, we continue to the salt ponds of Guérande. We’ll leave La Baule from the western end of the promenade, and shortly after we’ll find ourselves on the D774, heading toward Guérande. The whole area is crisscrossed with shallow, tiny pools of seawater, separated by small earthen dikes. The idea is simple: the water evaporates, the salt is collected using simple tools, and spread on the dikes for further drying. This way, all the natural minerals in the seawater are preserved in the salt, mainly magnesium and iodine. The gray Atlantic salt from this region is considered among the best in the world, and is exported internationally.
On the map you can see the enormous number of salt ponds in the area:
Guérande
After passing through the salt ponds, we reach the town of Guérande. The old town center, which has survived since the Middle Ages, is surrounded by a circular wall and a moat, part of which is still flooded with seawater. You need to park outside the walls, then enter through one of the four fortified gates.
Along the alleys leading to the church in the main square there are dozens of shops. The interesting ones are those offering various kinds of Atlantic salt, starting with the natural original, and continuing with different flavored varieties: with pepper, curry, tarragon, turmeric, and even chocolate. You can taste before you buy.
La Roche-Bernard
After we’ve eaten and are satisfied and have leftovers (as the wise Talmudic legend goes), we’ll continue on the D774 to La Roche-Bernard. The small town sits where the Vilaine river meets the ocean. The harbor was once a shipping point for goods such as timber, salt, and wine; today it’s full of yachts and sailboats.
The town is still guarded by old cannons:
By the way, I couldn’t actually read the inscription on these particular cannons, maybe because it was worn away by rust, or because they’re even older, but on most French cannons, since the days of Louis XIV, the inscription
Ultima Ratio Regum (the last argument of kings) is engraved… consider yourselves warned.
You can continue along the marina to the bay where the Vilaine river flows into the sea. There are, of course, plenty of restaurants and cafés.
Josselin and the Battle of the Thirty
From here we head north to the small town of Josselin, on the banks of the Oust river. Nearby, on March 27, 1351, the battle known as the Bataille des Trente (the Battle of the Thirty) took place. As part of the wars of succession over the throne, the opposing sides were the Duchy of Brittany, which Josselin supported, and the Kingdom of England, which sought to take control of the region.
About five kilometers from Josselin, both sides agreed to settle the campaign through a battle between 30 knights from each side, led by the two rival commanders, fighting on foot to the death. “Our” knights, meaning those of Josselin, won after a full day of fighting, in which both sides exhausted themselves completely. The English commander and eight of his knights were killed, and the rest were taken prisoner. It’s said that the Breton commander, Beaumanoir, wounded at the end of the battle, asked for water. One of his men shouted at him: “Drink your blood, and your thirst will pass.” Brothers in arms.
The battle has been depicted many times, including in paintings. Here’s one of them:
Josselin Castle was built in the 14th century, and since then has been destroyed and rebuilt again and again. Today only four of the original nine towers remain, but it’s still impressive. To see it at its most impressive, you should stand on the bridge between the two banks of the Oust.
That’s where we’ll end for today.
We head back to Rennes on the N24.
See you on the next trip.
More to Read
- If you’d like to dig deeper into the history of the Hundred Years’ War in Brittany, feel free to read Dr. Orna Lieberman’s article Jeanne de Belleville, the Lioness Thirsty for Revenge.
- If you’d like to learn more about the story of Josselin Castle, feel free to check out the article Josselin and the Rohan Family: A Thousand Years of History.
Related reading