Brittany holidays: from renting cottages and gites to mobile homes and tent camping.

Getting to Brittany is the easiest thing in the world, simply catch a ferry to either Caen or St Malo and it is on the doorstep when you disembark, and even Brest, which is as far west as you can go is only 220 KM or 138 miles, and nearly all of that is on the excellent French dual carriageways. You can't even get lost there!

So what's the weather like in Brittany? Generally much milder than the south of England, and if you come from further north like we do in the middle of Derbyshire then it seems much, much warmer there, especially in the south nearer to the Vendee.

Holidays in Brittany are like holidays anywhere else - your enjoyment depends on the weather to a certain extent, but to a greater degree the area needs to have something to attract you, and we are certain that there are masses of things to captivate you about Brittany.

There is a lot of history in this region, a serious amount of it dating from thousands of years ago when the Alignments were erected around Carnac which stands at the gateway to the Quiberon peninsular on the southern coast. Nobody knows who placed them there but there are several thousand of these Megaliths or standing stones, and it is thought that they even pre-date our own Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain.

Very briefly, the old Breton history goes back to before 5000 BC when hunter-gatherers roamed the country, and it may possibly have been those people who erected the Megaliths, though we stress that is only a possibility. Between 3500 and 1500 BC, new a new people came to Brittany from the Mediterranean who brought with them their traditions and religion. Later on the Celts arrived and settled in the Eastern parts of the country, and then in the first Century BC, the Romans conquered Brittany, and Christianity arrived 3rd century AD.

Back to the present day, and we hope that your holidays in Brittany will include a couple or more visits to the fascinating markets which nearly every town has at least once a week. You should be able to buy the Breton speciality sausages which they usually sell cooked with vegetables or au naturel to take home and cook yourselves. They are huge, superb and so, so tasty!

One thing you may notice about the markets in France is that when they finish, usually around 1 pm ish, there is not a scrap of litter to be seen, totally unlike our own litter strewn marketplaces in England.

As it happens, we (the editor and family) are taking our holidays in Brittany this year (2010) in a mobile home on a site right at the end of the Quiberon peninsular, and about a mile from Quiberon town itself. This is an easy 125 mile drive from St Malo on good roads. We chose that area for this holiday because we won't have to go far to get involved in the local history - Carnac, Concarneau, Lorient, Quimper etc, as well as being able to enjoy some time on the beach and do a spot of fishing.

Enjoy your holidays in Brittany, we will!