Holidays in Brittany

..WALKING

Brittany is a perfect place for walking, whatever your ambitions and abilities. There is gently rolling countryside with a wealth of hedgerows and wild flowers; leisurely walks along rivers and canals; pretty villages to explore away from the tourists; ancient forests where legends come alive; and dramatic coastal paths around almost the whole of the province.



Brittany has a total of 1,700 kilometres of coastal footpaths running along capes, headlands, dunes and beaches. These footpaths are extremely accessible and follow the entire length of the coastline, passing through superb scenery. Now maintained for rambling and walking, they once had a major role to play in coastal surveillance, being originally used to combat smuggling and wreck-looting, hence the term "Customs Paths". But times have changed, and these paths are now the preserve of nature-lovers, dedicated hikers, those keen for a taste of adventure and others simply out for a stroll. Brittany has more waymarked walking trails than any other part of France and provides an extraordinary variety of landscape and history to enjoy en route.

		In France there is a national network of walking paths. Apart from the Coastal Path (the GR34) many other Grandes Randonnées, as they are called, go through Brittany. They are marked with white and red signs. Smaller walking paths (known as GRPs) are marked with yellow and red signs and are planned to offer a week of walking. PRs are even smaller and are marked in yellow (or sometimes with a thematic "walking" symbol) and are meant to last from an hour to a whole day. The signposts along these routes give you the time, rather than the distance, which might take a little getting used to! The times are calculated on a steady walking speed of 4km an hour without any stops. It is also worth noting that the GR39 practically passes our door on its way over the famous suspension bridge.
One very special walking path, the European E5, begins from the Pointe du Raz, on the westernmost tip of Finistère and takes you on foot all the way to Venice! You would certainly need more than a week to complete that one.... Finally, it is worth remembering that many of the most secret places in Brittany - lonely menhirs, sacred healing springs, medieval ruins, isolated chapels, rare flora and fauna, hidden river valleys and tiny islands across narrow causeways that vanish at high tide - are only accessible on foot. The landscape of Brittany welcomes those with a spirit of adventure.