Finistère
August in France is different to all other months of the year. What do you mean bakeries, restaurants, even pharmacies close for weeks at a time? This doesn’t only impact Paris - even small towns have their closures. It seems a little odd at first because surely they’d make a lot of money during the high season but it’s something I really appreciate about the French Culture. Les vacances!
While August is peak season for tourism, I still embraced the French culture and took a week off ☀️🏕️
With my partner, we spent a week in the north west region of Finistère in Brittany 🇫🇷. We picked this region partially because we wanted to be able to see the eclipse (we were successful!!). This was actually our pivot location, our initial plan was to visit Gironde, but the big forest fires that were happening a week before made us reevaluate our plans.
We’ve been to Finistère before but it was my first time getting to explore the region, last time I only visited Brest. We were last here in 2023 because my partner was taking part in a 300km cycling event (I think he’s nuts, but who am I to judge). On this holiday, we cycled, swam in the sea, kayaked, hiked and ate a lot of great food. Crepes, kouign amann, cidre and all things caramel au beurre salé. I didn’t realise how much I love kouign amann and how many different varieties there are. (Any recommendations for a good kouign amann in Paris?!). I also took a week off all social media, which I haven’t done in super long. (my screen time dropped significantly!)
We took our bikes on the train (which is always an adventure). This was my first time disassembling my bike and putting it into a bike bake and it only just fits into the bag. Not only do my wheels need to come off, so do my handle bars (and I left my front rack at home). I cycled ~175km in total over the week to get between the campsites. We stayed at 4 camp sites in total - camping in three of them, and a small little hut called cabanétapes. I love cabanétapes so much - it’s the perfect mix of nature and being sheltered from the elements and as soon as I see one on a route, I know that’s where I want to sleep.
We stayed in the following places:
Camping de Keryel for one night. Pitches were quite close together, but honestly that’s sometimes part of the fun of camping. Bring toilet paper. They do not accept card payments.
Camping du phare de l’île vierge for four nights in a cabanétapes. Right next to the beach and the hiking route GR34. They had a bar on site that served some food. Their pizzas were made locally and frozen - wayyyyy better than a frozen pizza from a supermarket. The staff there were lovely. They had wifi at the bar. They only had four showers (two showers for women, two for men), but it was ok for the amount of people camping because most people were staying in camping cars.
Camping Les Dunes for one night. We were lucky enough to see a men’s choir singing at the campsite - organised by the local town. Camping on the dunes! They have two different bathroom/shower blocks (the newer one is nicer). The campsite covers a really large area. Bring toilet paper.
Camping Curnic for two nights. Camping on the dunes! This dune pitches are far from the bathrooms which was inconvenient, but no complaints because I picked this as an option. Lots of toilets and showers - there’s a door code to get into them. Just off of the campsite there was a bar area that had lots of activities going on.
Getting to see the eclipse was such a cool experience. We had the perfect conditions for it - not a single cloud in the sky, a warm day and an incredible view. We sat on a giant rock for the entire eclipse. This was my first time seeing an eclipse so I didn’t really know what to expect. I loved the moment to slow down. Two hours, with eclipse glasses in hand instead of my phone. Lying on the rock, snacking, watching the colours change. There was a noticeable change in temperature when the sun was mostly hidden. The lighting also changed, it reminded me of the filter they put over scenes in movies to flashback to a happier time.
On the afternoon of the eclipse, we went kayaking. Incredible! I had soooo much fun. Three hours went by so fast. In total, we paid 50€ which is really not a bad deal for two people to go kayaking for three hours. There was very little briefing before getting onto the water - pick a paddle, here’s a life jacket, put your things into the waterproof container, come back before 18:30 and have fun. It’s been many many years since I went kayaking, but turns out I can still remember how to do it. We kayaked over to the lighthouse, then to another smaller island. By time we were on out way back, the waves were really bumpy, which was such a contrast to the start.
We met so many lovely people. A lot of them were really proud of their region, history and language. There was a real community feel to the places we stayed. In one of the campsites they had a men’s choir singing songs related to the sea, an event that was organised by the town in their municipal campsite. They handed out lyric books so that people could join in - the mayor told us she was happy to see young people participating. Another campsite was just next to a bar, and in this bar they had local food trucks and live music one night - and 50c from each drink when to the artist which I thought was really cool. Another night, they had some games that you could play for free. These events are for the community of the small town, but also something that the people of the campsite or those following the coastal hiking path (GR34) could enjoy.
The majority of people at the campsites were French. And a lot of people seemed to actually be from Finistère (shown by the 29 on the right hand side of their numberplates). Side note: 10/10 for the drivers in Finistère! All of the drivers were super respectful when overtaking which is the opposite experience to what I have in Ile de France. Is it because it’s august and everyone is on holiday? Is it because people in this region also hike and cycle so they know how scary it is when a car overtakes too close or fast? Or are they just better drivers? Because I’d love to have some of the driving instructors teach driver in Ile de France how to drive. It’s really interesting to me how much tourism in France comes from people living in France and French people. But that’s an article for another day.
I cannot believe how lucky we were with the weather!! (Lucky for a cycling and camping trip, but also please, we need rain!). I checked the forecast - the daily high was showing as 20°c (+1°c above the average daily high….). While it was definitely warmer than that, I can totally understand why people don’t pick this as their first holiday destination with this weather but maybe we’ll see that changing in the next few years. All of the beaches were wonderful! Sand beaches which stretch out for miles! The water was incredible. Because of how large the beaches are, you were never right next to another group which I loved. I loved getting to watch the tides come in, it’s insane how fast it happens.
We were also incredible lucky with restaurants. A few we walked into were fully booked, but luckily these towns had other restaurants which had just enough space left for two people. We saw lots of people getting turned away. Turns out, you should reserve restaurants in advance during peak season, even in the small towns. You should also reserve campsites in advance especially if you’re planning on coming by camping car. All of the campsites we stayed at had signs on the outside saying they were full.
Not to be dramatic, but this may be my favourite region in France (outside of Ile de France because I love this region so much).
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