Jason's Breton Birthday

Jason and I are slowly making our way through every corner of The Hexagon and this latest trip took us to the coastal towns of Bretagne. It was Jason's birthday weekend and he is much more likely to appreciate an experience above tangible gifts, which is perfectly okay by me. More adventures for everyone!

Bretagne is a region with its own unique heritage and history, much of it stemming from their Celtic roots. Like the Basques, they have their own language and they are fiercely proud of being Breton. You can see the iconic black and white striped flag or triskell on just about everything from hats and handbags to t-shirts and tattoos.

We based ourselves in Brest and rented a car to explore the region's various seaside towns. If you're traveling to Finistère (literally translates to "the end of the earth") I highly recommend getting some wheels of your own. There are probably trains or tourist buses that will take you out to the coast, but some of the most amazing places we stopped were tucked deep in the middle of nowhere and there is no way we could have gotten there without a car.

The weekend started with a day trip to Le Conquet, the westernmost point in mainland France. The area is best known for its sailing and fishing, and is still one of the most significant French shellfish ports today. There is a quaint little harbor in town and a long trail that will lead you around to a lovely beach. It's often too cold and rainy to really enjoy the beach in Bretagne, but we got pretty lucky with the weather that day.

Back in Brest, I treated Jason to a sea-feast at a place called Le Crabe Marteau, where we felt a little bit like we were back home in Baltimore. Not quite the same style of crab picking, but the nostalgia factor was too good to pass up. The beautiful sunset over the harbor was not so bad, either.

Day 2 was a series of stops along the coast to see the cliffs. We grabbed lunch at Crêperie Le Korrigan in Crozon and ate easily the best galette in the world. It's a crêpe made with buckwheat instead of normal flour and it's filled with savory ingredients like eggs, ham, and cheese. Despite what we Americans would consider breakfast-y leanings, you can eat galettes for any meal of the day in France. I have had several and they were tasty enough but I didn't know that they could be that good. Perhaps it was the unfathomable amounts of butter they used. I suppose when it's your region's specialty, you have to get it right. The view was also pretty awesome.

Fueled by delicious galette goodness and a bowl of cider, we headed out to explore some of the points along the west coast of the Parc Naturel Régional d'Armorique. There were several other look-outs that we stopped at, (Cap de la Chèvre, all around Camaret sur Mer and some others I don't really remember) but none were as stunning as La Pointe de Pen-Hir. Jagged, jutting cliffs, mini islands of craggy rocks, eerie German bunkers left over from the war, turquoise blue sea... Eyegasm. For dinner, we stopped at Les Viviers de Térénez, a seafood restaurant we had driven by earlier in the day and had oysters, shrimp, spider crab, lobster and a host of other yummy things from the ocean. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth every cent.

Cap de la Chèvre

La Pointe de Pen-Hir

The next day was Sunday so not much was open, but it gave us the opportunity to see some nice things a bit further from town, including Quimper, the walled city of Concarneau, Reic sur Bélon for their famous oysters, and the quaint village of Pont Aven. More crêpes, more cider, more seafood, more smiling.

Classic old style houses in Quimper

Walking the ramparts in Concarneau

Nothing better than eating ultra-fresh oysters and drinking white wine in a garage in a tiny town in France.

Pont Aven, home to delicious crêpes.

On Monday, we had a few hours to kill between when they kicked us out of the hotel and our flight home so we took a quick walk around the city of Brest to see if there was anything left to see but it's a bit unremarkable because almost everything had be rebuilt after the war. The castle was kind of cool but the fog was so thick that day that we couldn't see much of anything. Jason finally got his wish to go to the Buffalo Grill when we got back to Bordeaux and, unsurprisingly, it was terrible, but at least he can say he's done it. You can't argue with a man on his birthday.

Brest health is very important!

Maybe the worst restaurant ever?

If it weren't for the rain, I would move to Bretagne in a heartbeat. The people were incredibly helpful and friendly, the food was amazing (fresh seafood all the time and OMG SO MUCH BUTTER), and the landscapes were breathtaking. We will definitely be making another trip to see more of what this spirited region has to offer.