1 week to Brittany West Coast

[Neil_L]

Here is a brief summary of our first proper trip in our Cali; having bought it about a year ago various circumstances/poor weather meant that this summer is the first chance we have had to get away for more than a couple of nights. Many thanks to everyone on this site for all the advice and tips which we have put to good use!
Covid has meant that we binned our plans to go to Norway and decided on a trip to Brittany to fill at least part of the gap. We were lucky to get away last week when it is marginally less busy and to have had some nice weather. It's just the two of us + small dog travelling as our kids who are 18+ prefer to party at home when we are away...
All the campsites were very clean and seemed to be cleaned regularly during the day. Generally we avoid crowds and look for more remote places to visit (even when there is no Covid). So Honfleur which was rammed and all the restaurants full was not a good experience (for us). None of the campsites was full and some only at about 50% capacity. We booked ahead but probably didn't need to.
We stayed here:
Camping Château du Gandspette, near Calais as we took a late shuttle



Next Stop at site called 'Camping Sous Les Etoiles' in Saint-Martin-des-Besaces for an onward trip to Mont St Michel (visited from afar to avoid the navettes), Omaha beach etc


We intended to go up to the north coast but changed our minds and pushed down to a nice little site for visiting to great beaches on the W coast. Camping La Pointe near Chateaulin.


We visited beaches near Saint Nic (deserted until about 2pm when all the French come out to play); it seemed possible to wild camp on the beach road and we spoke to a Dutch couple who had done that:

The next day we went to a great surfing beach west of Pont L'Abbé which is about 5 miles long. Surf was slightly unchallenging on our visit at 1-2ft...Only downside was a smell from some kind of a natural crustacean graveyard on part of the beach... (Shot from my drone - our van in bottom rhs corner of car park)

Last stop on the way back was the municipal camping at St Leonard des Bois. Beautiful surroundings and reasonable facilities. Slight downside was large family with a festival vibe mentality and a towable barbecue(!). We moved pitches at dusk to a quieter side...

We visited the nearby Saint-Céneri-le-Gérei on our way back as well as Alençon. We had a whole part of a carriage to ourselves on the Shuttle on the way back and the pet checkin was very easy.


The dog loved the beaches - meant to be on the lead but so few people in the mornings that it didn't really matter to let him have a runabout.


If anyone fancies more space than a Cali maybe this might work??


In terms of new kit we tried:
We took a porta potty but didn't use it.
We bought a small Cadac and used it everyday - we even made pizza (inc dough)!!
We have sides for the awning which are great when it rains - but it didn't rain!!
Didn't take (or really need) levelling ramps.
Small chain of led's was nice to put around the awning.

So we hope to have a few longer trips this year and really hope we can get to Norway in 2021.