Next up on our exploration of Brittany was Quiberon, a seaside resort on a peninsula sticking down into the Bay of Biscay some 125 miles south of Roscoff. We stayed at a Sofitel overlooking the sea, a little over a mile south of the little town. In the 19th century the town was a center of sardine fishing and packing, but when first a railroad connected it to the rest of France in the late 19th century and then it was classified as a health resort in 1924, tourism took off. Today the town lives and breathes off of tourism, primarily, they say, French tourists.

We spent three nights here and initially I was skeptical about the whole “seaside resort” thing. I mean, the temperature never got above 65 degrees and it’s the middle of July! But then I got into the vibe a little and I started to understand. And on our last day, with the sun out and the temperature soaring into the mid-60s I spent a couple hours at the beach and loved it. By late afternoon the beach was getting crowded and lots of people were out swimming notwithstanding the fact that water was seriously cold.

A highlight of our little adventure here was that we rented bikes from the hotel and could quickly (and for Mark importantly, painlessly) get into town for meals or out to the beaches. And the great thing is that because it stays light so late we could bike to dinner at 8:00 or even 8:30, have a great meal, and bike home while it was still daylight.

A little beach time, some reading, some exercise, and a lot of food. On our first lunch we discovered a small … network? chain? family? … of local restaurants. The lunch was so good we ended up visiting two of the other places in their network and they were all really good; the owners have something figured out. And service? At lunch Mark accidentally dropped his wedding ring and it fell through a small crack into an inaccessible crawl space. So the owner called a handyman of some sort who, after we left, pulled up enough of the boards on the patio where we were sitting to recover the ring. That’s service!

After our two very quick stops in Normandy we crossed into Brittany where we plan to spend two weeks. The first stop was three nights in Dinard, on what is known as the Emerald Coast. It became a prime destination for British and even American aristocrats in the late 19th century and is still considered one of the premier seaside resorts in all of France. A town of just a tad under 10,000 people, the population soars to some 40,000 in the summer.

Now I have to admit, I didn’t quite get it. The town is nice, and indeed has some great architecture presumably as a result of those 19th century aristocrats, but it didn’t seem like such a great seaside resort. First, well, we’ve been to Sardinia’s Emerald Coast and it was way more beautiful and beachy. Second, because the tides in this part of the world are just enormous, for large stretches of the day the tide is too low for swimming. And finally, it’s just too darned cold! Here we are in mid-July and the temperature never goes above maybe the mid-60s. I looked it up and that’s somewhat unusual; the average daily high in July is 72 degrees. That would have been pleasant, but that’s hardly “Oh god, I need to go to the beach!” kind of weather.

So we didn’t go to the beach in Dinard. There was, however, plenty to do. First off, on arrival we caught a boat across the bay to Saint-Malo, Brittany’s most touristed locale. It is a beautiful old walled city on the English Channel that got wealthy off of pirating. Apparently that was a good business back in the day. (And amusingly, the boat that takes you across from Dinar to Saint-Malo is called the Corsair, an archaic word for pirate. They’re not ashamed of their past!) At any rate, the old city was almost totally destroyed by Allied bombing in 1944, something a tourist like me would be totally unaware of, insofar as it was rebuilt during the 1950s. Honestly, to me it looked like it was all old and historic, when in fact lots of it is no older than I am! At any rate it’s a great place to walk around for a couple of hours and then to sit down to a beautiful lunch. There were lots and lots of probably not-so-good touristy places, but we managed to discover L’Entracte, a lovely and creative place on a bit of a side street. Very pleasant!

The next day was a little laid back, getting some laundry and gym time in, but then our last full day in Dinard we took a local bus an hour south to Dinan. We have a rental car and certainly could have driven but we don’t like driving and hate having to figure out parking in a new town. The bus, on the other hand was simple, cheap, and comfy. Dinan it turns out is an absolutely stunning old walled town above the Rance River. We didn’t do a lot there besides walking around, gawping at the really old buildings and streets and all that. We walked down – and down and down and down – to the river front, where we had a relaxing cup of coffee, before heading back up – and up and up and up – to the main town for lunch. Then back on the bus to Dinard.

So much for three nights in Dinard. Next up, a couple hours west to Roskoff.

OK, so after a quick visit to Paris this is the real start of our French trip, the first of 22 stops that are new to us. As Mark mentioned we’re going to be moving fast, so this was a two-day stop. The quick summary is that Lille (pronounced “leel”) is a lovely, lively town worthy of a two-night stop, but not more than that to be honest.

First was a fast and fabulous hour-long train ride north from Paris. The TGV, France’s high-speed rail, really moves. I don’t know what the average speed was, but it takes two-and-a-half hours to drive between Lille & Paris but little over an hour on the train. Heck, I barely had time to take a nap and *snap* we were pulling into Lille.

On arrival you notice a couple things quickly. First, you’ve gone a long way north; suddenly it feels almost Nordic. Now, Paris itself is surprisingly far north, north of Duluth, Minnesota, and that’s up there. But Lille is another 120 miles north of that, further north than anything in the U.S. except of course Alaska. So here we are, arriving on the 4th of July, and the temperature is in the 50s in the morning and almost never reaching 70 degrees. After late June in New York this is pretty nice!

Second you quickly notice that the train station is only minutes from the center of the Old City. A lot of Lille was badly damaged during World War II but the center was largely spared leaving this cute, historic district with some beautiful buildings. It’s worth nothing, of course, that it’s a pretty small district; after an hour or two of wandering around you’ve pretty much seen it all.

What else is there to see in Lille? There are two major sites, the cathedral and an art museum, and they were both kind of busts. Mark went to the cathedral (I was doing laundry) and quickly texted me not to waste my time when I was free. It was built to replace Lille’s major church, destroyed during the French Revolution, but took some 150 years – from 1854 to 1999 – to complete. And while much of the church is classic Gothic, the façade is a truly ugly modern structure. He hated it and since I’d already walked past it and seen that weird front I didn’t go to see it.

And then the art museum, the Palais des Beaux Arts, has the second largest collection in France, behind only the Louvre. Apparently the gap between numbers one and two is pretty large; there just wasn’t much there to impress. A kind of second-rate El Greco, a few Reubens and that was about it. They had an exhibit linking Monet to Joan Mitchell, one of the giants of abstract expressionism. So they had three of her late-in-life works and six of his. Interesting but … modest.

With that said, there were still some highlights. As I said the Old City – especially the central square, the Grand Place – was nice. The food was nothing short of great; every meal was a treat. There is a wonderful park maybe half a mile west of the city center, perfect for walking, running, and reading … and I did all three there. A really nice gym that sold day passes for just €10. And then one thing we love about traveling in France: laundromats everywhere!

That’s it, then. A quick, rewarding stop in Lille. Next up, Amiens.