On the 8th of August I set off on my last family holiday for two weeks. We travelled to the northwest of France for our holiday this year and had the aim of exploring Normandy and some of the other surrounding areas. Of course travelling to France meant getting the ferry from Portsmouth which is at least a six hour journey from where I live, which meant unbearable amounts of discomfort as three of us where squeezed into the backseat. However, we arrived safe and sound in Portsmouth where we stayed at a Holiday Inn for the night and went for a scrumptious meal at T.G.I Friday's and had some drinks to celebrate the start of our trip.
We arrived in Caen on the afternoon of Saturday 9th and made our way (again all three of smooshed into the backseat invading one another's personal space to a whole new level) to the first holiday site called Camping De Leveno which is situated near Guerande. We arrived at roughly 7pm, unpacked our things and went for a meal at the site's restaurant; which did absolutely lovely pizzas. We then wound down for night as we were all exhausted from so much travelling.
The first full day of being in France we had a quiet day that consisted of playing bouls, getting some food shopping in and just generally relaxing. We also had a few drinks at the bar later on.
Over the next couple of days we explored some of the local areas including Guerande, Saint-Nazaire and Saint-Malo; all of which had beautiful scenery and great shopping facilities (perfect for me).
Guerande was a very small town with lots of independent shops, ranging from chocolatiers and bakeries to jewellery and clothes shops. It was very picturesque and beautiful and was a really nice day out.
Our trip to Saint-Nazaire was also really fun. We went for a sensational meal at a grill which called Grill Courtepaille which was insanely good; and again just checked out the local area, browsed the shops and generally explored.
I have some photos below of somewhere we visited which I unfortunately can't remember the name of, but nevertheless it was a really stunning place and I had such a good time.
After the first week was over it was time to make our way across to the new holiday site for the second week, which was situated more towards Normandy way. The site was called Chateau de Le Eaux and actually had a 5* star rating which I had no idea about, and it definitely showed because the quality of our stay was excellent.
Over the course of this second week we visited Saint-Malo which is a walled port city known for piracy in times gone by. The city had plenty of shops but there were also a lot of markets stalls (I'm a sucker for a good market) where there was beautiful handmade jewellery, bags, food, art and loads more. It was also my Mum's birthday the same day so we made sure to find the perfect place to eat in celebration called L'Ancrage.
And finally the last place we visited while in Normandy was Mont Saint-Michel which is a island commune. We climbed right to the top and also explored the interior of the beautiful building; and grabbed a yummy ham and cheese baguette too which was ridiculously tasty.
