Our first ‘real’ Breton destination (sorry Rennes) was Jugon-les-Lacs, a typically beautiful and charming small town some 70kms outside of Rennes.

  

Leaving Rennes proved to be a bit more complicated than expected – it was raining and the car rental office that was supposed to be just down the road from us had a notice to say they’d relocated and then had a map that made very little sense.

 

So after walking around in the rain (and dragging our luggage) for like half an hour and having no luck asking the locals for directions we returned and studied the map more carefully. Finally we cracked what felt like the damn da Vinci Code and figured out all we needed to do was cross the train tracks which were literally on the other side of the road.

Drenched, out of breath and pretty pissed off we arrived at the shared temporary offices of 3 car rental companies and headed for the Sixt counter. They didn’t have anything in our pre-booked entry-level class so we got a great upgrade to a Clio (the vast majority of cars we saw on the roads were French, it was great) which we were told was a diesel. We then got the keys and instructions to go to the car park across the road (another adventure) and find the car.

When we found it we did a quick inspection of it and discovered the fuel cap had a sticker on it saying ‘petrol’. Torn between trusting authority or the car itself we panicked and flagged down a passing Sixt employee parking another car. He assured us that the man at the counter was wrong and that the car needed unleaded petrol.

By this point I was quite flustered and both keen to get driving and terrified of escaping the parking lot. It took me a good few minutes to calm myself enough to start the car and get to grips with the alien feeling of driving on the other side of the car and the road. I think I only managed to change gears without hitting my left elbow against the window on the third day or so.

The whole process felt needlessly complicated but it ultimately turned out fine, and I would rent from Sixt Rennes again.

Driving on the highway was quite terrifying at first, though the speed limits we encountered were slower than in SA – 110km at the fastest, most of the smaller roads we were on were 70km and then 50km approaching and in villages and 30km at the village centres/around the churches.

Because of these constant variations (the little villages come thick and fast) our travel times were way slower than Google Maps originally had me believe. So traveling 80km or so could take up to 3 hours.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Our first drive was a simple one – straight line to Jugon-les-Lacs.  I was delighted to arrive and was properly shaking head to toe from the stress and concentration of driving. We stayed at a great Airbnb which was conveniently right at the entrance/exit to the town.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Jugon is a beautiful and very relaxed town. We walked around the town centre, the lake and the church. It was the only church we encountered on our trip that was locked, but the key was available at the tourist office just a short walk back next to the mairie in the central town square.

Our first Breton church: Eglise Notre-Dame et Saint-Etienne. Not as grand or as old as some we would come to see but still lovely. It had been damaged in a recent storm which was possibly why it was locked up (I can’t remember).

  

  

  

  

We made our way onto the local Supermarket (a Carrefour express) and once the ‘ooh look at all the French things’ tourist giggles had passed we bought some pain et fromage and headed back to our bnb to picnic in the garden.

  

At the tourist office we picked up some programmes for the Paimpol Festival that we’d be attending on Saturday. One of those many great co-incidences and stars-aligning-moments that came to define much of our trip was that one of the headlining bands was SA’s own BCUC and they’d used a photo of mine as their promo pic in the festival programme which, was so cool.

We headed back out for some further exploration later in the afternoon. One of the disorientating thing about summer in Europe is the extended daylight – back home the sun sets at like 8pm at the height of summer, but during our stay in Brittany it was setting at around 9:30/10pm…which was great, but very confusing when you’re wandering around assuming it’s 6pm but it’s actually 9pm.

  

  

The ‘lac’ is super impressive and very beautiful. We only walked a short way around it but would have definitely explored its shores a lot more if we’d stayed longer in town.

  

  

  

August is truly a beautiful time of year in Brittany – everywhere we went there were so many beautiful flowers decorating the streets.

  

    

  

We continued along down the road (yes there was just the one) past the church to the outskirts of town in search of the old viaduct. It was so overgrown we almost missed it but then spotted it bordering a forested area.

  

  

  

  

  

  

Jugon-les-Lacs was the perfect start on our roadtrip and a place I’d highly recommend for peace, quiet and natural beauty.

– – –

BZH 2017: Intro  |  Pt 1  |  Pt 2  |  Pt 3  |  Pt 4  |  Paimpol 2017 – Festival du Chant de Marin 
Pt 5  |  Pt 6  |  Pt 7  |  Pt 8  |  Pt 9 |  Pt 10  | Pt 11  |  Pt 12  |  Saint-Malo: La Route du Rock Festival
Pt 13  |  Pt 14  |  Pt 15  |  pt 16  |  Pt 17  |  Pt 18

If you travel and you don’t use Booking.com you really should it’s the best! I’m not 100% sure how the referral codes work but try mine if you haven’t used one before for a discount after your first trip: https://www.booking.com/s/35_6/rattsi32