Brittany

[Polite]

A change of plan will see me spending a couple of weeks there in August. I've never had a problem finding a campsite for me and my steed before, I've cycled in France frequently in this period but never in Brittany, so I wondered whether Brittany (popular, I know) will turn out to be a horror story on the accommodation front or if I'll be ok? Thanks.

[simonineaston]

Short Answer: It will not be a horror story. Brittany is stuffed full of le camping.
http://www.camping-municipal.org/bretag ... icipal.htm
Others will be along in a mo' to give you more reassurance, as Bretange is a favourite destination for many on this forum.

[Polite]

Thanks, that's what I needed.

This site is a refreshing change to the doom and gloom of, no name, another site I use(d).

[andrew_s]

August is the main French holiday period, so you may find that sites right on the coast are very busy or full.
A cycle camper will always get squeezed in somewhere, but sites a mile or more away from the coast may be more pleasant

[simonineaston]

the doom and gloom

You are welcome, Polite!
Can't speak for the other contributors, but boy can I do D&G on occasion!
My current bête noir is poor old Brooks...

[bretonbikes]

Generally you'll be very unlucky to refused a space on a campsite in Brittany at any time - we don't pre-book campsites for our customers (even in August) because otherwise they'd lose the flexxibility of changing their minds mid stream (which is where the camping option scores so highly over hotels) - and in the last 20 years not one camper has been refused a place at a site. But at the coast it will be busy - inland campsites will be half-full in most cases.

If you need advice just let me know - this may make a starting point from Roscoff - http://www.bretonbikes.com/generalartic ... route.html - and you must carry the 'Le Guide Official Camping Caravanning' as it lists all campsites and has them located on a map so essential reading - available in most 'press' shops;-)

[Polite]

Thanks for this, really helpful.

I'm thinking of cycling;

1. St Malo to Roscoff
2. Roscoff to La Rochelle
3. La Rochelle to Caen

I think there may even be a designated route for the last leg?

I'm taking a couple of good old fashioned maps with me and hoping the tourist offices might be able to help when I get there.

What do you think?

[simonineaston]

If you've not toured in Brittany before, I'd recommend looking at the very excellent and straight-forward to use cycle.travel to plan the routes and then marking the route on your spanky new paper maps, although to cover that itinerary, you'll need 5 or 6 of the Top 100 series! Here's a sample of the route cycle.travel chooses to get from St Malo to Roscoff... going via Loudeac (1) and Carhaix (2). I've broken it into 3 legs, just to demonstrate how it looks on the resulting map although the stops may not suit you. I don't know exactly how cycle.travel works, but I do know it's designed to be cyclist-friendly - something to do with the the metadata of the various routes and terrain. Gets good press here, anyway! You'll probably know that there are other route planning tools online.

cycle.travel sample

[Polite]

Many thanks for this.