Vannes - a hidden jewel in the northwest of France

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Bordeaux to Roscoff in one go was a bit more than we like to do, so we decided to stop along the way. The original plan had been to see what Nantes had to offer, but rather than go to another big city, we looked at the map and found the town of Vannes just a little bit further up the route. What a good decision that turned out to be, although when we arrived we could barely see a few yards in front of us thanks to the mist and the heavy drizzle. We did manage to find our hotel. This time we were in a B&B Hotel, a step up from the F1 we used in Bordeaux, but still a budget hotel. The main difference is that the bathrooms are en-suite and the rooms are accessed from an external balcony rather than an internal corridor. They are quite a bit more comfortable too.

Following a rest after the drive, we headed into town but the weather was awful. We decided to pay to park by the marina and hope we could find a nearby restaurant to avoid a good soaking. The rain eased off allowing us to at least consider our options under our umbrellas. In the end we went for La Gambetta simply because its menu looked reasonable and there were quite a few tourists inside. It turned out to be an excellent choice. The chocolate fondue dessert was to die for taking the spotlight off the excellent steak! At first glance Vannes looked a great place but the weather stopped us from having a look around so we vowed to come back in the morning and kept our fingers crossed.

We awoke to a shocking sight - sunshine and blue skies!! We were definitely right to hang around as Vannes turned out to be a fantastic place. Again we paid to park by the marina but this time the car was full and we wanted the extra security. Walking around the marina in the sunshine was an absolute pleasure. Next we delighted in a wander along the town's medieval ramparts. The town centre has a bit of an olde worlde feel to it and we loved it, narrow cobbled streets with fabulous architecture. There are modern buildings around too, but they are mostly governmental. It was a real shame we couldn't have stayed longer but a ferry to the UK was waiting for us so we had to be on our way.

On our way back to the car though, we were somewhat delayed by an excellent choir clad entirely in white. They were so good we had to stop and listen for a while. The table full of glasses of wine looked pretty good too, and we sincerely hope that nobody spilt any down their impeccably white uniforms!!

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Photos

Afghan Cafe
Oh to have eaten there!

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Fantastic just fantastic
So many amazing places in the world. Thanks for sharing