Sailing in Brittany

10 July 2024 – Île de Glenans, France

Brittany is a beautiful if somewhat difficult area to sail in and we have been taking our time heading up the coast. We also met up with our friends from the boat Miss Jig, whom we sailed with in Brittany last summer as well.

I thought my favourite place in France was La Roche Bernard, but the very next place we sailed to gave it a run for its money. Île d’Arz is up a river and quite rural, with few cars and houses.

There is a beautiful walk along the coast which we did at sunset.

The next morning, the local farm had a stall set up in the village from which we bought lots of cheeses and homemade ice cream. Unfortunately it has no bakery so the next morning we took the dinghy to the nearby town of Île de Moine to get baguettes.

There is so much tide here that while we were hanging out on the beach waiting for Jonas to get the dinghy ready, Sirius lay down in the sand and nearly got stranded as the tide came up and left him on an island with his tail in the sea.

This was the place where we discovered that there was a mouse on board when my dad saw it scurry back into the bilge. It must have climbed in when we were docked in La Roche Bernard. After calling the little corner store in Île d’Arz and being told that they didn’t have any mousetraps, we took the dinghy back to the slightly larger Île de Moine and were successful. The mouse was caught the following night with no harm done.

We then sailed to Île d’Houat, another sleepy French village. While waiting in line in the small grocery store, we ran into other sailors whom we had met in arctic Norway back in 2022. I also saw the cutest and baggiest basset hound whose ears were so long they had calluses from dragging on the ground. Jonas spent almost all day wing foiling.

Belle Île was the next place we visited, and it definitely lives up to its name. When we were there last August, we took Festina Lente into the old harbour, but this time around we anchored on the other side of the island because the opening times of the harbour’s tide gate didn’t align with our schedule. We didn’t mind since there is a beautiful hike from the beach into town.

While the rest of my family went shopping, I spent my time at a bookshop café. It is located in an old stone building, containing an old-fashioned kitchen and filled with used books. I had a lovely time sitting in the garden drinking tea.

In Le Belon, we met up with Miss Jig and made plans to cruise in Brittany together. We also walked to the nearest bakery forty-five minutes away to refuel on croissants.

We are currently in Île de Glenans, home to a sailing school and sand dunes and little else. It is a bit tight in the anchorage because of all the sailing school boats moored here but we managed to squeeze in. The island is beautiful but unfortunately it has been raining for the past few days so I have mostly been enjoying the view out of the window.

Anchoring the dinghy – Île de Glenans, France

Jonas put out his net and caught five sea bass.

One afternoon a massive dolphin came into the anchorage and hung around Festina Lente. I think it was having a relaxing time because it was moving super slowly and playing at the bow, and luckily Sirius was distracted down below and didn’t start shrieking at it.

Isles of Scilly

Back in France!

Festina Lente