Northern Brittany by van, 5 days from Asti

Five days in the van from Asti to the north coast of Brittany, between the Côte d'Émeraude and the Côte de Granit Rose. Two whole days go on motorways, out and back, which leaves three on the coast: fortresses, tides, cliffs and pink rocks. The van is compact, like a car, and has no trouble with the low branches of the campsite pine woods.

Day 1, Asti to Fougères

About 1,050 km and 10 hours 30 minutes of driving, all motorway: the A21 and A32, the Fréjus tunnel, then Chambéry, Lyon, Bourges and Le Mans. We reach Fougères in the late afternoon and walk around the outside of the castle, with eleven towers still standing and a moat fed by the river Nançon. From the public gardens the whole medieval town shows at sunset. Dinner is buckwheat galettes and a jug of cider, served in ceramic bolées.

We sleep at the Camping Municipal, with wide grassy pitches, water fill and waste, a washing machine and Wi-Fi at reception. The barrier stays closed from 22:00 to 07:00.

Day 2, Cancale and Saint-Malo

About 80 km and 1 hour 30 minutes of driving. From Fougères we go to Cancale, and from there to Saint-Malo along the D201, which follows the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel. At Cancale we stroll along the Houle harbour, walk up to the Pointe du Grouin and buy a dozen oysters at the market on the quay, to eat on the sea wall. In the afternoon, in Saint-Malo, we walk the ramparts of the Ville Close. At low tide, checking the times carefully, you can walk out to the islets of Grand Bé and Petit Bé, or to Fort National.

We sleep at the Les Ilots equipped area in Rothéneuf: open all year, no booking, a hundred metres from the beach, with electricity, water fill and waste, laundry and Wi-Fi, and no height limit.

Day 3, Dinan, Cap Fréhel and Erquy

About 95 km and 2 hours of driving. We leave Saint-Malo on the D168, over the dam of the Rance tidal power station, running since 1966. The lifting bridge goes up every hour for about fifteen minutes and stops the road; the car park beside the dam is for daytime only, and from 1 April to 30 September staying there from 22:00 to 08:00 is forbidden. Then the D12 to Dinan, with its cobbled streets and half-timbered houses: we walk down the Rue de Jerzual to the harbour. In the afternoon, the pink sandstone cliffs of Cap Fréhel, 70 metres high, and an hour on the GR34 path to Fort La Latte, a fourteenth-century castle on a spur of rock. If we pass a pastry shop, a kouign-amann.

We sleep at the Le Guen area in Erquy, with 60 pitches in a pine wood, 700 metres from the beach and twenty minutes on foot from the village, with water fill and waste. The electricity had been out for some time: to check before leaving.

Day 4, Plougrescant and Perros-Guirec

About 135 km and 2 hours 15 minutes of driving, on secondary coastal roads. We follow the bay of Saint-Brieuc to Lannion and turn toward the Plougrescant peninsula, where the Maison du Gouffre stands, a house built between two huge granite spurs. In the afternoon, at Ploumanac'h, the Customs Officers' Path (GR34) among the pinkish granite, up to the Men Ruz lighthouse, built of pink granite. In the evening, moules-frites in a brasserie on the harbour.

We sleep at West Camping in Ploumanac'h, three hundred metres from the harbour, in a pine wood that shelters from the wind, with grass pitches, electricity, showers and a water fill and waste area.

Day 5, the way back

About 1,150 km and 11 hours 30 minutes of driving. From Perros-Guirec we go down to Guingamp and take the N12 to Rennes, then motorway via Le Mans, Tours, Bourges, Moulins, Lyon and Chambéry, and the Fréjus tunnel to Asti. Halfway, a short stop at Digoin for the Pont-Canal, a stone bridge that carries the canal over the Loire. Lunch is whatever we bought in the previous days, Pont-Aven galettes and palets bretons.

Good to know

The season is spring or summer. We are looking for travel companions willing to split the actual costs, in a van or another compact vehicle. The van stays within two metres in height and 3.5 tonnes. You need stamina at the wheel, because days 1 and 5 are over 10 hours each, and an eye on the tide tables.

In Brittany, wild camping on the coast is forbidden in many municipalities. At Plougrescant, for example, small vehicles may spend the night only in the stadium car park behind the church of Saint Gonéry; elsewhere, motorhomes may park by day, from 09:00 to 22:00. Opening times and parking rules need checking before leaving.