Holidays in Brittany

Go on holiday to Brittany and rest, relax, recharge your batteries, spend time with your children and friends, have fun, eat and drink well, swim, read a good book, play sports, see and discover things. Brittany and the Château du Grand Val can provide you all this and a lot more.

Brittany – wild, exciting and beautiful

Brittany is considered by many to be the most beautiful and exciting part of France for many reasons. And it is no coincidence that French Romanticism started right here.

Around the Château du Grand Val you will find the best food, world-class seafood, miles of beaches, steep cliffs, picturesque villages and medieval towns.

Between these experiences you will find peace and harmony. Lie by the pool, read a good book, stroll in the park or maybe take a morning walk on the trails in our beautiful chestnut forest – “The five senses walk”.

As early as February, daffodils, camellias, magnolias and other things are blooming in the chateau’s park, for people who want to embrace spring. In less than 40 minutes you can reach some of the major sights in Brittany: Sant-Malo, Cancale, Dinan, Dinard, Le-Mont-Saint-Michel and also seven golf courses, amusement park, an aquatic park, zoo etc.

Holidays in Brittany

Activities

Food & Drink

Close to what you need to see

Grand Val and Combourg village are only 30km from Rennes and its population of 200,000, Bretons. 30km in the other direction is the sea and the seaside town of Dinard with some of Brittany’s finest beaches. Just up the coast is St Malo, which is a beautiful walled city.

You can take the ferry from here to the Channel Islands. Cancale is also nearby, where shellfish-lovers from around the world come to visit the oyster beds and enjoy all the delights of the sea at some of the picturesque seaside restaurants. Other sights close to Grand Val include the abbey and former pirate hideaway Mont St Michel, plus the villages of Dinan and Vitre – both with surviving buildings in the centre dating back to the 14^thcentury.

Apart from good food, excellent wines, culture and swimming, there are seven great golf courses. The closest is Golf des Ormes and Golf de St Malo/Le Tronchet, which are just 15 minutes by car from the chateau.

The history of Brittany, the cradle of Europe

At Grand Val you stay in the middle of the stories of King Arthur, Merlin and the Knights of the Round Table. Here you can feel the wings of history from Celts and Vikings. Add to that the difference of 15 meters between the ebb and flow tides on the Atlantic’s coast, and perhaps the world’s finest seafood such as oysters, lobster, scallops. To be enjoyed with a bottle of well-chilled Muscadet.

If you are thinking of coming to this French province, it’s almost a requirement to know a bit about its fantastic history as it makes the experience so much bigger and more fun.

In Carnac you can find settlements from the Stone Age that are at least 4,000 years old. In Brittany, Julius Caesar trod in the footsteps of Celts and Gauls.

It was not until 1532 that the Duchy of Brittany was incorporated into France through union, but that agreement included that it was allowed to have its own government with taxes and laws, which remained the case until the French Revolution of 1789.

In some parts of Brittany, Breton is still spoken and written. Road signs are also bilingual.

More info on Wikipedia

More tips of places to discover

The Bayeux tapestry in Bayeux, Normandy
Rent one or more small boats with outboard motors in the port of Dinan. Cruise up or down the River Rance which divides Brittany. Pack a picnic. Tranquil, fun and beautiful.
Discover very high and low tides! Sit at one of the restaurants in the fishing village of Cancale and watch 10-15m of water disappear before your eyes twice a day. The only place in the world with a bigger difference in tides is the Bay of Fundy in Canada.
Shopping in Rennes, the capital of Brittany. It’s a lively university town with France’s best, largest food market every Saturday

Combourg Castle shares its name with our village. Built in the 12^th century as protection against Vikings and others. Best known for where the famous French writer François-René de Chateaubriand grew up at the end of the 18^th century.
Grand Val is set in 65 acres of countryside, with lots of beautiful country walks and a romantic park.
The Normandy landing sites are only 150 km away and Omaha Beach and the US war graves are unforgettable places to visit.

To find out more about the area and events around Château du Grand Val, visit Brittany’s own website: www.tourismebretagne.com and www.normandybattlefields.com