I’m back with the second post in my series about Saint-Pabu, my handy Bretagne base for a couple of weeks at the onset of spring.
Blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Saint-Pabu is a 20 minute drive north of Brest. As for other Bretagne towns of relative size, Morlaix is about an hour away, Quimper is roughly an hour and a half, and St-Malo is just over two. Wherever you’re headed in Brittany, your trip is bound to be scenic as I spied during my jaunts round its wild coastal region of Finistère. One such panoramic route was the hour-long drive from Roscoff to Saint-Pabu.
Kemey and I had taken the Brittany Ferries overnight service from Plymouth to Roscoff, leaving at 10pm and arriving at 8am. We enjoyed the night in a cosy cabin with a porthole, watching TV, doing a spot of work (there was strong WiFi throughout the cruise) and not much else. I slept like a baby, woke up refreshed and ready for some French fun.
As with driving around Brittany, the ferry passage was scenic too – though just in the early morning as we sailed into Roscoff.
I’d sailed with Brittany Ferries once before, but this was my first time to book a cabin. It’s pretty much on par with whatever you’d expect when booking a hotel room: privacy and security, a comfy bed, warm shower with impressively strong water pressure, towels, television.
If you’ve never travelled by ferry, I recommend it. It’s an affordable option and the best for getting to many parts of Europe with your car or with a pet. There’s entertainment on board, better food than you might imagine and opportunity to get a breath of fresh air on the open sea just with the lilting of the ferry passing through the sea at night as you sleep.
I’m keen to sail with Brittany Ferries again and would be interested in checking out its other routes. The company sails out of Portsmouth, Poole and Plymouth to five destinations in Normandy and Brittany with ports of call in Spain as well. You can travel overnight by luxury cruise-ferry in the comfort of your own cabin with ensuite facilities or be whisked across the channel in as little as three hours on the summer fast-ferry from Portsmouth to Cherbourg.
For the Plymouth to Roscoff return that Kemey and I took, fares start at £225 for two passengers with a car. Brittany Ferries also offers cheap day trips to France from only £24 per person plus a wide range of moneysaving ferry and sail-and-stay offers. Find out more about Brittany Ferries at ferries.co.uk.offers or call 0330 159 7000.
Stay tuned for more posts coming soon from Saint-Pabu. A bientôt!
