An eco-friendly trip to Brittany
The hostess pushes a narrow trolley down the aisle, stops, then hands me a menu. On the reverse, the heading ‘Tread Lightly’ catches my eye and I read that the food I am about to eat is locally sourced or organic and that my journey is carbon neutral. No, I’m not on a plane but in first class on Eurostar, on the first leg of an eco-tour of eastern Brittany.
With 1,700 miles of coastline, Brittany is France’s fourth most popular tourist region, welcoming about 3 million visitors each year. The Ille-et-Vilaine department, the ‘gateway to Brittany’, is the country’s principal agricultural region and its second largest vegetable-growing area. How does it cope with the pressure on its natural resources and infrastructure?
In May 2008, Brittany adopted Agenda 21, the United Nations’ plan for sustainable development – one of the aims of which is to develop sustainable tourism. Along with some colleagues, I went to have a look at what the area is doing to make use of its assets while protecting them for future generations.
Once in Rennes, the Breton capital, our base for the next couple of nights was Hôtel Lecoq-Gadby, a four-star eco-hotel, restaurant and spa. Centred around a nineteenth-century maison bourgeoise, it recently opened 14 luxury suites in a new wooden building, the construction of which adhered to France’s environmental standard, HQE. Relaxing in the comfortable, stylish surroundings, it was refreshing to see that eco-tourism has shaken off its unwashed, lentil-eating image.
The following morning I wandered through Rennes’ compact old town, past the grand seventeenth-century façade of the former Breton Parliament. Place des Lices was deserted – on Saturdays it buzzes with one of France’s largest farmers’ markets.
A sign on a local Illenoo bus said ‘I run on Colza’. Since 2006, more than 100 of the company’s buses have been fuelled by biodiesel thanks to government funding. Public transport is generally very good in Brittany unless you want to get to some of the more rural sights or villages – and if that is the case, hire a car from a local firm and make sure that you have enough people to fill it!
Beauty treatments
At the tourist office I noticed an advert for a two-day City Pass. The benefits for €13 (£11) included 20 per cent off organic beauty treatments in Hôtel Lecoq- Gadby’s spa, 25 per cent off the rental of an electric boat for a self-guided trip on the River Vilaine or Ille-et-Rance canal and free admission to the childfriendly Pays de Rennes eco-museum.
After a delicious roast pork lunch at Léon Le Cochon, a restaurant that only uses the best quality locally sourced products, we headed 20 miles southwest, past orchards and cornfields, through hamlets filled with houses built from distinctive reddish-purple stone.
The legendary Brocéliande Forest, one-time home of Merlin the Magician and King Arthur (according to the French!), once covered most of Brittany but is now reduced to about 28 square miles around the attractive village of Paimpont.
At the turreted Château de Comper, base of the Arthurian Centre, we met up with a lady called Suzanne from a local environmental education organisation called CPIE, who gave us a booklet detailing a self-guided tour of their discovery trail. Starting at a 1,000-year-old oak tree in the nearby village of Concoret, we spotted the prints of wild boar and deer, followed a worn-down drovers’ road and learnt how the destruction of hedges has a detrimental effect on flora and fauna.
Early the following day, we headed north to Vivier-sur-Mer, a village on the sweeping Bay of St- Michel – a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. Subject to the highest tides in Europe – up to 15 metres’ difference between low and high water – the bay is best known for its mussel production or mytiliculture. Eighty different farmers, employing 300 workers, produce about 12,000 tonnes each year. In 2006, the mussels were awarded the prestigious AOC standard – the only seafood in France to have this honour – and their buttery taste lived up to their reputation as we discovered during lunch in Le Restaurant de la Mer.
At the Maison de la Baie, an education and information centre, we met our guide Yannick and headed out to meet the tide, past the sheep grazing on the marshland and the unique boat-shaped lorries of the mussel farmers; the iconic shape of Mont St Michel over the border in Normandy was a hazy mirage in the distance.
Yannick explained: ‘We do what we can to preserve the bay by educating the public in good practice. One of the biggest threats is that no permit is required for fishing and at low tide about 1,000 people a day come here to fish. Also, people like to fly over with microlight aircraft, which frightens the bird and seal colonies. To enjoy the bay properly, we recommend that visitors take one of our guided walks or go out in the little Mytilimobile train.
‘The farmers do their bit too. They’re all based in purpose-built units around the Maison to cut down on traffic and reduce encroachment on the marshland. There are only a few tracks out to the mussel beds and once the shellfish have been picked and sorted, the broken or non-saleable ones are scattered on them to strengthen them; this also provides food for the seabirds.’
Rural tourism
Tired and weather-beaten after our long walk, we made our way back inland. Soon, a rectangular white sign with a red border told us we’d arrived in the village of Chauvigné, where a herd of deer and some long-horned, long-haired, ginger cows indicated our stop for the night: La Maison Neuve. This working farm is a member of the Rando Accueil (‘walkers welcome’) and Accueil Paysan (‘host farmer’) networks, which have been set up to promote rural tourism.
Accommodation was in a gîte in a converted stable, where the exposed stone walls enhanced the rustic ambiance; the clean-but-basic TV-free rooms sleep up to five people and are geared towards ramblers. We ate dinner in front of the large, open, stone fire in the old barn: venison terrine, pork drenched in pommé (a kind of apple and cider compote) followed by chocolate tart – all washed down with some organic cider. You can buy the farm’s produce and that of other local producers in the on-site shop.
The sea and country air meant we slept well until the mooing of one of our new bovine friends woke us at 6am. After some bread and homemade jam, we said goodbye to the donkey, rabbits and potbellied pig in the pets’ corner and headed off for the day’s activity.
Each year the region recognises the businesses that have shown initiative and commitment to sustainable tourism.A recent winner was the outdoor activity centre in the nearby Couesnon Valley. The centre was applauded for its ‘green principles’: using captured rainwater to wash equipment, creating jobs for local people and running environmental awareness programmes. While it offered an exciting range of activities including orienteering, mountain biking, climbing, canoeing and archery, they only take bookings from groups of eight people or more so luckily we had a Plan B.
Voies vertes are maintained paths or trails for walkers, cyclists or horse riders, which run along tow paths, old railway lines or farm tracks. There are currently seven different routes covering more than 600 miles across Brittany. Route 2 links Rennes with St-Malo: setting off from Montreuil-sur-Ille, we headed north along the Ille-et-Rance canal. The golden leaves glowed in the autumn sun as their reflection shimmered in the dark water. Bargesturned- houseboats and lock-keepers’ cottages with geranium-filled window boxes lined the route.
In Bazouges-sous-Hédé we stopped to have a look at a small estate of wooden eco-houses, which is recognised as a model of green living and is also the base of a national magazine called La Maison Écologique. A short time later, our final destination appeared, the Maison du Canal, which retraces the history of the 200-year-old waterway and its fourmile stretch of 11 locks.
Invigorated, we continued our journey by car alongside the River Rance to the ‘pirate town’ of St- Malo. Near the mouth of the river, linking the left bank with the right, is a barrage: the world’s first tidepowered electricity generating system, which attracts more than 200,000 visitors each year. You can walk across – look out for the info panels – as well as drive.
Once arrived at the grey-walled citadel, we made our way through the Porte St-Vincent, past the château-museum with its fascinating exhibition of the town’s maritime history, down the narrow, cobbled streets crammed with clothes shops, cafés and bakeries, to a creperie called La Brigantine. Sitting in the cosy green and orange-hued dining room, it took a while to decide what filling to have in my organicflour galette: soubise (onions in cider) or andouille de Guémené (sausage made from a pig’s stomach)? I went for the Bigoudenne – ham, egg, cheese, mushrooms and crème fraîche.
After a brisk walk around the ramparts, taking in the expansive views over the ferry port, Dinard and the Emerald Coast, I stumbled across the perfect place to end my trip – La Boutique Sentimentale. There was neither tie-dye nor colourful South American weaves in this eco-shop but perfumed candles, beautiful hand-crafted jewellery, home furnishings in rich fabrics and even cashmere jumpers. No, you really don’t need to forego style or comfort to help the environment.