Nothing lifts the heart of the landlocked winter weary than the smell of briny seaweed and the sight of the deep blue ocean. Nothing rests the troubled soul more than an escape to a place where the pace of life is slow and innocent, and where you can experience another, less turbulent lifestyle. So as an antidote to winter and economic strife we offer you an early summer photo tour of Western France, including Finistère, the farthest west you can go in France before you fall into the Atlantic. For eleven days we will explore the most scenic, tranquil and quintessential parts of Western France including Western Brittany, the Brière region, the offshore island of the Ile de Re, and the medieval chateaux and sunflower landscapes of the western Loire Valley, stopping in Le Mans and Chartres on our way back to Paris.

Our tour will start in Brittany, in the ancient town of Quimper, where the TGV from Paris will set you down early afternoon. We will then drive to our first accommodation, a luxury Bed and Breakfast south of Quimper where we will check-in, drop our bags and then venture forth to explore the nearby delights of the Breton coast.

Brittany is the rocky arm of France that juts far westward into the sea just "under" the southern coast of England. It is a misty and magical place, washed by the English Channel on the north and the Atlantic Ocean along the rest of its jagged coastline. It sits at the same latitude as Newfoundland, though with a much milder climate, and summer evenings stay light until 10 or 10:30 pm. With hints of Cape Cod, Maine and Prince Edward Island, Brittany offers a quintessential briny vibe of stony fishing villages, stunning beaches, rocky headlands, rolling farmland and cool dark forests. It is a land of prehistoric mysteries, with a rowdy seafaring past and an independent Celtic heritage. At the far west of Brittany is the department of Finistère, literally the "end of the earth" - an isolated, ocean-swept region where Breton culture is at its strongest.

The red haired fiery Celts, arrived on the peninsula in the 5th century BC and refused to disappear in spite of the Roman occupation of France, then know as Gaul. Their culture, legends and megaliths endure. They divided Brittany (or Armorique, as they called it) into two parts: Armor was the land near the sea, and Argoat the forested interior. While the interior (the legendary Arthurian land of the Holy Grail and the site of Merlin's mysterious forest of Brocéliande) is enticing, nowhere in Brittany is the scenery as evocative as along its coastline: a series of shipwrecked cliffs, sandy beaches, seabird rookeries, remote islands, sea-battered lighthouses, and tiny fishing villages. Here in Finistère Breton culture flourishes the strongest and can be found in the music, with bagpipes, bombarde, accordion and Celtic harp as well as the colorful pottery of Quimper. Far from the crowded and better-known Mediterranean coast, Brittany offers a cooler, less glittery "fishing village experience" to jaded Parisians and foreign tourists alike.

We will be staying for four nights at our bed and breakfast near Quimper, driving out each day to explore the oyster beds, the fishing villages and the rugged towns and villages of Finistère where we will find side streets lined with stone cottages accented by royal blue shutters, bright window boxes of red geraniums, and gardens exploding with multicolored hydrangeas. In the seaside villages huge tides wash in and out leaving fleets of fishing boats seemingly bobbing one minute and stranded on the sand the next. Quimper is an ancient town with half-timbered buildings and open squares filled with cafes, giving us ample opportunities for people photography. Our itinerary will include the fishing villages of Douarnenez; Concarneau with its fortified old town dating from 1491; and Ile Tudy, a charming tiny village with alleys lined with pure white fisherman's cottages with the requisite blue shutters, as well as the other less well known places that we always find on our tours. We will also visit Pont Aven, the living canvas that inspired Paul Gaugin and is synonymous with the post-Impressionist school of French painting that formed around him before he left for Tahiti,

The deepest mysteries of Brittany lie to the south, where the inhabitants mounted thousands of prehistoric megaliths known as menhirs into odd alignments, dating from before 4,000 B.C. The purpose of these monuments is unknown, presumed by many to be of some religious significance. Remnants of ancient burial mounds are scattered around the countryside. On our way back from Brittany to our next stop, we will visit the famous standing stones of Carnac, the world's largest assemblage of prehistoric stone monuments. Although Stonehenge may be better known to the English-speaking world, Carnac is the mother of all megalithic sites: over 10,000 stones erected in labyrinthine rows subdivide its rolling maritime countryside, marching forth over an area of nearly five square miles from its highly concentrated epicenter. Artificial mounds hide impossibly ancient tombs; tables fit for giants materialize in tranquil glades. Overall hangs an air of brooding enchantment that has spawned the Arthurian myths, fantasias of white-bearded Druids, and New Age astrological speculations. Not terribly photogenic, but a rare chance to touch the neolithic world.

Leaving the far west behind we will stop for two nights in the Brière National Park where we will find a softer, sweeter landscape. The Brière is a fascinating, constantly changing half aquatic, half terrestrial milieu that is protected by its National Park status. Its labyrinth of marshes and tiny islands, ponds and canals teems with an exceptional fauna and flora and is a wintering site and breeding ground for water fowl. Its hamlets are famous for their thatched cottages and roses round-the-door charm. There are over 3,000 thatched cottages in this tiny region, the highest density of all of France, the reeds for the thatch being harvested in the marshes nearby. The main product of the region now is the famous Geurande natural sea salt, and many of the villages consist of tiny salt workers cottages.

After exploring this unique region we will continue our journey in a southerly direction and cross the bridge to the Ile de Ré, a very special place that belongs to another era - “….the kind of place that makes you want to buy a 2CV, learn to play boules and never again drink anything but wine…..”

One of the places mentioned in Patricia Schultz’s book “1,000 Places to See Before You Die”, the Ile de Ré is a small but perfectly formed island, moored happily, like a great ship, in the Atlantic Ocean, 3 kms off the west coast of France. It is tied to the French mainland by a bridge (built in 1988) which means that you can drive to it, even though the most frequently used vehicle on the island is the bicycle. Since the bridge was built the island has become a hip getaway for mainlanders to spend weekends or those long summer vacations France is famous for. It is a lovely place - France’s Nantucket - and John Reed, former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, (who is rich enough to choose anywhere in the world to spend six months of his year,) has a house there, so you know it must be good.

The Ile de Ré is a special French resort and one of my favorite places in all of France. This will be our fourth visit ... I cannot get enough of it. Located in the Charente-Maritime, off the mid-Atlantic coast, it is famous among the French, but little known by Americans and other foreigners. The island is just 30 kms long by 5 kms wide and has 10 pretty, uncomplicated flowery villages, 2600 hours of sunshine a year (similar to the Riviera) and consists of undulating sandy beaches, oyster farms, a bird sanctuary, lighthouses, picturesque ports, a medieval ruin or two and 50 miles of bicycle paths. These paths wind their way from one village to another through scented pine forests, cognac vineyards, spinneys of fig trees, and fields of sunflowers, vegetables and sea salt! The well-muscled members of the spandex set are found here and there but it is more common to see whole families cycling together dressed in blue striped T-shirts, with little kids pedaling furiously at the rear, a tiny dog peeking out from the leeks and flowers stuffed into a swaying wicker basket. What is special about this place, is what the island doesn’t have. It has no billboards, no highways, no chain restaurants and no tall hotels. Because of strict planning regulations the tallest buildings on the island are lighthouses and church steeples. You definitely feel like you’ve arrived in a simpler more authentic environment far out west into the salty Atlantic.

The villages are for the most part traditional fishing villages, very charming and genteelly dilapidated in that sun-bleached, paint-peeling, battered-green-shuttered way that, in France, somehow manages to look coffee-table-book stylish rather than rundown. Its narrow lanes are lined with low whitewashed cottages, their lace curtains shuttered in every shade of green, blue and sometimes lavender. In June, when we will be there, tall hollyhocks will burst through the cobbles and splash color against the crumbling whitewashed walls, and bicycles lean against every wall - as every one of the 16,500 permanent residents has one.

The Ile de Ré is a photographer's paradise straight out of The World of Interiors - and Paris Match. This is where Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis holiday, along with those Parisians who feel that St Tropez has become a little vulgar. And French holidaymakers, of course, look anything but shabby. Their effortless uniform of stripy Breton jumpers, rust-red jeans or shorts and yellow windbreakers is pure sailor chic, making for great people shots. Life on the Ile de Ré is an exercise in studied nonchalance but behind the scuffed façades there are gourmet bistros, interiors shops and designer boutiques.

Most of the villages have outdoor food markets which are a special treat. There is an excellent selection of local restaurants and stores. The sea, of course, is a main attraction. The north side of the island has picturesque harbors with lighthouses to match. The east side has pine forests leading to broad sandy beaches.

We will be staying two nights here in a hotel in La Couarde Sur Mer, a typical island village, with narrow, winding streets, and seemingly secret passages leading to flower filled squares with cafes and shops. While we are on the Ile de Ré the" Fete de la Musique" will take place, an annual event where musicians of every kind come out of the woodwork and play on every street corner and in every cafe. It is a magical festival with more chances for people photography.

Tearing ourselves reluctantly away from the Ile de Ré we will make our way to the western edge of the Loire Valley to Fontevraud l'Abbaye, a pretty little golden stone village where lives Phillipe, our large group driver and great friend. He runs a beautiful bed and breakfast called Aux Tournesols (the Sunflowers) which shares a wall with the Abbey where Richard the Lionhearted and his mother Eleanor d'Aquitaine are buried. We will spend two nights chez Phillipe driving out to explore the riches of this wonderful region.

The Loire is a scenic valley of picture-perfect turrets and the quintessence of Romantic France. It is the France of tapestries, the hunt of the Sun King, the Royal Chateaux, of poets, poison and intrigue. It is the France of wine, of flowers, of the soft life - "la douceur de vie". The bucolic charms of the countryside are matched by the sophistication of the towns which provide a wealth of architectural gems from the medieval, Gothic and Renaissance periods. Churches, abbeys, town houses, manor houses, cottages, castles and palaces are found everywhere, each with its own visual charm. Outside of the towns and beyond the chateaux the hidden treasures of the Loire Valley are numerous: tiny hamlets, enchanted gardens, quiet country lanes, woodlands full of wildlife and birdsong, landscapes of striped vineyards, sunflower fields, pastures and wheat fields. In late June there will be geraniums decorating every window and, if the weather cooperates, fields of sunflowers!! Late June is NOT a good time to visit the chateaux which will be full of visitors from opening to closing. We will concentrate on the other aspects of the Western Loire Valley... the villages, the sunflower landscapes and the people, leaving visits to the chateaux as an open option.

Taking our leave we will return eastwards to Paris taking breaks in two of Western France's most important and historically influential towns: Le Mans and Chartres.

Le Mans is world famous for its 24 hours Grand Prix which will have finished long before we get there. Less famous but no less exciting is the well preserved old town of Le Mans which was remarkably saved from World War 2 bombardments and the subsequent property speculation that destroyed the authenticity of a lot of European towns. During the last decades the old town has been cleaned up and re-christened the "Plantagenet City", because it is the birthplace of several Plantagenet kings. It is a labyrinth of winding alleyways, cobbled streets and half-timbered houses which are full of character, both inside and out, and provided the backdrop for Gérard Depardieu in Cyrano de Bergerac (1989). Other films shot here include "The Man in the Iron Mask" and "The Three Musketeers". Unlike the medieval quarters of most towns and cities in France that of Le Mans is completely separate to the modern day town. It lies high above the town and is almost spookily quiet after the noise of the thriving city below.

Chartres is an important market town built on the left bank of the Eure river, in the flat and fertile wheat fields of the Beauce plain. It is a picturesque town with one of the most complete and majestic of France's great Gothic cathedrals, Notre Dame de Chartres. Dating from 1205, the cathedral's historical and cultural importance is recognized by its inclusion on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites. Around it the streets and alleys of the old town are lined with timber and stone houses that have sharply sloping roofs. Steep narrow passageways called tertres lead down to the river Eure where there are over a dozen tiny stone bridges. We will visit the old town and cathedral, and take a walk along the river to stretch our legs before driving to Paris Charles de Gaulle for our last night before leaving.

to sign up for this tour click here

For more information click here