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We recently spent 2 nights in Redon with Kids and this is what we got up to.

Redon is not far from Josselin where we started our tour around Brittany and spent 24 hours earlier in the week. Redon is a bigger town than Josseling, or certainly feels that way, and there is a lot more water.  Water is everywhere: to the left, the Vilaine river and the old quays; to the right the Nantes-Brest canal that crosses the river.  We managed to spend a little less time than we would have liked on the water but more about that later.

On the evening we arrived into Redon we spent the early part of the evening in St Just, not far up the road, on a tour of the Maison de la Nature et des Mégalithes. You can read my full review of the tour here, but we actually had a really lovely time despite the girls tiredness and the heat, due to the excellent story telling ability of Emanuel our guide.

We left the Maison de la Nature et des Mégalithes around 6.30pm so it was with great delight that we arrived at Gîte de la Riaudaie our final accommodation for the week, to find a truly beautiful and welcoming place to stay.  The photos (ours) and the ones on their website really don’t do this place justice at all.

The couple who run the Gite live in the Gite too and you can either stay as what we would regard as bed and breakfast guests, or stay in one of the two self catering gites like another English family were doing whilst we stayed there.  The while property is set in a lovely sized plot where the kids can roam free. It has a covered heated swimming pool, so no worries about them falling in, a trampoline, swings and a hammock. Despite being starving hungry the girls played out in the garden happily until 8pm with three other children and within minutes were best of friends like only 5/6 years olds can be.

We had been booked in for Dinner at Gîte de la Riaudaie at 8pm and like our evening in Josselin I was a little worried that the kids might not eat what was served as I knew it wouldn’t be a choice of food, just a home cooked dinner. I needn’t have worried. Whilst the girls weren’t overly enthusiastic about eating the delicious home cooked chicken casserole and cous cous they were served.  Our host was very understanding of the childrens likes and dislikes and this is a dish they eat at home and are encouraged to eat as it has lots of vegetables in.  The fresh salad we ate as a starter was also wonderful and included lots of ingredients from their own garden.  Free flowing wine and the pre dinner local Cider was an additional pleasure.

We arranged with the owner to have breakfast at 8pm the next day as we were intending to spend a day cycling along the Nantes-Brest canal toIle aux Pies before canoeing and then cycling back.  Breakfast was home cooked, served with a smile and simply kept coming.  My terrible french even managed to secure the girls some boiled eggs and we even agreed on how long to cook them for.

So after breakfast we set off to collect our bikes at the Repaire des Aventuriers a little hut near the beginning of the cycle trail.  We were advised that it would take around 1 hour or possibly more to cycle the 9km to Ile aux Pies, but as my little Minitravellers had only learnt to ride their bikes at the beginning of the Summer holidays we thought it might take closer to 2 hours with stops.

So off we set, the girls with a little trepidation that they may cycle into the river as their cycling isn’t exactly what you would call straight yet.  The weather had decided to swiftly change from heatwave to rain, so we donned rain jackets and hoodies too.

Unfortunately about 4 km down the canal my bike chain broke and the wheel wouldn’t turn.  Hubby gallantly gave up his bike to me and said he would carry it back telling us to go on and he would drive to the end to meet us.  About 6km in it started to rain, the girls started to wonder if we were nearly there and I got a little cold feet about carrying on regardless without hubby, so we turned back.

Thank goodness we did.  As we cycled back into Redon the heavens opened and I mean opened. Canoeing was not going to be possible, and certainly not fun with three under 6’s.  So we needed a back up plan.

Sadly for us, although not the girls, we ended up spending the afternoon at the swimming pool in Redon and then the swimming pool back at the Gite.

Whilst this wasn’t what we had intended the girls had a wonderful time and we experienced the Water in Redon, even if not the sort we thought we would.

Dinner that evening was booked at Crêperie l’Akène. Everyone we spoke to in Redon asked where we were eating dinner that evening and when we said Crêperie l’Akène they said ‘Oh Good, that’s where we were going to recommend’.  So with high hopes we set off to the creperie.

Crêperie l’Akène was a traditional crêperie in the centre of town. It was a bustling restaurant that was full on that Wednesday evening and we were taken to a table towards the back of the restaurant. We ordered local cider and crepes of various types and we all really enjoyed them.  The pièce de résistance though was hubby’s flaming calvados crepe!

It was with some sadness that we returned back to the Gite simply because it was to be our last night in Brittany.  The sky clearly knew that was the case as it gave us a wonderful sunset to finish the day.

We left Brittany with a heavy heart the next day, sad to be returning to work and school but vowing to be back. We absolutely loved our time in Brittany and can’t wait to explore more of this area of France.. maybe next year.

You can read more on Brittany in Travel Loving Families post here.

With thanks to Visit Brittany for our trip.

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