Brittany airports

Yealm

Yealm

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Dear All,

I'm planning my Summer sabbatical to cruise around Brittany (possibly as far down as La Rochelle) and expecting different friends to join me for different stretches. I wondered if anyone knows what airports (and airlines) there are in the region that connect with the UK (ideally Bristol or Bournemouth, but could be with London airports too) ?

Thank you very much :)
 
Yealm said:
Dear All,

I'm planning my Summer sabbatical to cruise around Brittany (possibly as far down as La Rochelle) and expecting different friends to join me for different stretches. I wondered if anyone knows what airports (and airlines) there are in the region that connect with the UK (ideally Bristol or Bournemouth, but could be with London airports too) ?

Thank you very much :)
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Rennes, Brest, Nantes, La Rochelle. Details on the Flybe website.

https://www.flybe.com/flights-from/
 
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Greetings, I've used Brest for the festy, and Nantes for crew changes, both worked well.

Also.. it's about 4 hrs on the comfortable and reasonably priced train from Lorient or Quimper to Paris, where you can hop on the Eurostar train to Kent and London.

You can book the entire trip online in advance, and vary the connection time if you feel like checking out the Louvre or whatever. All doable in one (longish) day, and having done both, I would say at least give the train some casual consideration. Slower but your faith in your fellow man, (and your blood pressure) are more likely to remain unscathed on the SNCF than if riled by infantile airport security chimps confiscating a gramaphone needle etc.
 
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Prasutigus said:
Greetings, I've used Brest for the festy, and Nantes for crew changes, both worked well.

Also.. it's about 4 hrs on the comfortable and reasonably priced train from Lorient or Quimper to Paris, where you can hop on the Eurostar train to Kent and London.

You can book the entire trip online in advance, and vary the connection time if you feel like checking out the Louvre or whatever. All doable in one (longish) day, and having done both, I would say at least give the train some casual consideration. Slower but your faith in your fellow man, (and your blood pressure) are more likely to remain unscathed on the SNCF than if riled by infantile airport security chimps confiscating a gramaphone needle etc.
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There are also airports at Quimper and Lorient. The latter I believe has in season flights to the UK. I'm not sure about Quimper.
 
Yealm said:
Dear All,

I'm planning my Summer sabbatical to cruise around Brittany (possibly as far down as La Rochelle) and expecting different friends to join me for different stretches. I wondered if anyone knows what airports (and airlines) there are in the region that connect with the UK (ideally Bristol or Bournemouth, but could be with London airports too) ?

Thank you very much :)
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Don't dismiss Dinard. Very handy for hiding up the Rance and leaving the boat. Bit of an odd route with Aurigny through Channel Isles but useful.
 
Do you leave it on a swing mooring ? I can't see any marinas on google earth ? (other than at St Malo)

Gwylan said:
Don't dismiss Dinard. Very handy for hiding up the Rance and leaving the boat. Bit of an odd route with Aurigny through Channel Isles but useful.
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Bav34 said:
Ryanair fly from Dinard to Stansted or East Midlands
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Who cares where Ryan Air fly, their customer service is worse than the Cray Twins! I won't fly with them again.

On a more positive note, there is always the ferry to Roscoff and then use the train and bus network which seems to have worked well for my children in the past.

Yoda
 
yoda said:
Who cares where Ryan Air fly, their customer service is worse than the Cray Twins! I won't fly with them again.

On a more positive note, there is always the ferry to Roscoff and then use the train and bus network which seems to have worked well for my children in the past.

Yoda
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That’s your choice. We have flown Ryanair to Dinard, La Rochelle, Nantes etc. 100% ran on time and no issues. would have been very tricky to sail from La Rochelle from here without them.
Meanwhile BA cancel domestic flights regularly
 
Yealm said:
Do you leave it on a swing mooring ? I can't see any marinas on google earth ? (other than at St Malo)
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Les Sablons marina
Plouer marina
L’ecluse de Chatelier
And Dinan.

With the possible exception of Les Sablons (just outside of St Malo) I wouldn’t hesitate to leave my boat at any of the other three.
 
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Prasutigus said:
.. it's about 4 hrs on the comfortable and reasonably priced train from Lorient or Quimper to Paris, where you can hop on the Eurostar train to Kent and London.
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Or about three hours by train from Vannes to Paris.

We left the boat in Vannes a few years ago and travelled Vannes to Portsmouth to Vannes by train and ferry via Rennes and St. Malo. It's a bit of a hike between station and ferry in St. Malo but otherwise no problems.
 
All the main suspects have been covered.
Don't overlook the Channel Isles, cinch to get to and you can then have a grand trip towards Roscoff, (which has to be one of the easiest points for changing crew) or Brest etc. There is (was last year) a daily summer bus from outside the ferry terminal at Roscoff to Quimper but I have never used it and I would confirm the details with Tourist Information before committing crew.

I usually peruse this site which may not be always accurate but a good start:

https://about-france.com/fly-to-france.htm

This is an excellent resource for planning bus trips:

https://www.rome2rio.com/s/La-Rochelle-Airport-LRH/La-Rochelle

La Rochelle is good because a service bus takes you right into town from the airport. Just type in any two places in France and it gives you the lowdown.
 
Sybarite said:
There are also airports at Quimper and Lorient. The latter I believe has in season flights to the UK. I'm not sure about Quimper.
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Lorient: Ryanair - APR - OCT (from Stansted)
Quimper: BA - Last week of May - first week of September (from London City)
 
I go every year, usually by Eurostar and then SNCF. You can get to La Rochelle, Brest, Les Sables-d'Orlonne and many other places on the south Brittany coast, or Guingamp (for Tréguier/Lézadrieux). If you want to fly, Rennes is OK and you can then get trains to these places (except La Rochelle, which is on a different line from Paris)
By ferry, Plymouth/Roscoff and the various Cherbourg routes leave you rather stranded but the fast cat to St Malo is possible (but the train to Rennes is rather infrequent).
There's a map here
 
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