Anybody paddled the Brittany coast?

[seawolf856]

One of our group has a Sea Kayaking Guide - Brittany, 60 Paddles and is suggesting we look at doing a trip there May/June 2025. To me, a piece of land which sticks its nose out West into the Atlantic between the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay is asking for trouble, but I wondered if anyone has any experience or (non scary) stories to share about paddling the Brittany coastline, which will make me want to brush up on my French.

[mrcharly]

The book 'Moderating becoming good later' has an extensive section about paddling this coast.

Fog, big waves; sounds like an area best tackled with local knowledge.

[McSwimmy]

We've done two trips to the coast near Paimpol and Lannion. Paddling was great- nice rockhopping, islands to circumnavigate and interesting tides (especially relevant for launching and landing). Not to forget lots of swimming spots, ice cream stops, cheese and wine. Would very much recommend as a chilled out holiday- especially the pink granite coast. We did also manage to find more committing trips the second time when we all had more skills- a tide race or two and the trip to Les Sept Iles was great on a good day. We found the guidebook very good.







(disclaimer- some rather British weather was also encountered.. )

[Ceegee]

a piece of land which sticks its nose out West into the Atlantic between the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay is asking for trouble,

No worse than a piece that sticks 400km further into the Atlantic, 400km to the north, which I used to paddle every week.

[Phil Hk]

Hi

I paddled there for a couple of weeks with my wife in June this year. Yes, there is a large tidal range, streams are strong and it is renowned for size of swell; no wonder it is such a spectacular coast! These features can be a curse ... or a blessing. There is a range of sheltered aspects except from northerlies at which point one can paddle in the estuaries. We parked for free in convenient places to launch and frequently made the most of slipways with public access, again without any launching fees.

One thing to bear in mind is that the large tidal range can cause dramatic changes in the landscape seen from seaward which can make eyeball based navigation more demanding

Have a good trip

Phil