House Seaside, Beach 400 m, 5 people, near Pleneuf Val André

We had a fantastic stay here! The house was clean and spacious with more than enough room for the four of us (our double room had an an extra cot tucked in the corner, and each of the other rooms had two trundle beds). The kitchen is purely functional, but it has everything you need to cook a good meal, and there's even a table in the garden if you want to eat outside. The bedrooms are cozy and sweetly decorated, and we really appreciated the comfortable beds and pretty, fresh linens. I picked raspberries in the garden and we ate them for breakfast.

We chose the house because it was equidistant between the Mont Saint Michel and Perros-Guirec, two places we knew we wanted to visit. While we really enjoyed those day trips, we were also happy spending time on the beaches close to home. The house is located about 500 yards from a small beach where local families go to enjoy the surprisingly warm water. Not far away is the Bay of St. Brieuc (with the fifth fastest tides in the world), where we took an easy hike. The area is a bird sanctuary so the views and walks are pristine. St. Brieuc itself is a pretty city, too.

The town has everything you need--a little supermarket with friendly staff, a fabulous purveyor of local products, complete with rotisserie chicken, and an excellent patisserie. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses took their vacations during the time we were there, so we couldn't enjoy the patisserie as often as we wanted to, and we didn't get to eat dinner in town. We found some great spots to eat, however, one of which was just a short walk from the house. You'd never guess that you could get a great meal at the little campsite at the end of the road overlooking the bay (Camping Bellevue Mer), but I had delicious moules and my family, who were craving American food, thoroughly enjoyed their burgers. It was glorious to watch the sun go down and then walk home. We also had a terrific meal with a beautiful view in Pleneuf-Val-Andre, only about a half-hour away, at a restaurant called Cap Sud.

We didn't get to meet Bruno, but he was very nice by phone and disappointed that he couldn't meet us in person, and he was very accommodating. We would highly recommend this location to anyone looking for a quiet, cozy retreat near the beach.