Continued...

Past blurs into myth in the fabled forest of Brocéliande, where Arthurian legends hover, half-hidden, in the twilight of the wooded glades.

La Trinité drowses on one corner of the intricately fretworked lagoon of the Golfe du Morbihan.

Towns from Josselin to Vannes, and Rochefort en-Terre to Pontivy offer medieval examples of timeworn carvings in grey stone, crooked lanes between houses of faded half-timbering, inviting alleyways and unexpected squares.

Roads climb through the hillsides of ancient woodland, the stones and the trunks of oak and chestnut coated in bright moss. Sometimes they drop down into a shadowy canyon, turning sharply to cross a busy little river, or suddently enclose you between high stone banks like a sunken Devon lane – but, unlike Devon, you’ll find deep ditches between the roadsides and the stone banks.

Whether your idea of heaven is a Breton buckwheat galette or crêpe on a cobbled quayside or a hike amid a secretive woodland valley – or a combination of both, come to that – there’s nothing else for it, you simply have to explore.