Will we be able to do stuff and eat? Rural France, Christmas/NY edition.
September 28, 2015 12:09 PM Subscribe
We're contemplating a short family trip to Brittany between Christmas and New Year, but have no cultural context for how shut down rural and small-town France is likely to be at that time of year.
The theme of the trip is "short and not especially fancy". We've all been to Brittany a ton of times, the ferryport is a 20min drive from where my mother lives (hence why we've all been there a whole bunch), we're thinking two or three nights in an Ibis-style hotel, and we'll have a car and two out of three adults who are comfortable driving it. Dates-wise, we're thinking the 27th-30th December.
In terms of our desires, sightseeing is less important than food. We'd ideally like to go to several restaurants that aren't affiliated with a hotel (think crepes & local food rather than fine dining). We might try to take in some kind of attraction, but it doesn't necessarily have to be something that has opening hours (e.g. drive somewhere and look at nice scenery, go to a nearby city and see what's going on). We're probably going to want to go to a supermarket and stock up on French candy.
My question: will we be able to achieve some or most of the things we want at this time of year? How much does France shut down between Christmas and New Year, and does that vary depending on where you're staying? I've done this particular trip a bunch of times, but only ever in the summer.
I'm used to the UK, where stuff (stores, restaurants, etc.) is shut on Christmas Day and sometimes the 26th, and the 1st of January itself, but then open as normal the rest of the time. How does France compare?
The theme of the trip is "short and not especially fancy". We've all been to Brittany a ton of times, the ferryport is a 20min drive from where my mother lives (hence why we've all been there a whole bunch), we're thinking two or three nights in an Ibis-style hotel, and we'll have a car and two out of three adults who are comfortable driving it. Dates-wise, we're thinking the 27th-30th December.
In terms of our desires, sightseeing is less important than food. We'd ideally like to go to several restaurants that aren't affiliated with a hotel (think crepes & local food rather than fine dining). We might try to take in some kind of attraction, but it doesn't necessarily have to be something that has opening hours (e.g. drive somewhere and look at nice scenery, go to a nearby city and see what's going on). We're probably going to want to go to a supermarket and stock up on French candy.
My question: will we be able to achieve some or most of the things we want at this time of year? How much does France shut down between Christmas and New Year, and does that vary depending on where you're staying? I've done this particular trip a bunch of times, but only ever in the summer.
I'm used to the UK, where stuff (stores, restaurants, etc.) is shut on Christmas Day and sometimes the 26th, and the 1st of January itself, but then open as normal the rest of the time. How does France compare?
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I've spent several new years in rural Loire Atlantic, most things are open between Christmas and new year as normal, but come January a lot of tourist places shut down for the month. There were one or two summer only attractions we ran into, and the occasional business where the proprietors were spending the time away somewhere, but basically, you should be fine. Not much different to the UK.
posted by Helga-woo at 5:03 PM on September 28, 2015