Travel & Hotspots

road trip in france

As promised, I’m here to give you guys a little more insight into my trip to France with my father. For four days, we cruised through French cities for a father-daughter weekend. Crash course to refresh your memory? Read this. Bon voyage!

Nantes

We spent the night at the Hotel Pommeraye, a great place with spacious rooms in the heart of the city. We went for lunch at Cigale; a stunning place with great service and a typical French menu. Nantes is great to discover by foot, plus there are plenty of great stores to drop by too. Think Maje, Zadig & Voltaire, Sephora, tons of small boutiques, and for anyone that has a little more to spend: a Hèrmes store. Other things on our agenda were a visit to Ille de Machine, consisting of two giant hydraulic works of art (a 12 meter high elephant that could actually walk and a massive carousel that you could actually ride). We dined at La Comédie des Vins, a small joint where we were seated at a bar and ordered wine an these. This might have been my favorite restaurant, I would eat here every night if I could.

Rennes

We would prefer not to say which one of the four cities was our favorite (because all of them were great) but secretly, Rennes was the prettiest of them all. Our hotel rooms were in Le Magic Hall, a newly opened hotel located in a perfect spot in the city. Instead of a standard hotel lobby and reception, they had a massive kitchen and living room which made you feel right at home. The hotel borders a recording studio and that’s the atmosphere they tried to replicate in the hotel. So the livingroomkitchenreceptionlobby (new word!) has it’s own music room, including a drum set and other instruments where people frequently perform. All the bedrooms also consist of the music theme. My bedroom was the DJ bedroom, and my father was in a room that had a massive rumba painted onto the wall.

We had lunch at Le Café Breton, another bulls eye. A small venue with a wonderful menu and a kitchen that knows how to cook up a storm. Rennes too has plenty of places to visit and see as well as shop, and while you’re there, don’t forget to admire all the architecture and hop from one terrace to another for a glass of French wine.

Agners

We stayed in another class act hotel in Agner, in a small little castle with a very cute courtyard. It was called Hotel du Mail and all the rooms were classic and beautiful and really made you feel as though you were the inhabitant of the castle. The city center was in walking distance, so we headed on over for lunch at Place du Raillemant, in Brasserie du Theatre. They had the most perfect steak tartars and once those were finished, we wandered the fort of the city, Chateau d’Agners, the old streets, had drinks at little bistro’s and if you’re in the mood for a night out, la Doutre is the place to be.

Poitiers

We were here on a Sunday and the entire city was seemed extinct. Not entirely crazy because even in Paris everything is always closed on Sunday’s. However, the city still has a very remarkable city square and plenty of old historic buildings and great restaurants. We had lunch at La Gazette and dinner at La Serrurerie. Both definite recommendations.