What are they doing, those mammoths, here in Brittany…

Well, they used to live there long long ago… when ice was everywhere and Britain and Brittany did belong to the same land...

They’re back. Because of the Parisians.Yes, the exhibition you can discover in Rennes was conceived for the National Museum of Natural History in Paris a few years ago and it is now adapted for a smaller place, l’Espace des Sciences at Rennes.

And if I do speak about it, it is because the whole expo is subtitled in English … or translated as you want…



The expo is called At the time of mammoths, it is nice ... I have just spent an hour and a half with my young nephew (6 years old).

The tour begins with all possible fantasies that existed when men discovered those huge bones. People attributed those pieces of skeleton to imaginary figures ... until a whole mammoth was found and one could imagine the disappeared animal.

The exhibition then explains the time of glaciation, the climate, and the BEAST.
You can touch things (I won’t tell you what, you’ll discover it by yourself) and it is nice to do.
Then we live the everyday life with our forebears who lived at that time…In short we become experts in the woolly mammoth.

The exhibition also shows the local history with a short film on Mont Dol (you know the mountain we have between Cancale, the oyster city and the Mont Saint Michel !) where the remains of mammoths have been found during the 19th century. It ends with a long movie whose hero is ... this big animal, which is a good resumé of everything we have learned visiting the expo.

I (we) really liked it but we were almost alone in the expo. But the problem with Champs Libres is often the same, rooms are small and sounds clink…

I needed to concentrate to hear the soundtrack for the documentary on Mount Dol, (which I found rather interesting), especially when my nephew was listening to the weather report next to me.

The children and the mammoths?

From 6 years old, indicates the brochure. My young acolyte found it nice to try the trunk or to see a baby mammoth… a real one named Dami and usually living in a Belgian Museum. He did like to touch elephant skin and to compare it to the missing pachyderm.
My young friend was really interested in the life of mammoths. So he loved the exhibition. But sometimes it is nice to help the child through : lots to read… less in English though !!
The film at the end of the exhibition sums up the entire expo and it is so real, you feel like being back some thousands years ago…

In short, the adult (I) was not bored (not at all) and my nephew either. We did enjoy it. Not in front of the same things or stands, but whatever.
At the exit, a "true woolly mammoth" is watching you...

4 € for adults and 3 for 8 years old and older.
From Tuesday to Sunday (12h - 19h on weekdays and 14-19 on weekends), 21h night until Tuesday. Until March 7, 2010.

Read it in French : Les mammouths arrivent et reviennent à Rennes, une exposition à l'Espace des Sciences aux Champs Libres

The zoo, a predictable success with children! Follow me ...

Located on the expressway Rennes - Saint Malo (Brittany, France), the zoological park of La Bourbansais is, as you guess, full of wild and exotic animals, … monkeys, wallabies, flamingos ...



lions, tigers and other zebras…In short, the classics are here.

Zoos today often are not only park animals but are also a place to save endangered species. That’s one of the goal of the zoo La Bourbansais.

The park is beautiful, you can stroll around and look at this wild world.

Animal shows are to be seen : flight of raptors, pelicans meals or giraffes care…



Wildlife is on…

Hunting dogs like to run around : a choreography of the French tricolor (name of the dogs), used for hounds.



You can also take a guided tour (fee) of the castle



which is listed since 1959. and admire the French gardens of the park.

At the end of the trail, a playground with inflatables (slides ...)… a delight for children.

A little walk on a corn maze and that ‘s the end of a busy day.

No surprise but no disappointment either. Around € 15 for adults and 12 for children.
Open all year.



Shows and events are only held during the summer. You can picnic there.

Read it in French : Visite avec des enfants du zoo et du parc du chateau de La Bourbansais (Ille et Vilaine, Bretagne)

If you're visiting France with your teenager and if you want to enjoy a medieval town while he wants to skate, you should go to Dinan. It is nice for you and for him…



Yes, Dinan is a nice touristic town and 15 minutes away from the historical city center, you have a skate park that is safe and enjoyable.



Listen to one of the riders :

It is a nice place hidden by trees… 15 minutes away from the pedestrian quarter, close to Quevert. Ask for a shop called Titi Gil, everybody knows it.



We do have nice objects like mini ramps, funboxes, quarters, half pipes …and others that I can’t translate... even if the “French words” are English ones…

We sometimes play at a game called in French SKATE. You have to do tricks and everytime you fail, you get a letter from the word skate. Once you can spell it entirely, you lost…


Teenagers to young adults (10 to 20) ride in the skate park Cordier – mostly or even exclusively men –. Roller blades or kick scooters (push scooters) are welcome.



Read it in French : le skate parc Cordier à Dinan Bretagne

Poul Fétan (56310 Quistinic, Tel: 02-97-39-51-74) is an hamlet in the middle of nowhere (and quite hard to find!!!) but it is really nice.



This village belongs to Quistinic and was renovated 20 years ago (from 1979 to 1994). It is an “entertainement” village, open from April to September and it shows how farmers used to live during the 19th century.



Houses are older (16th century) but are characteristic of the country architecture : thatch roofs, outside stairs… Here is the garage,



the pub (euh only if you like cider).



You 'll see animals (local breeds) or the vegetable garden (with old plants). It is the perfect place for an historic entertainement : you’ll discover a potter or a baker making bread or cakes, you can also try the milk or the butter produced in the village. Kids will enjoy seing actors dressed like « before ». A tavern cooks typical meals like kig ha fars for exemple.

When I went there, it was closed, nobody on the place. You can just walk in the village and surroundings and look at the countryside.



Out of season, it looks a bit like a too mythical place : I guess last century for over 100 years, the countryside was full of mud, of dirt, of smells (good and less good)… and this place is too clean to copy the old farmer life !!! Anyway past is past and today is different… in those beautiful houses, and thanks to the actors, it must be fun.
Kids under 6 don’t pay. For the tariffs as it changes in the season, look at their website.

If you’re visiting the region don’t forget to stop at Melrand the medieval village. Have a look at the Vénus de Quinipily near Baud.


Read it in French : Visite d'un village rural du XIXe siècle avec des enfants : Poul Fétan, Morbihan, Bretagne, France

Or how to introduce medieval life to your children and teenagers.

- Do you know what Middle Ages are ?
- Of course ! It is a period that lasted about 10 centuries : from 476 (Fall of the Western Roman Empire) to 1453 (Fall of Constantinople capital of the Byzantine Empire).
- And archaeology ?
- It’s a place (prehistoric or historic) that has been investigated… And where do you go with that ???
- In Brittany (France), in Melrand, you can visit an archaeoligical site that used to be a medieval village…



Melrand is divided into two parts : one where the historical remains are



And the other where the village has been reconstructed.

Signs as well as english guides (only summer time) help you through the site.



Lann Gouh (that is its breton name) has had a short “life”. During the Middle Ages the population of Europe increases and people are looking for new land to settle. Lots of villages, like this one, have been created in lands that were not really attractive (they were either land with poor soil or full of stones, forests or marshy land…). The only advantage of those lands was that the landlord was not too greedy then…

This place was deserted after the Black Death (1347) (one inhabitant out of three died) and the few survivors tried to gather and looked for more pleasant places… easier to exploit that are the “first“ villages in the valley…. Back to the start…

Only two houses have been excavated among the 17 (I think it is 17) found. Other researchs have been done in other villages in Brittany and thanks to those excavations, we can guess and understand better what the Medieval life in the countryside was.

The village was on a hill, surrounded by a fence : around the square were low-roofed dwellings. You can enter in the houses… and imagine…



Inside men and animals were living together (animals were the heating then), doors were low so that the warmth will not get out, and the ground was on a slope (the animal’s excrements will not run down in the living !!!). The fire was in the middle of the house… and smoke had no way out…

As the soil are acid in Brittany, you don’t find lots of useful objects… But we know that our ancestors used to eat in wood plates.

You’ll see the reconstruction of a baker’s oven and of a mantrap (wolfs were living in Brittany then).



You’ll also meet nice local breeds :
cows, sheep or goats…




Melrand is not an incredible place, it is just a medieval site that shows the modest life of countrymen. In february, it is a bit strange as nature is still asleep and as we were alone on the place. The botanic garden (100 plants of the Middle Ages) is not and is waiting for the spring to recover. It is a nice visit for a family holyday…

It is open from February to November. Winter time from 1.30 pm and from april at 10 am. 4 Euros for those who are more than 6 and 5 euros for adults.

You can drive around on the Blavet valley (you feel you’re on the mountains, it goes up and down, it ‘s incredible) and the road is really nice. You can also visit the Venus de Quinipily or Poul Fétan.



Read in in French : Site archéologique en Bretagne : le village de l'an Mil à Melrand (Morbihan)

You’re visiting Rennes with your children. And you want to rest after your cultural visit of the old town of Rennes… Leave the historical monuments and go up North. The park of Maurepas (Parc de Maurepas) is located on the North side of Rennes and is open from 8.15 am to 6.15 pm.



It is a nice garden for young kids to young teenagers…

With your young kids :



they can play on/in the sand … or enjoy the toboggan





or the swings…



You can also try the carrousel on sundays afternoon.



If you came with their bicycles, you can let them go round the playground, on a track that imitates real traffic conditions (lights, stops…).



Your young teeny needs a break. He can use his skate board on the opposite side of the garden, on a street park for skateboarders.



And parents can have a picnic or rest on the grass



(in France you need to be allowed to walk on the grass... in public gardens? And here yes you can !!!) while your baby savours sand, your little girl jumps from the toboggan and your teenager learns to speak French with other skateboarders…

And you can also observe and compare the customs of Mister and Missis Duck.



And your artist side ??? Well admire the statue !!!



Some more informations : the park has been created beetween 1936 and 1939 thanks to the landlord of Maurepas that gave his land. It was already a garden with playgrounds for children : a track for tricycles… It is the fourth bigger garden of Rennes, it covers 5,5 hectares (the bigger is the parc des Gayeulles - 100 hectares-, Bréquigny – 17 - et le Thabor 10).

You can also discover the two unique umbrella pines of Rennes ? Where are they ???



Read it in French : Le parc de Maurepas à Rennes (bretagne) pour les enfants de 7 mois à 77 ans

Since june, the gardens of Broceliande (les jardins de Brocéliande) are advertising for their new programme Réveille tes pieds (litteraly wake up your feet) and we went there with two young kids (btw 2 and 3 years old). We took off our shoes and we did it. It is a lot of fun…



From Rennes on the highway, you have to drive south (direction Lorient) about 15 minutes to go to the gardens. Go out when you see the sign Bréal sous Montfort, and follow the signs for jardins de Brocéliande. You’ ll soon arrive in front of an old farm with an orchard, toboggans and swings.




The garden is huge (24 hectares) and shows several exhibitions : exhibition about amateur gardens,





different animal breeds (hens, and poultry, pigs, breton cows (called pie noire), sheep, horses…, a route about Brocéliande, botanic garden, birds nesting… and plenty of others activities. You can spend the day there… . At noon you can also eat in the restaurant traditional food for 10 €.

It is open from Eastern to All Saint’s Day, tuesday to saturday from 1.30 pm. It costs 6,5 € for an adult, 3€ for kids (over 6), 3,5€ for students and 15€ for a family. You have so many things to do, (you’ve got for your money worth).

Let ‘s go back to our feet… Before arriving to the barefoot walk, you cross a small part of the garden, you meet poultry, pigs, horses and you discover some of the amateur gardens. When you arrive in front of waterplays , you’re there.





You have to leave your shoes in a shoelocker and here you are, barefoot, ready to start.

The beginnig is quite classical : sand, pebbles, stones.



But then you will walk on 45 different surfaces and it is really nice. You will see tobbogans, labyrinth, distorting mirror and a long jump place where you can compare the jumping performances of animals (rabbit, stag, squirrel…).
After more than an hour, you go back to where you began and to your locker. Wash your feet in the fountain and continue the visit of the garden. The dahlia labyrinth is really nice.

Leaving the garden, you have a small shop where you can buy vegetables and fruits from the garden and breton specialities (honey, jam, cider, beers…)

Read it in French : Visitez pieds nus les Jardins de Brocéliande à Bréal sous Montfort (Ille et Vilaine), Bretagne