Auray, our new home

We’re settling into our home for 4 weeks, Auray, a town in Brittany. We chose this specific place for several reasons. It’s small and quaint and typically French, therefore different than home. It’s also located centrally, close to more touristy and busy, active places that have lots to offer and easy to get to by bus or train because we’re not renting a car. It’s on a river and close to the coast and beaches. Although the town itself is quite popular among tourists, it’s still quite charming.

We’re staying in an Airbnb in the old part of the city, Saint-Goustan, seen above. It’s an old medieval town that sits on a river. Our place is right in the heart, in a narrow cobbled street lined with flowers. Most cars don’t drive on the street to access the house, and to get in, you have to pass through the neighbour’s dark, humid cellar, which is more like a garage. Here’s our street:

The house is 3 stories and quite small. You have to stand side-by-side in the kitchen, and try not to pass one behind the other because it’s so narrow. You have to go through the kitchen to get to the bathroom.

There’s a small outdoor seating area. There’s a dishwasher, a washer but no dryer (hence the hanging clothes). It’s a tight space, but we’re making it work.

The kids’ room is in a loft on the top floor. It’s a bit hot, but you can open the skylight and there’s a fan. Here’s what the view looks like from the kids’ room. They think I should take a picture when it’s sunny, so I’ll replace this with a new one when we have a nicer day. (So far, the weather has been in the low 20s and we’ve had a bit of rain, but apparently it was really hot last week, so we’re expecting it to get hotter in the coming days.)

(Update! Here is the view on a nicer day:)

The town is famous for its Monday market, which takes over what feels like the entire town. There are 400 stalls, and the streets become packed with shoppers. On our first day there, we picked up fruits, such as local apricots, veggies, cheese, sausages, charcuterie, Breton cake, and prepared paella for supper. Here is a picture of what it looks like when it first opens… it was too chaotic to even think of taking one when it was busy! But I’ll try next week.