|
Malestroit makes a great base for a holiday in Southern Brittany. It is a very pretty medieval town with many beautiful old timbered building and dates back to 987. It is known affectionately as ‘La Perle de l’Oust’, a Petite Cite de Charactère. It is surrounded by a whole host of interesting places to visit and is only a short drive from the coast where there are some lovely beaches. The local people are very helpful, friendly and courteous and they will appreciate your attempts to speak French.
There is an excellent information point situated within the brand new ‘Pass Temps’ building where information and maps are freely available. It is situated in rue Sainte Anne, just off the ‘Place de Bouffay’. The ‘Place de Bouffay has several bars and restaurants where you can enjoy a drink or a meal and watch the world go by.
Malestroit boasts no less than nine restaurants including Breton, French, Moroccan, Italian, as well as a pizza takeaway and a Vietnamese takeaway.
There is an excellent market on Thursday mornings selling everything you could possibly want from - beds and dining room suites to a superb range of local fruit, vegetables, meats, live seafood, poultry and everything in between.
There is a cinema at one end of the main square. Opposite this is a really good ‘Cave du Vin’ - a wine cellar, where it is possible (indeed you are positively encouraged) to sample wines from huge vats before you make your choice. They also have a good range of liqueurs and a reasonable range of champagnes. Of course, wines, spirits, liqueurs and beers can also be bought in any of Malestroit’s 4 supermarkets - Marcheplus, Casino, Lidl and a new ‘Super U’ hypermarché between Malestroit and St. Marcel. Cigarettes are not sold in the supermarkets but are available at the ‘Tabac’ 50 yards from the church towards the canal.
Fishing is available on the canal and the river providing you have a permit which you can obtain from the Tabac and there is a fine fishing tackle/hunting shop just beside the Marie.
For those of you who may be property hunting, there are three excellent estate agents in Malestroit as well as a Notaire - Solicitor who deals solely with property conveyancing.
There are lots of cycling opportunities along the canal paths and the voies vertes and bikes are available for hire from the tourist office or the local cycle shop.
There is a 24 hour petrol station situated just behind the Casino supermarket and another one at Super U(‘Sans Plomb’ is unleaded and ‘Gazole’ is diesel). Outside normal hours it is unmanned and only the credit card lanes are available - there can be problems with non-French cards.
Stamps are available in the bars, at the Tabac and at ‘La Poste’
Should you need it, there is a launderette situated approximately 200 metres from La Maison Blanch.
|
