EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Not a lot happens in MALESTROIT , which celebrated its thousand-year anniversary in 1987. But the town is full of unexpected and enjoyable corners. As you come into the main square, the place du Bouffay in front of the church, the houses are covered with unlikely carvings - an anxious bagpipe-playing hare looking over its shoulder at a dragon's head on one beam, while an oblivious sow in a blue buckled belt threads her distaff on another. The church itself is decorated with drunkards and acrobats outside, torturing demons and erupting towers within. Beside the grey canal, the matching grey slate tiles on the turreted rooftops bulge and dip, while on its central island overgrown houses stand next to the stern walls of an old mill.

Two kilometres west of Malestroit (and with no bus connection), the village of ST-MARCEL hosts a Musée de la Résistance Bretonne (April to mid-June daily 10am-noon & 2-6pm; mid-June to mid-Sept daily 10am-7pm; rest of year daily except Tues 10am-noon & 2-6pm; 25F/¬3.81). The museum stands on the site of a June 1944 battle in which the Breton maquis (guerrilla Resistance fighters), joined by Free French forces parachuted in from England, successfully diverted the local German troops from the main Normandy invasion movements.

If you arrive in Malestroit by barge (this is a good stretch to travel), you'll moor very near the town centre. The local tourist office stands at the edge of the main square at 17 place du Bouffay (Mon-Fri 9am-12.30pm & 2-6.30pm, Sat 9am-noon & 2-6pm; tel 02.97.75.14.57, www.malestroit.com or www.morbihan-valdoust.com ). Sadly, Malestroit no longer has a hotel, but there's a two-star campsite , La Daufresne (tel 02.97.75.13.33; closed Oct-May), down below the bridge in the Impasse d'Abattoir next to the swimming pool.