Brittany’s coastal path celebrates 40 years

It is 40 years since the inauguration of France’s most scenic long distance path. Known to walkers simply as GR34, it is more romantically called the Sentier de Douaniers – the customs officers’ trail.

It was created in 1968 by joining the coastal tracks used by 18th century customs officers in their efforts to catch Breton smugglers. The path is said to include every beach along Brittany’s coastline, a claim about to be tested by Brittany Travel’s marketing director,Jeremy Waldron.

Jeremy sets off on 20 September from Mont St Michel, the northern start of the path, for a week long first stage.  The 1200 miles around the coast to Nantes in the south is expected to take eight weeks to walk, in four stages, between now and April 2010, when Jeremy turns 60.

He will be contributing to this blog during the journey  and, as well as documenting the beaches, and is looking forward to discovering new restaurants to recommend to guests next year.  “I aim to cover about 20 miles a day, staying at local B&Bs or hotels along the way.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Brittany Coastal Walk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.