Brittany filming locations of the Darling Buds of May: A Breath of French Air

Many years ago, I enjoyed a trip to Kent and had been lucky enough to stay on the Darling Buds of May farm when it was previously a holiday let. I started photographing the filming locations around the town of Pluckley and it soon became a mission of our stay to find all the famous spots. You can check out my blog post about the Kent filming locations of The Darling Buds of May if you want to see them for yourself.

So, when I decided to take a road trip to France this year, there was only one thing on my mind: where was A Breath of French Air filmed? I had a rough idea of where the show had been filmed on the coast in Brittany so I booked a lovely little Airbnb in the area and set off to see what I could find.

In preparation, I rewatched my DVD of the episode countless times and I photographed some of the scenes on my TV, so please excuse the wonky reference shots in this blog post – these were just for me to refer to while I was searching for locations during my trip to Brittany, but I thought you’d find it interesting to see the comparison of the TV show and the real-life location.

This photo is taken looking back towards the Plage de Saint-Lunaire from the Pointe du Décollé.

Actually, we did a lot of research and intensive map-searching to find these locations, as there’s really no information out there about the filming spots from the original DBOM television show when it was filmed in France.

But now that I’ve been there myself and have thoroughly investigated the region, including Dinard, Saint Malo, Saint Lunaire, Dinan and Saint Briac Sur Mer, I’m sharing all the information about where the famous French scenes were filmed, which I hope will be helpful if you want to see the locations for yourself.

In fact, visiting each of the towns to see the locations makes a nice itinerary for a holiday in Brittany, so I was glad to have this focus as it took me to some lovely places that I wouldn’t have otherwise seen. I took a trip at the end of August into the first week of September, which is when the Larkins would have been going on their own holiday.

We’ll start with the first place the Larkins head to – the Beau Rivage Hotel. The images above are taken from either side of the bay where you can find this location: the Plage de Saint-Lunaire. We parked up at the Bureau Information Tourisme de Saint-Lunaire and walked along the promenade, the Rue de la Grève, pictured just above.

From here, you are looking towards the side of the bay with the Beau Rivage on the clifftop. Walk across the beach and look up at the impressive buildings. It’s easy to find the property with its arched frontage and trees to the right. The side elevation is slightly different now with more windows but the rest is exactly as I remembered it from the TV show.

Also on the beach, you can find the very spot where the Larkins set up camp on the first sunny day of their trip. This was tricky to find because, basically, I was just looking for the stone steps running at an angle up the side of the cliff. I walked all the way around the bay and back again before I spotted it.

I’ve taken this photo slightly angled upwards so that you can see the buildings above it, which will make it easier to locate the same spot if you visit the beach yourself. I thought it would be a lovely idea to pitch up your own windbreaks and deckchairs in the exact same position as the Larkins. However, we didn’t get a chance to sun ourselves on the beach.

As you can see from these images, it was a bit grey and drizzly while we were there, which I thought was appropriate. It reminded me of Charley’s famous last words – “It’s always hot and sunny in Brittany, some summers we’d never have a drop of rain…” – just before the scene cuts to the Larkins arriving in France in a torrential downpour!

So, once you’ve enjoyed chilling out on the beach, you can head to the Pointe du Décollé at the end of the bay. There are two filming locations up there and an interesting cross monument to explore so pull into the car park on the Boulevard de la Mer. Conveniently, the car park itself is one of the filming locations.

The Larkins drive past these benches on their way to the Beau Rivage, but it’s actually off the road, within the car park. Once parked up, head towards the Pointe du Décollé and, standing at the wall, look back across the bay to the beach. This is the view of the fictional town of ‘St Pierre Le Port’ from the travel brochure.

I think the original photo was taken a little further around the bay, which would correspond to the location used for the Beau Rivage Hotel – so it was probably taken from the garden there.

I think the Beau Rivage is actually a private property rather than a hotel, so I won’t tell you exactly where it is on this road, as you aren’t able to access it – but you can find the white fencing on the Boulevard du Décollé, which the Larkins drive past in the rain.

Of course, as it’s not really a hotel, there’s no Hotel Beau Rivage sign over the gateway and the entrance looks completely different to how it looked in the TV show, but the interesting brickwork of the property makes it possible to find if you’re eagle-eyed.

I wish I owned this property – I’d turn it into a brand new Beau Rivage Hotel and I would recreate the decor from the Darling Buds of May. I reckon it would get lots of visitors, wouldn’t it? Well, I would certainly want to stay there if it was possible!

So, this was just the first day of our hunt for the famous filming locations of A Breath of French Air and I think we did rather well to spot these locations. We’d set off to the Plage de Saint-Lunaire that morning with no idea where the actual scenes were shot so I was delighted to find five locations all in one seaside town.

My only clue had been looking at satellite maps while I was still at home and working out that the view of St Pierre Le Port from the Larkins’ holiday brochure must have been taken from the Pointe du Décollé. I worked my way back from there and searched until I found the locations – the Beau Rivage, the Larkins’ beach camp, the Point du Décollé and the view of St Pierre Le Port.

I’m so happy to have seen these locations for myself and it’s such a lovely picturesque spot that it would be worth a visit even without hunting for the DBOM filming locations. I was especially happy that it was a grey and drizzly day so that I had the same rainy weather as the Larkins when they arrived at the Beau Rivage. It really added to the experience. Perfick!

The good news is that these aren’t the only scenes I found in Brittany while I was staying there – I also scoped out the filming locations of the Pardon pilgrimage and the fishing harbour, as well as Marc Antoine’s stately home and, importantly, Charley’s little train.

Bonus location – these boat ropes over the rocks at the Plage de Saint-Lunaire are in the scene where the Larkin children are playing on the beach. As you can see, the tide was in so I couldn’t get close enough to take the exact shot.

I’ll be sure to share the other locations in my next blog post – otherwise, this will be a very VERY long article haha! To be fair, the TV show was split over two episodes too, Series 1 – Episodes 5 and 6, which you can currently view on ITV X if you fancy re-watching it.

Here’s the link to my second blog post on more Brittany filming locations of ‘A Breath of French Air‘, including the scenes where the Larkin family takes the bus to ‘Fougeres’ to see the Pardon procession and the church where it was filmed. I hope you enjoy reading my second blog post too.

By the way, for my next DBOM adventure, I’m looking for the Yorkshire filming locations so please leave me a comment if you know of any other spots that were used in the original TV series of The Darling Buds of May, that would be a great help. 🙂

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