I’ve previously shared the first instalment of my Breath of French Air road trip, which shows you some of the iconic locations where the Darling Buds of May was filmed in Brittany including the Beau Rivage hotel and beach. I did a lot of research to find these filming spots so sure to check out the first part of my DBOM locations road trip here.
Even though none of the original filming locations were listed anywhere online, my husband and I spent the whole of our trip to France looking around local towns to find the exact village square and historic monuments that were used in the background of the iconic episode A Breath of French Air.
And you’ll be pleased to know that we didn’t rest until we’d found them all! Yes, today I’m sharing the spots where the Larkin family get the bus to Fougeres, the route of the Pardon and the church.
I’ve shared each of the locations in a linear fashion as they appear in the show, so the hotel and beach are the first blog post and now we’re moving on to the Larkins’ adventures around Brittany. Let’s follow along with the story of the TV show…
Believe me when I tell you that this location was one of the toughest to find. We looked at the market squares of all the small towns in the region before we discovered the location where the Larkin family take the bus to Fougeres for a day out, which is in Saint Briac Sur Mer.
Above is the shop that Pop drives past when dropping off Ma and the Larkin kids to catch the bus. You can see the scene on my TV above, which shows just part of the shop. Luckily, when we reached the town of Saint Briac Sur Mer we were able to use the decorative detailing above the shop door that you can see in this scene in order to find the exact spot where the camera would have been placed.
A quarter turn to the right and you’re following the Rolls Royce’s route into the market square, which is where the vintage bus pulls up on the Rue du Commandant-Thoreau. As you can see from my photo above, the town square now has lots of lovely bakeries and cafes where you can sit outside and enjoy an al fresco coffee – a worthy reward after travelling around the region looking for this elusive location.
When the Larkin family arrive in Fougeres to see the Pardon procession, the scene isn’t actually filmed in Fougeres at all. Which made it all the more difficult to find the filming location! We tried to find the archway using Street View for a number of walled cities in Brittany and we even asked in the Tourist Information office at St Malo to see if they recognised it, but with no luck.
In the end, my husband used Google Lens to analyse a photo of the hinge on the church door, which led us to an image search of French churches. From there, we found the door (more on that in a minute!), so we knew where the church was located so we hoped that the Pardon route would have been nearby. We took a punt and headed to Dinan.
Wandering around the streets of Dinan made for a lovely day out anyway, even without our quest for the Darling Buds of May Filming locations. We enjoyed visiting the market, which is every Thursday morning, and scoured the walls of the city to find the archway that the Pardon procession travels through. As you can see above, we found it!
The archway is the Porte du Jerzual, on the Rue de Jerzual, Dinan. From this side of the archway you can also see the smaller arches above it (seen in the pic with the cafe below) which also feature in the Pardon route scene. Walk through the arch onto the Rue de Petit Fort and you’ll see these little steps, which are also part of the procession route. I was especially pleased with the likeness of this photo – I felt like an extra from the show!
The Porte du Jerzual is currently being renovated and should be completed in 2025, so you may have better luck at getting a non-boarded-up photo if you visit after that. In this picture below, I’m standing in the position where the Larkins are gathered to watch the procession go by – yes, I’m in the same spot where Catherine Zeta-Jones stood, so cool.
On the Rue de Jerzual, right near the arch is a lovely blue-timbered book shop and cafe, in which we enjoyed a well-deserved coffee after all our traipsing around Dinan – highly recommend for a friendly welcome and a delicious chai latte.
While you’re visiting Dinan, it’s essential to go to the church where the Pardon service takes place. After all, that church door is the only reason why we discovered that the scenes weren’t filmed in Fougeres but in Dinan. Here’s Ma coming out of the church, which is the photo we compared with the decorative ironwork on countless church doors throughout Brittany.
This door belongs to the Basilique Saint Sauveur, which can be found on the Place Saint Sauveur, Dinan. If this shot hadn’t been included in the Darling Buds of May, we might never have found the church that was used for the Pardon service scene.
Of course, we headed inside to find out if the interior scenes had actually been filmed in the Basilique Saint Sauveur and thankfully they had. The vast gilded altar is impressive to see and the stained glass around the church is incredible. It’s actually rather huge inside the Basilique and well worth a visit to see the ornate interior and decorative detailing.
Again, I positioned myself in the exact spot that Ma – Pam Ferris – would have been standing for the Pardon service. It was lovely to see what she had been looking at in real life. We also geeked-out by filming the same camera pan around the church as seen in the show, but I won’t post that here haha!
The next part of Ma’s day out sees her going on a boat trip around the harbour with fisherman Gerard Brisson. But Dinan is landlocked – as is Fougeres for that matter – so where was the harbour that the fishing boat moored and dropped off Ma on the quay?
You’ll be pleased to know that we DID find it (after walking for miles!) but this blog post is already massively long so I’ll share those locations as well as Charley’s little train and Marc Antoine’s house in another post really soon.
Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll have a fun time if you explore Brittany to check out the scenes from the original TV series of The Darling Buds of May for yourself. Also, have a look at part 1 of my trip with the filming locations of the Beau Rivage hotel and beach for more locations to spot in France, enjoy!
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. 🙂
Pin it for later
