I couldn’t let the month of May pass us by without posting the final installment of my adventures in Brittany while searching for the filming locations of The Darling Buds of May.
I’ve previously posted two articles where I’ve shared many locations that were used in in the episode A Breath of French Air so be sure to check those out too:
Part 1: Brittany filming locations of The Darling Buds of May: A Breath of French Air
Part 2: More Brittany filming locations of The Darling Buds of May: A Breath of French Air
You’re now reading part 3. 🙂
Many years ago I also travelled around Kent to find the filming locations of original series, so there’s the link to that article too: My tour of the Kent filming locations of The Darling Buds of May
Even though there was no information about the French filming locations online, that didn’t deter us from booking a trip to northern France to find these filming spots for ourselves.
It was a bit of an adventure to travel around from village to town to find the exact spots where our favourite TV show The Darling Buds of May had been filmed in the 1990s.
I’ve been sharing my journey in chronological order of when each scene appears in the TV show so this final article includes the locations of Charley’s little train and Marc Antoine’s house (very elusive!) but where I left off in my last article was Ma going on the boat with Gerard Brisson and meeting Angela Snow, so that’s where we’ll start today.
Ma’s Harbour
The harbour where Ma disembarks the Gerard Brisson’s boat is a rather remote part of Saint Malo, so you can either drive there (where you might be able to find Marc Antoine’s house on the way) or, if you’re staying near to the location of the Beau Rivage like we were, you can get a ferry across from Dinard to Saint Malo and trek to the location.
If you’re going to do that, you could travel with Les Bateaux Rouges, the ferry company who have red boats (above), which are similar to Gerard Brisson’s red fishing vessel. That way, you’ll really get the ‘Ma experience’ of travelling to Saint Malo in a fabulous red boat!
Les Bateaux Rouges ferries pull into the main harbour at Saint Malo, but the actual spot where Ma gets off Gerard Brisson’s boat is further around the coastline (above) at Cale de Solidor, Le Cite, Saint Malo.
This slipway at the foot of The Solidor Tower is the spot where she waves goodbye to the fishermen and says ‘Don’t get your thingmys tangled in your wotsits!’
While you’re there, you’re getting two filming locations for the price of one – just behind the Solidor Tower are the arches where Ma bumps into Angela Snow and her sister Iris.
As Anglea is one of my favourite characters from the show, I was really keen to find this location – even the drizzle earlier in the day (“Ohh Charley”) couldn’t dampen my spirits as we trekked along the coastline to find this location.
By the way, when Angela Snow is on the bus and spots Pop in the Rolls Royce, it’s just after he’s been to the ceremony at the cemetery. This is one of the locations I didn’t find during my trip but Dean from The ‘Perfick’ Darling Buds of May group on Facebook has since kindly shared details of this filming location with me.
It’s the Cimetière Communal du Rosais in Saint Malo, so that’s another place you could check out if you’re hoping to find all the filming locations from A Breath of French Air. Be sure to also join Dean’s fantastic Facebook group if you’re a fan of The Darling Buds of May.
Marc Antoine’s House
We later travelled to Marc Antoine’s stately home, which is on the way out of Saint Malo. It’s the Chateau du Boscq in Quelmer. However, it’s a private property and it appears that the gardens are only occasionally open to visitors in high summer so you might not be able to access the grounds. Here’s one of the gateways with a view of the house:
I did try my best to speak to the owners in French to find out if we could visit but it was definitely closed at that time of year (early September) so, rather than seeing the lawn where Marc Antoine’s family play croquet, we decided to find the view of the back of the chateau across the fields – the view that Marc Antoine would have seen through his telescope.
Because the trees in the surrounding parkland are much more mature now, it’s impossible to get a view of the property until you are absolutely miles away. That said, if you head down a specific track, you can stop halfway and see the exact view of the back of the chateau.
Yes, I’ve done the legwork for you and tried every possible vantage point across the other side of the estuary to find the exact spot where you can view it clearly.
You need to turn off the Rue de la Cale de Jouvente, Pleurtuit towards the Rue Du Port Hue, which will take you down a small road between farm fields. Look across the water and you’ll see the chateau high up amongst the trees.
Obviously, it was more clear with eyesight than I was able to capture through my camera, and I’m not suggesting that you look through a telescope like Marc Antoine, but it’s definitely a similar viewpoint.
Charley’s little train
Finally, the location that we found most difficult to uncover is Charley’s little train station. We searched every train station along all the trainlines in the region before we found the right one – but don’t worry, we didn’t drive around them all: we used Google streetview to see ‘travel’ along the railway and zoom in on each station.
It was a real punch-the-air moment when we finally found Charley’s station and compared it to the scene from the show. The station building is a private property now but the train does still stop there and you can board the train from behind the old station house. I used my husband as a stand-in for Charley while recreating this scene!
The location is Gare Landébia, 7 Pl. de la Gare, Plancoet, which has the station building beside the train tracks and across the street is the building used for the exterior of the cafe that Charley waits in. This is also not a cafe now (if it ever was) so you can’t access the interior of either property.
However, you can head over to the other side of the railway line via the road and see the view that Primrose and Marc Antoine saw when they spotted Charley drunk on the tracks. For safety and legal purposes DO NOT go on the railway tracks at any time.
That concludes my tour of Brittany, France to find all the filming locations of the episode A Breath of French Air from the origional TV series of The Darling Buds of May. It was so lovely to see the locations in real life and to imagine how much fun the cast nd crew must have had while travelling around these lovely locations.
It was also great to have the aim of finding the never-before publicised filming locations during our holiday – it gave us a reason to explore different towns and coastlines of the region and learn more about the history of some beautiful spots, like the Solidor Tower above and the Basilique Saint Sauveur church and Porte du Jerzual where the Pardon procession was filmed.
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, as well as part 2, which shows the locations when the Larkins visit ‘Fougeres’ for the Pardon, enjoy!
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 locations that were used in the original TV series of The Darling Buds of May, that would be a great help. 🙂
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