Hi, I am a new member and have joined to draw on your collective insight and experience about moving to France general and moving to Brittany specifically. I am Australian and the Intent is a few years in the planning and a hopeful move in about 3-5 yrs… if I win lotto, it will be tomorrow 
! I have been looking at the property market for a few years to understand the dynamics and what is on offer, I am working on my language… and my desktop knowledge is reasonable, planning a trip next year. I would love to hear from members who live in Brittany and any recommendations about areas/regions or things to consider. Look forward to hearing from you
Hi Deanne… you might find this link interesting…
Thanks Stella, I will work my through the discussion thread.
Hi Deanne - we live right in the middle of Brittany, and love it.
There’s a lot I could write about it - but it would be useful to narrow that down by knowing a bit about what you are interested in - eg. town or rural, coast or country, etc…
Hi Geof,
Thanks for your email, nice to meet you!
Our focus will be to within 40 mins of the nth Atlantic coast as we are sailors. We have been looking inland of Vanne, Aury, Lorient going as far as Brest- a large area. This has been a useful focus as I have explored a wide range of towns to get an idea of the location and surrounds and to some extent services. Ideally we want to be within walking distance of a town. We enjoy the rural life and plan to be as self sustaining as possible, a part of my research effort has focused on reading about different Mairie and their priorities relative to the community and commercial activity.
Hope that gives you a sense of our interest. I am keen to know more about your move- how long have you been in France? What drew you to Brittany? And, what has been your experience to date?
Thanks for your follow up, I look forward to hearing from you
Regards
Deanne K
Hi Deanne, another Aussie here! 
Have you ever spent long periods of time in European winters? I ask as we were very seriously considering Brittany when we moved back from Oz 5 years ago (we’d previously lived 10 years in the Aude). I quickly remembered how I deal with the long, dark European winters and realised for my own mental health I needed to come further south. There are lots of lovely areas for sailing on the Atlantique coast further south that will get you more daylight hours and less rain! Even here with the long periods of rain I get really fed up, it is totally different to any rain we get at home, it goes on and on and on literally for months at a time some years!
Good luck making your decision!
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Hi Deanne - sorry for delay - busy times here - we have 2 gites and we’re getting ready for our first lets of the year at the start of April, including refitting one of the kitchens.
Much of Brittany is within 40minutes of the coast - we are right in the middle and still only an hour away from both the north and south coasts. Brittany is full of picturesque towns and villages - and the bigger places - Vannes, Dinan, Rennes, etc, have amazing medieval centres - but near the coast between Vannes and Brest I would single out Quimper among the bigger towns - it’s stunning. Brest and Lorient were heavily bombed in the war, but are nice in a more modern way (and might feel more familiar to an Aussie).
Smaller towns and villages - just too many beautiful places to mention. The south coast has perhaps the better weather, but personally I prefer the north and west - the north definitely has the edge for the wild and picturesque.
But the real delight of Brittany is in the vibrant cultural life, which is not just ‘French’ but a heady regional mix - like Cornwall in the UK, Brittany is a magnet for artists and musicians, and has a very alternative feel. In everyday interactions people tend to be quiet and reserved - as they are in many parts of rural France - but in my view are unusually friendly, relaxed and polite. Some cliched views of the French - the example of drivers not stopping for pedestrians at crossings springs to mind - are a complete inversion of life here: you have to be careful not to stand on the pavement anywhere near a pedestrian crossing, or the excessively considerate Breton motorists will stop, just in case you might want to cross the road in the next few minutes.
We moved here 8 years ago - it was not planned, actually - we were looking in Normandy, but my wife fell in love with the house and gite complex here (her business), and we bought without knowing much about Brittany in particular - though we knew France in general well through holidays and work over many years. We were looking in Normandy for 2 main reasons - proximity to ports etc for travel to the UK, where we have family, and to Paris airports for my own work (which in international) - and we are keen gardeners (which for various reasons makes further south in France less attractive). But discovering Brittany - and realising how much more there is still to discover - has been a real delight.
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Hi Tory, yes, the longer winters are something to get used to, I have lived in cold climates, but not subject to snow. As to rain I hear you, long winters require fortitude and good hobbies!!
We are planning a trip next year - once the pandemic has peaked, troughed and died!!
Appreciate your experience and insight, the weather can be a deal breaker. We are considering renting for a year to get a feel for an area and to experience the seasons, have to be practical and realistic.
back to checking annual rainfall! 
Hi Geof, thanks for your very considered response and insight. It aligns with my expectations of the region gained from lots of reading and research gathered from Breton work colleagues who have ended up in Australia. We have been drawn to the north for similar reasons, the thought of sailing in the North Sea is a bit confronting…
I am enthused by your experience , the alternative lifestyle and openness is refreshing to hear, it is something that is dwindling in Australia, as a french colleague outlined to me recently, ‘Australia is becoming very pasteurized!’ Pasteurized, homogenized or santized… same sentiment in the end 
clearly a trip is required to discover the delights of various inland locations.
I have a large map of Brittany on my office wall that I use to map journeys and discover towns and villages and there relative proximity to trains and ports, a great way to keep focused. I am interested in your gite, are you happy to reveal the name? may have to add it it to our trip next year as a stopover.
What is your experience of running a business in France? Has your more central location presented any challenges in terms of location and access?
lots of questions, I’ll leave you to finish your kitchen and prepare for guests, I guess it will be a challenging year for any tourism, I hope the season goes well for you and thanks for your valuable insights.
You’re most welcome to stay. Our gites are marketed through a UK agent specialising in families with small children …
https://totstotravel.co.uk/property/58/hibou/
https://totstotravel.co.uk/property/59/gite-bleu/
… but you can also book direct with us (stay@gitesofbrittany.com) - we only do whole weeks in the summer but sometimes short breaks out of season. May and June are generally the nicest months from a number of points of view. We have had people stay looking to relocate in France, and even organised lunches etc with local practitioners - estate agents and business people.
You might also be interested in our guests’ facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LesHirondelles
Running a business in France (and generally on the continent of Europe) is different from the anglo-saxon world - it is more regulated in a number of ways, but partly for this very reason less competitive - we prefer it to the UK (where my wife also ran a holiday business and I my training/consultancy) - but the differences do of course take some getting used to.
There are pros and cons to being in central Brittany - the two biggest differences between here and coastal areas are that the coast is much busier, and property prices much higher - so apart from the obvious issue of how much you like the beach/sea (although we live by the huge Lac de Guerlédan so do have lake beaches etc) choices will have to be made between a much bigger/better property inland, with generally a quieter traffic-free life, or a more modest house by the sea.