ABOVE: Brittany.
Guide to Brittany
Brittany (la Bretagne)
Region of the north-western France incorporating:
Côtes-d'Armor (22)
Finistère (29)
Ille-et-Vilaine (35)
Morbihan (56).
Population: 2.8 million
Principal city: Rennes.
Tourist board
Ils ont des chapeaux ronds, Vive la Bretagne!
Ils ont des chapeaux ronds, Vive les Bretons!
One of the last provinces to be incorporated into France (in 1532), it still retains a healthy air of independence, if not separatism. The Breton language is still spoken and efforts are made to keep it alive.
One sign of the Bretons' independent spirit, allied to their love of the sea, was the formation of Brittany Ferries. This was set up, and is still majority-owned, by local farmers and has expanded to give a number of cross-channel connections with England.
Côtes-d'Armor (22)
Population: 300,000
Principal city:
St-Brieuc
Tourist board
The département of Côtes-d'Armor has the quintessence of the Breton coastline: rugged and beautiful. The most impressive portion of this fragmented coast is Côte de Granit Rose (the Pink Granite Coast), around Perros-Guirec (north of Lannion).
The universal building material in this area is granite, which affords maximum protection against the winter, and gives towns and villages a sober but attractive aspect. In itself, St-Brieuc, capital of the département, is not a particularly touristy destination, but it is surrounded by plenty of charming little seaside villages and pretty coves. Medieval Dinan is a very attractive small town on the Rance Valley to the east of the département; dating from the 13th century, its ramparts are the oldest in Brittany.
The Breton heritage is actively supported here, with many traditional religious festivals and village get-togethers. In 1990, to avoid geographical confusion and to reinforce the Breton theme of ar mor ('the land of the sea'), the name was changed from Côtes-du-Nord. The hinterland is called Argoat, the land of the forest.
Finistère (29)
Population: 839,000
Principal city: Brest
Tourist board
The people of Finistère have an extremely strong bond with the sea, which is proved in the annual maritime festivals in Brest and Concarneau, which sees all manner of vessels, but especially fishing boats.
Life is not necessarily easy for the inhabitants and seafarers of Finistère. Although Brest is one of the largest ports in France, the coastline is in parts extremely hazardous to shipping. On the outlying sheep-farming islands like Sein and Ouessant it has traditionally been very hard. These windswept granite islands have moulded their inhabitants, who seem barely to be touched by the twenty-first century.
The philanthropist Jacques de Thézac set up the abris du marin in the principal ports of the département to give seamen a place to meet socially in an alcohol-free environment. Today, the distinctive pink buildings are either privately owned or in use as museums, banks or even hotels.
But mariners' tales are not all ones of hardship: for several decades, Alexis Gourvannec, a farmer from Pol-de-Léon, has been the main driving force behind the economic revival of Brittany: The existence of Brittany Ferries is due to him: the company was originally devised as a way for farmers to transport their goods to sell in Britain and Ireland.
Seaweed gatherers (goémoniers) still ply their trade on the northern coast; a traditional activity kept alive by an annual fête and an informative museum about the many uses for kelp.
Culturally, this area is steeped in legend; it is an atmospheric land that gives us the tale of Tristan & Isolde amongst many others. The Bretons are a very religious people, and the Tro Breiz pilgrim way links seven great Breton cathedrals. Legend has it that the cathedrals were founded by seven brothers who were all proclaimed saints because of their miraculous works. Processions or pardons still take place every year throughout the region.
Gauguin lived in Pont-Aven, where he painted his famous Yellow Christ and the Vision after the Sermon, using local Bretons as models.
The tall lace headdress of the Bigoudènes was once a commonplace sight in Brittany, but the tradition has now become an emblem of the Pays bigoudène rather than a daily occurrence.
Ille-et-Vilaine (35)
Population: 300,000
Principal city: Rennes
Tourist board
Dinard, St-Malo and Cancale are three attractive and welcoming towns that attract many visitors during the summer. Dinard is essentially a Victorian resort; Cancale is also a famous oyster-farming centre, and St-Malo is almost a state within a state (and indeed was for a long period). Between the three towns lies the rocky, fragmented coastline of cliffs and sandy bays. Also of interest is the Rance barrage, a hydro-electric power station.
The heavily walled old town of St-Malo was a defiant fist thrusting at the naval might of the English. Its military and merchant naval vocations made it a valuable asset to the French, and its inhabitants were accorded certain rights and privileges. In particular, St-Malo is remembered for its corsairs; captains of private vessels commissioned to seize and plunder enemy ships. It is still an important fishing, commercial and ferry port.
The coast of the département is more visited than its hinterland. Rennes is the handsome, if slightly austere, capital of Brittany. The medieval portions that were not removed to make way for the city's Second Empire heart are very charming, and buzzing with life during the day and night. Rennes's rôle is principally as the administrative centre for the region: apart from the museum and art gallery, and perhaps the shopping, it is not a particularly touristic destination. Brittany's erstwhile capital, Nantes, is more geared towards tourism, but it no longer stands within the region's official boundaries.
The countryside around Rennes is green and pleasant, but not as grandiose or rugged as that further west. Sites to visit include: Dol-de-Bretagne, noted for its tor rising from the plains of the Bay of Mont-St-Michel; Combourg and the castle home of author Châteaubriand; Vitré, with its fine medieval streets, and Fougères, on the Breton-Norman marches, and its remarkable château fort. La Roche aux Fées, a dolmen half-hidden amidst chestnut trees, stands to the north of the village of Retiers in the south of the département.
Morbihan (56)
Population: 620,000
Principal city: Vannes
Tourist board
The name Morbihan comes directly from the Breton meaning 'small sea', and refers to the Gulf of Morbihan, a complex inlet open to the sea through narrow straits between Locmariaquer and Arzon. Because it is so well sheltered, this beautiful haven attracts thousands of sailors, both amateur and professional, and many more tourists besides. At the end of this marine cul-de-sac lies the business-like préfecture Vannes, which has an attractive harbour.
Morbihan has one of the highest concentrations of standing stones in the world. Carnac, a few kilometres to the west of the gulf's entrance, is the best known, yet the most mysterious of the megalithic sites. It is made up of three areas of 4,000 menhirs aligned in 13 parallel rows. At Locmariaquer, at the mouth of the Gulf of Morbihan, a great 20-metre menhir lies broken into four pieces.
Dating from 4,500 BC, the megalithic civilisation is older than the Chinese and Egyptian dynastic period. The first sailors, migrants crossing the sea from the Iberian peninsula, brought a new architectural technique and a new agrarian civilisation. It was around the fourth millennium BC that megaliths appeared. The standing stones are not the only mysterious stones in Morbihan: on the isle of Gavrinis, in the middle of the Gulf of Morbihan, stands a 14-metre funeral gallery made of 30 sculpted slabs — the largest of which weighs 17 tonnes. And in Quinipily, the statue known locally as 'the witch' was once the focus of a local cult, and was most probably carved by Roman soldiers during their occupation of Brittany.
It is no surprise, given that the local building material is granite, that the architecture of the region is relatively understated, but the buildings make up for in mass what they lack in decoration. There are many châteaux in Morbihan, ranging from the feudal fortifications of Sarzeau and Elven to flamboyant residences of the Château de Josselin and the Château des Rohan in Pontivy. The Bretons have always been famed for their piety, and the wealth of religious architecture of the département is considerable. The calvary is a particularly familiar feature of Brittany, as is the pardon — an annual religious procession that just happens to provide a perfect excuse for traditional Breton music, dancing and feasting.
Bretons are renowned for their fondness of get-togethers, but there's one town whose annual festival is double the fun: the Rassemblement des deux et plus is a feastival of twins held in the small town of Pleucadeuc. It brings together young and old alike, and a considerable number of twins come from the village itself. The unusual ratio of twins in the town is, in fact, the very reason for the festival's existence, and is simply the product of a demographic accident … or so the organisers say.