Brittany: A Cultural History (Landscapes of the Imagination) 1909930067, 1909930063

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Landscapes of the Imagination The Alps by Andrew Beattie Provence by Martin Garrett Flanders by Andre de Vries The Thames by Mick Sinclair Catalonia by Michael Eaude The Basque Country by Paddy Woodworth Patagonia by Chris Moss The Cotswolds by Jane Bingham Andalucia by John Gill The West Country by John Payne Siberia by A. J. Haywood The French Riviera by Julian Hale The Ionian Islands and Epirus by Jim Potts The Andes by Jason Wilson The Danube by Andrew Beattie The Loire by Martin Garrett The Sahara by Eamonn Gearon The Isle ofWight, Portsmouth and the Solent by Mark Bardell The Peak District by John Bull Sicily by Joseph Farrell The Canary Islands by Peter Stone The Scottish Highlands by Andrew Beattie

BRITTANY A Cultural History

WENDY MEWES

Signal Books Oxford

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Contents Preface ix Chapter On e

First published in 2014 by Signal Books Limited 36 Minster Road Oxford OX4 ! LY www.signalbooks.co.uk

ON THE EDGE

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Starting points (l); Out on a limb or in the swing (3); Four or five departements? (3); Armor and Argoat (5); Haute- and BasseBretagne (6); Formative years: the Age of Saints (and sinners) (7); Brittany and France (9); War and peace (12); Anne de Bretagne and union with France (13); Revolution and aftermath (14); The

© Wendy Mewes, 20 14 The right of Wendy Mewes to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988. All rights reserved. The whole of this work, including all text and illustrations, is protected by copyright. No parts of this work may be loaded, sto red, manipulated, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical , including photocopying and recording, or by any information, storage and retrieval system without prior written permission from the publisher, on behalf of the copyright owner. A catalogue record fo r this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978- 1-909930-06-3 Paper Cover Design: Devdan Sen Production: Devdan Sen Cover Images: © Alexandre Croisier, Wendy Mewes

nineteenth century (15); Nationalism and the Second World War (17); Post-war Brittany (19) ; Oral tradition (20); Breton language (21); Celticism (22); The past is always with us (23)

Chapter Tw o STONE - FROM CHAOS TO CONTROL

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Silent stone: megaliths, not the Celts and Flaubert has fun (26); Carnac (32); Living stone: sleeping with the animals and minding one's manors (37); Stone symphony: parish closes, devilish priests and men in hairy tights (45); Stone cacophony: Vallee des Saints, art or theme-park? (53)

Chapter Three THE MARCHES - FRONTIER TERRITORY

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Border country: conflict, triumph and disaster (55); Fougeres: love, war and literature (65); Combourg: the invention of boredom, a rambling wooden-leg and scary dead cats (73); Man of the Marches: history, patriotism and a prophet in his own country (80)

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Contents

BRITTANY

Chapter Nine

Chapter Four SEA - A WAY OF LIFE AND DEATH

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FOREST - LIFE AND LEGEND IN THE GREENWOOD

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Threats from the sea: sea wolves, abduction, a famous sinking and

Foret de Fougeres: learned oak trees, spilled salt and nasty insect

black tides (84); Legends: a doting father, sirens and the night

bites (209); Foret de Paimpont: Merlin's tomb, the Valley of No

boat (89); Sr-Malo: men at sea, an infernal machine and high

Return and the emperor's new clothes (215); Foret de Coatloc'h:

adventure (94) ; Paimpol: sad women, salt cod and super-heroes (100)

clogs, miserable Margot and a nursery rhyme (221); Foret du Cranou: travelling trees, blood sacrifice and imbecile tourists (225)

Chapter Fi ve COAST - ON THE THRESHOLD

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Douarnenez: sardines, communists and butter-cake (11 O) ; Around Penmarc'h: dark and dangerous coast, Chaucer and a beacon of

Chapter Ten RIVER - FLUENT LINKS

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The Loire: Nantes the siren city and a house in the water (231) ; The

light (116); Art and graft: the working man's artist, sorrow and

Rance: a Miocene sea, heroic Dinan and donkeys with twisted

seaweed (123); Carantec: the brave boat-builder and The Shark (127)

heads (239); The Oust: witness of history, a journey on foot upriver (245); The Queffleuth: floods, paper-making and the associative life (252)

Chapter Six LAND - THE HEART OF THINGS

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Poher: Romans, Red Caps and railways (131); Ble noir. a humble

Chapter Eleven

foodstuff for eating and drinking (140); Fest noz: from farming to fete or dancing with the Devil (144) ; One bard after another (151)

ISLAND - ALL AROUND THE EDGE

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Ouessant: Island the Terrible, a swimming cow and 'Bye, bye black sheep (255); Ile de Sein: wet, wet, wet and flat, flat, flat (262); Ile de Groix: "qui voit Groix, voit sa croix", the Sea Wolf and his land of

Chapter Seven TOWN - WALLS THAT BIND

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many colours (267); Belle-Ile: Hamlet eaten by a crocodile (273)

Rennes: serious architecture, beware of fire (and fireworks) (155); Pontivy: what's in a name?: sycophancy, symmetry and an expensive

Afterword 277

piss-pot (166); Treguier: religion, secularism and the goddess Achene (172); Quimper: an English prisoner, the bourgeoisie, a

Further Reading 279

celebration and a quarrel (176)

Index of Literary & Historical Names 281 Chapter Eight MOOR - STRUGGLE AND STRIFE

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Index of Places & Landmarks 285

The Monts d'Arree: rag-men, nocturnal washerwomen and wolves (185); Pilhaouerien: life on the road, rags to paper and an independent attitude (192); Legend: Death at large, fatal dancing and a black dog in the bog (198); Wolves: tamed by saints and hunted by an enthusiastic Welshman (203)

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BRITTANY

Preface

For Joan Field with admiration, thanks and a daughter's love

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Brittany has been a place of discovery for me on many levels, so I am grateful for the opportunity to share some of its compelling complexity with others who either already love the country or who may be inspired to come and see for themselves. This book is the starting point for a journey into the multi-layered entity that is Brittany today. The portrait given here is inevitably selective in terms of area and literature-at least a dozen volumes would be needed to present the full range-but I hope it transmits a worthy sense of this singular landscape and people. I make no apology for an emphasis on the Breton -speaking west, which has left the greatest legacy in terms of the oral tradition and distinctive culture. Brittany has long fascinated travellers with its highly evocative image, arcane customs of sea and land, a misty past of Neolithic monuments and Celtic legends, lace headdresses and decorative costumes, the living legacy of music and dance, but here simple reality is always more interesting than tourist hype, with struggles for freedom, survival and defence of the Breton language leaving their mark in every corner. The much-vaunted issue of Breton identity is not something I have dwelt on, preferring to give the varied context in which such ideas have been formulated, and believing, as Breton friends tell me, that the genuine article is a quiet thing that lives steadily in the rhythm of the heart. So many individuals have helped my understanding of history and issues over the years I have lived here that it is impossible to list them all, but I would like to thank Anne Guillou, Loic Quemener, Lionel Pomard, Christophe Deceneux, la Comtesse de La Tour du Pin, Marc Le Dret, Jerome Lemesle, Philippe Bohuon, Michel Morel, Jean-Pierre Daffniet, Jean and Adrian Brooks, Jeanne le Bourgeois, Lesley Rice, John Hanson and Daniele Gehan. Thanks also to fellow-writers Vicki Trott and Patricia Stoughton, and supportive friends Sylvia Rendall and Sue Gregory. I owe a special debt to Yves Marhic for his tolerance of questions and exceptional linguistic skills. Finally, many thanks to James Ferguson at Signal Books. I could ask for no more compatible editor than a fellow-member of the Border Terrier fan club.

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Chapter One 0NTHEEDGE

STARTING POINTS The westernmost point of France is the Pointe de Corsen, north-west of Brest on Brittany's Aclantic coast. This is the notional tipping point between the waters of the Channel and the mighty fronts of the ocean. Until recencly a rather tacky signpost on the headland showed that here you are closer to London (580 kilometres) than Paris (630). Now a neat orientation table presents the sweeping view over the Mer d'lroise: the islands of the Molene archipelago and the silhouette of craggy Ouessant on the horizon. Then there is nothing until America. We are on the edge. Evidence of geological fragmentation in Brittany's coast is all too visible here in the sharp off-shore rocks and scattered islets which necessitate a chain of signalling against the all too obvious naval hazards. Nearby high points are the inland lighthouse of Trezien and the tallest standing stone in France, and just behind the headland is the CROSS Corsen sea surveillance headquarters, where ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy is said to have made his famous comment, "Je m' en fous des Bretons" (I don't give a damn about the Bretons) during politicking before the 2007 elections. There is nothing very glamorous about this particular spot. Not surprisingly the tourist industry manages to imply that the dramatic Pointe du Raz, forty kilometres south on the wild tip of Cap Sizun is the furthest edge of the Breton world. Here are towering cliffs, the thunderous Raz de Sein lashing every rock and lighthouse between the mainland and the tiny Ile de Sein, lying virtually flat against the swell of the Aclantic. Even the huge hideously sentimental statue of the Virgin of Ship-wrecked Sailors on the point cannot spoil the sense of awe at the constructs of nature in this location. When it was announced in 1978 that a new nuclear plant was to be built on this lonely headland, a furious public reaction centred on the appropriately named commune of Plogoff led to mass demonstrations and a stand-off with armed police. In March 1980, 50,000 people demonstrated during the public enquiry and two months later many thousands cheered

On the Edge

BRITTANY

with all its dangers and advantages, the fringe of a land with a hard granite heart, a culture of legend and song rooted in realism and the life and language of ordinary people, a strong role for Death and its best friend the Catholic Church and a penchant for political and environmental activism. They well present the big and beautiful melting pot of bubbling issues and swirling, often conflicting images that is Brittany, for little here is clear or straightforward. OUT ON A LIMB OR IN THE SWING

Tumultuous Raz de Sein (Sonja Pieper/Wikimedia Commons)

the rejection of the proposal with a Jest noz, a vibrant explosiot of celebration in music and dance. Protest songs from this era have entered the oral tradition, and there is even a film: Pierres contre les fosils (Stones against Guns). Beside the Pointe du :Raz lies the Baie des Trepasses, the Bay of the Dead. Was this where souls were rowed across to the Ile de Sein by Death's henchman Ankou, the Breton Grim Reaper, before going on westwards to a mysterious final resting place? Or has there been a linguistic confusion of Breton An Aon (the river) andAnaon (departed soul)? Currents do wash drowned bodies into this bay, a phenomenon which may also have contributed to the gloomy tales, but the close presence of death is part of the popular tradition in Brittany, where everything contributes to the strata of legends chat fizz through Breton culture like veins of quartzite in the peninsula's granite heights. So much can be glimpsed in miniature in these two edge points, one much vaunted for its natural dominance and wild romanticism, the other more muted and anchored in everyday life. There is the surrounding sea

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Brittany's physical position has been a strong factor in its history, the Armorican peninsula jutting out into the ocean on the north-west corner of the continent, just a shore Channel hop from Britain. This position on the route between northern and southern Europe may account for the great concentration of Neolithic monuments (see Chapter Two). It is the combination of the Atlantic edge and the intrinsic nature of the landscape itself that contributes to a sense of isolation and remoteness mentioned by many nineteenth-century travellers, although in fact Brittany (Bretagne in French/ Breiz in Breton) has enjoyed the most international of connections in all phases of its development. Internal divisions both geographical and historical do, however, give a plethora of small worlds, from valley to valley and village to village, an idea enshrined in the Breton saying Kant bro, kant giz: a hundred neighbourhoods, a hundred fashions. Each has its own customs and traditions from styles oflace-headdress (coiffes) and embroidered costumes to dances and legends. FOUR OR FIVE DEPARTEMENTS?

Today there is not even agreement about what constitutes the region. Paris and practical administration tells us there are four departements: Ille-etVilaine (including the capital Rennes), Cores d'Armor (called Cotes du Nord until the 1990s), Morbihan and Finistere. But many Bretons routinely regard Nantes and Loire-Adantique as part of Brittany as indeed they were up until the Second World War, until hived off by the Vichy government, an insult confirmed by post-war organization of new regions in 1957. The "Five departments" issue raises all degrees of reaction from genuine outrage to singular indifference. In opinion polls and consultations it has often been Finistere, furthest of all from Nantes, which shows

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On the Edge

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