In France, November 11th is the Armistice Day, the end of the Great War. And Brittany was the region which losts the highest number of soldiers : one dead for 19 inhabitants (in France one dead for 29).



The memorial of Sainte Anne d’Auray (South Brittany, France) commemorates the Breton soldiers who fell in the First World War 1914- 1918. 240 000 names are written on the Monument -erected between 1922 and 1932-. But nowadays historians think that the loss were less important. Between 110 to 130 000 Bretons lost their lifes during the Great War in Brittany. 1,4 millions of soldiers died in France for 41 millions people (Brittany had then 2,5 millions inhabitants).


Explanation for the high losses in men in Brittany : in 1914 the Breton region was a seamen and farmers country. Most of its population was rural. And country people were sent on the frontline. Workers were kept for the factories. Lots of people in Brittany then did not always speak French. Some of the regiments were only breton because the recruting was then regional. So in some of the regiments orders were given in Breton language.

The War changed the way Breton people were living. Men were soldiers and women were alone in the farms and had to work hard in the fields : the troops had to be resupplyed. Cities were even cultivating public gardens such as the jardin du Thabor in Rennes.

A Breton writer Roger Vercel wrote a famous novel in 1934 with his Great War memories : Capitaine Conan. It is a famous movie now Captain Conan (from B.Tavernier in 1996).

Read it in French : Les Bretons et la première guerre mondiale

This year, the Palais des Arts is celebrating its 20th anniversary ... and for this event it hosts part of the private collections of the François Pinault Foundation.

Do you know François Pinault ? He is THE famous Breton billionaire. Autodidact, art lover… and football fan ... He is the main sponsor of the foot ball team Stade Rennais.

So for its 20th birthday, Dinard has decided to expose the collections of this man… who usually shows them in Venice, yes, in Italy.

About 60 works by thirty artists * ...



Qui a peur des artistes ? Who is afraid of artists?

Not me, except when I look at the picture, it reminds me of Verdun (horrible battle of the 1st World War wtih thousands of deads), the soldier buried standing (alive?) ...
But everyone sees what he wants : I thought it was a commercial for Hunger in Africa ... someone said...

Annoying the poster? And the title?

What is art done for?

- To have fun ? (123 points)
- To ask questions ? (54321 points)
– To understand the world ? (393 points)
– To criticize it ? (3131 points)
– To be nice (333 points)
- To mess around ? (731 points)
- Do nothing ? (34536 points) -
- To laugh and have fun (0.333333333333)
- To be moral ? (321 points)
- To be green ? (369 points)
- What else ?
- To share (4.50 euros full price, the show last year was free)

If your score is 3 points or more, go ahead!

The exhibition shows contemporary art : portraits, contemporary art paintings, photography, photo-collages, drawings, video, sculpture, abstract works ... All art forms are represented ... Each room has a title ...for example-War Consumption Revolt.
Well, not easy to give my opinion. Jeff Wall bothers with the photo showing the ambush in Afghanistan. Further it is even more violent (the video ...). It is the same artist Adel Abdessemed who made the funny pictures on the opposite wall!
The most famous : la nona hora ((the ninth hour is the name for the prayer that is recited at the ninth hour of the day, usually around 3PM to commemorate the moment when Christ died on the Cross) by Maurizio Cattelan. The most famous or the one everybody talked about ? Write your comment for that work !

And next to it, nobody screamed at Damien Hirst, the greens don’t like contemporary art ? But I do not know anything about insects ...

In short, everyone has his reading and interpretation ... Make your own opinion ... because as François Pinault said and I translate : ... The art has led me to wonder more. To keep my eyes open on the world and its evolutions, to be more attentive to the change of the world ...

This summer, if you don’t have time to visit the Palazzo Grazzi museum or the new one at Punta della Dogana (Venice, Italy), where the rest of the collections are, or if you missed the exhibition in Moscow (a certain state of world), go to ... Dinard from 14 June to 13 September from 11 am to 19 pm and night (21h) on Friday.
Pictures are not allowed...

* Josef Albers, Dan Flavin, Agnes Martin, Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Lee Ufans, Pierre Soulages, Charles Matton, Takashi Murakami, Paul McCarthy, Yan Pei-Ming Martial Raysse, Ed Ruscha, Adel Abdessemed, Andreas Gursky, Barbara Kruger , Cindy Sherman, Jeff Wall, Jiechang Yang, Chen Zhen. Subodh Gupta, Mike Kelley, Bharti Kher, Takashi Murakami, Julie Mehretu, Luc Tuymans, Maurizio Cattelan, Paul Fryer, Damien Hirst, Claude Lêvêque, Yan Pei-Ming, Andres Serrano. Subodh Gupta, Mike Kelley, Bharti Kher, Takashi Murakami, Julie Mehretu, Luc Tuymans, Maurizio Cattelan, Paul Fryer, Damien Hirst, Claude Lévêque, Yan Pei-Ming, Andres Serrano.

Sainte-Anne d'Auray is not only one of the biggest French catholic pilgrimage, it is also the place for a famous memorial to victims of the first World War.

10 millions people died between 1914 and 1918... about 20 million became disabled and France suffered more than one million deaths. In Brittany, about 110 to 130 000. It is the region that gave the more compared to its population.
The Great War began the modern world: new military equipment was used, the weapons changed, tanks, artillery pieces, powerful cannons (Big Bertha shot more than 9000 meters) chemical weapons with the gas in the trenches ... And the soldiers. A war that has drained France of his men. And above all Brittany.



Expalnations : for some, it is a deliberate sacrifice of the Bretons, because they were second-class citizens (in France the regional divisions were: the Bretons, the Normans ...).
Testimonies tells us about those Breton soldier, not being abble to speak French, unable to understand orders of the military elite and who were shot by mistake. Or this other Breton considered a deserter when he returns to seek treatment and could not explain what he was doing... Some of these soldiers have been rehabilitated. For others, the contribution of Britain is linked to its rural character and its extremely dynamic demography. Truth must be between the two.



This memorial in Sainte Anne d'Auray was originally dedicated to all victims of Brittany. Located next to the basilica it is a huge square surrounded with slabs engraved and at its center, an imposing altar.
Built in 1923, the site bears the list of engraved names of some 8000 soldiers, entire families (father and son!). But, not all the deads are honored here, no. Only the dead of the families who had enough money to engrave their names. Wealthy families or Catholics have subscribed. At least 100,000 names are missing!!!



The purpose of the monument has changed : it is now dedicated to the missing people of all wars and during the feast of St. Anne (July 25-26), the office is celebrated from the altar. A peace memorial ...

Sainte Anne d'Auray has also an important cemetery of victims of war (made up of Belgian soldiers and the wounded died in hospitals in the West).

Read this article in French : Le mémorial de Sainte Anne d'Auray : le monument aux morts des Bretons

What can you do in Dinard when it rains… discover African Art. Every year at the Palais des Arts in Dinard (on the seafront and close to the casino), you can discover a nice art exhibition : last year it was Picasso… This year, the exhibition called Gloire de la femme dans l'art africain (litterally glory to women in African Art) shows 200 pieces of African Art connected with women and their roles in African Art and Society.



It is open from june 28th to september 14th (a Sunday) 2008, every day from 2 pm to 7 pm. And it is free…




It is a really nice aesthetic exhibit. The objects are from the XIXth and XXth century, you ‘ll see masks, statues, stools, woodlocks, pearls’jewels…that explains the role of woman in african society. The different rooms present various women’sides such as maternity, fertility, couple, initiation figure,… thanks to a sign, each room explains some part of the african culture. For example, you will learn that scarifications around women’ navel symbolizes the links to the world or that twins have a very special status in Africa. As a fertility symbol, they are feared and revered at the same time. And the Yoruba people (Nigeria) have the highest rate of twins in the world (45,1 for 1000 births) compared to Europe (10,9). And we still don’t know why !



And if you want your kids to improve their french, a guide in french !!! will reveal the secrets of African Art on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. For the 4-8 years old at 4.30 pm, and for the 8-12 years old at 2.30pm. Hurry up, it lasts till mid september.

Read it in French : L'art africain en Bretagne à Dinard

You like short names ... that are not nicknames for Facebook...
True, it is convenient ... for the curb of your last born … easy to be engraved on a gold medallion... Or easy to write with wooden block letters adorning the door of the children's bedroom ...

So... French short names... Those two are famous in Brittany : Malo from Saint Malo and Brieuc from Saint Brieuc. These two Saints have given their names to their cities.They're carved in Carnoët telling their stories: Malo with his boat and Brieuc with his wolf!

Let's go back to their legends...



Malo was born in what is now called Wales, like almost all the other holy founders of Brittany (except one Corentin). Celebrated on November 15, he was the first bishop of Aleth, (one of the peninsula of Saint Malo). Where says the legend, souls at that time needed to be purified ... Patrice Le Guen carved him with a ship because he needed 7 years to cross the Channel before reaching Cézembre (the island in front of St. Malo) ...



Brieuc was a monk. He became the first bishop of Saint Brieuc and the founder of the diocese. Born in 409, in Wales, he spent his life converting ... Once he was an old man, an angel asked him to evangelize Armorica. He crossed the sea with 168 followers and founded a monastery in Treguier that his nephew Tugdual would administer …
As the plague raged in his country of origin, he came back to quiet the epidemy and then returned to Armorica with new monks. He spent his whole life trying to convert sinners (which are symbolized by wolves who want to eat him but he tames them). The statue of Brieuc in Carnoët is shown with the animal at his feet … Later, Brieuc received land from a parent and founded the town of Saint Brieuc.
The legend continued after his death: as many miracles occured on his tomb, he became one of 7 founding saints. He died in 502 and he is celebrated on May 2. Brieuc in Breton is Brieg, Briec or Brioc.

Who are these Overseas Saints?

Originally, (about the 4th C), Christianity conquers Britain and becomes the dominant religion. The title of saint is honorary and given to the clergy. When these Saints cross the Channel to evangelize Armorica, those Great Bretons also import their way of seeing the world ... They manage people, and give their names to the places where they preached. And left their names in the breton toponymy.
Thus, according to the dictionary of Breton heritage, "There are about 800 Breton saints, many of whom are known only by lann or plous (lots of villages'names begin or end with lann or plou) which they have associated their names."

Lire cet article en français : Prénoms bretons courts : Malo et Brieuc

Buckwheat is not what it’s name suggests : it’s not wheat neither a cereal or a grain. It is a Polygonaceae, a sister of rheum, docks or sorrels.

In French and even in Breton, its name is blé noir (black wheat, the flour is dark) and it is used to make the famous galettes de blé noir (sarrasin).

Archeologists found it in Brittany in prehistorical pollen. But it is a common plant in Britain since the 15 th C, probably because it was reintroduced at that time in the region. And soon it became the basis of the food of the breton farmers.

Because it was so easy to grow it in Brittany : first of all, buckwheat is a crop that loves acidic or low fertility soils, it needs lots of water too. And Brittany was the place… we have “bad” soils and lots of rain.



As it grows quickly, farmers used to cultivate it beetween the winter crop and the summer one. It was also used to cover the fields and then as fertilizer.
Farmers could use hand mills to obtain flour, they did not have to use the mill which one must pay for!!!
During the 19th C, Brittany was producing 50% of the French buckwheat.

At the end of the 19th C, buckwheat was abandoned for new cereals and potatoes. And its cultivation began to decrease. During the 80's, 90's, crêperies had to import the flour from Russia or China as it was no more cultivated in France. And with the green movement, hardy plants have a new life : farmers in Center Brittany began to produce it again. Now you find organic buckwheat produced here, in the region.

Today buckwheat has other nice advantages : gluten free, it is also a good provider of vitamins, proteins, minerals such as iron… it is nice for food allergy.

Beer is also done with buckwheat in Brittany.



And all over the world, buckwheat has its specialities. Specially in its original region South East Asia : in Japan, people eat it as pasta. Or the grains are used to make special pillows to relax…

Read it in French : Blé noir ou sarrasin en bretagne : une farine miracle

For nostalgic people, Parisians in love with Britain, for lovers of the past, the exhibition Bretagne, voyager en couleurs (1907-1929), (Britain, travel colors) presents 140 colour photographies (autochromes) and several films on the region at the beginning of the century.

It begins with an explanation of what is an autochrome (invented by the Lumiere brothers,it is an industrial process to realize colour photograph),... and how the Parisians of the time went practice their autochromes'art in small Britain. The tourist guides then depicted the region as "authentic", photographers did visit it for its "folk", as if it were a foreign country... and it was a hobby for the photographers to achieve good "snapshots" of a folk Brittany ...

The autochromes in the museum represent the picturesque side of the Bretons: men in costume, women in traditional headdress, traditional villages with children in wooden shoes, mythical landscapes, sunsets, religious ceremonies... Good pictures of small Britain ... that are even used today … as clichés... There are also videos.The works presented include collections of the Albert Kahn Museum or the Musée de Bretagne.
The museum is named after the banker and philanthropist pacifist Albert Kahn (1860-1940) and has the largest collection in the world of autochromes (over 72000).

Who was Albert Kahn ?

A singular man, a visionary: he had understood that the world was changing and that the traditional ways of life would disappear. For twenty years (1909 to 1931), he recruited photographers to go capture the world's memory in about fifty countries, the future foundation of the Archives de la planète. Most of the museum's collection is the work of these witnesses ...

The museum has also beautiful gardens... Albert Kahn was also an idealist and an utopian. He created those gardens to reconcile people and to bring in one place an English garden, a French garden and a Japanese garden (he is familiar with Japan), a Vosges forest, a forest with "blue trees", a meadow ... All the gardens are open to the public.
The museum (www.albert-kahn.fr/) is in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine (Metro Boulogne Pont de Saint-Cloud (line 10). And the exhibition runs until July 4, 2010. 11 am to 6 pm.

Read this article in French : Clichés de la Bretagne à Paris au musée Albert Kahn

Book the last week end of November to go to the first Breton gastronomy fair in Brittany (salon breton du livre et du gourmet). We won’t talk about French cuisine but Breton cuisine…
Go to Saint Brieuc with an empty stomach !!! Because lots of breton chefs and wine waiters will be there, cooking or showing their cooking secrets !!! You will also taste fine local products, see professionnal tools, discover plenty of recipes and cooking tips. You will get the signature of famous breton chefs that will present their books.

And you’ll also enjoy the evening meals that are prepared by those local stars for the event in their restaurants (you have to book now !). Or you can taste chocolates that will be done on the fair. Or appreciate scallops specialities !!! (Saint Brieuc is on the Breton coast).

Love goes through the stomach, I think you say,then you’ll leave the fair with a love feeling!!!

It is the first time of the fair, it is free, don't miss it and enjoy it !!!

Read it in French : salon breton du livre et du gourmet à saint brieuc fin novembre

The idea is pharaonic ...
its size first: a breton valley with monumental statues (over 3 meters high) .... and its number: 1000 granite Saints ....
What a job! Most of them are still invisible, they are waiting for the sculptors to create them...



The project of the association, is to create an Easter island, a Breton one for the 3rd millennium … to glorify the memory of 1500 years of popular Breton culture ... and to protect the identity of the region.

The first Patron Saints to be carved are those who helped for the Christianization of Britain.
At St. Pol de Leon, during the summer of 2009, artists began to carve the granite and St. Pol was born. 6 other saints of Christianity have followed: Pattern, Malo, Brieuc, Corentin Tugdual and Samson. Each one done by a different artist ...

These works of art were looking for a place to stay : 9 cities have been competing to receive the project. And the city of Carnoët , central Britain, (a few kilometers from Carhaix), won the bet.

After a summer on the coast, the statues returned to their final home, the elected site Tossen Sant Gweltaz .... And the valley began to be inhabited.
The project continues ... There are still a few (!) dozens of carving statues to be done to "feed" the valley. Sponsorship (each statue-menhir is funded by a company) must allow sculptors, each year make their works in granite. From May to September, each month, 8 artists will carve a Catholic patron saint with its attributes (about forty a year). If you want to compete, go on ! The sculpture competition will go on for a while !

The association hopes to attract thousands of visitors and be a cultural crossroads site (Welsh, Irish, Cornish, Breton ...). A center of information and documentation about the Middle Ages (time when the Saints arrived in Britain), the reconstruction of a Celtic monastery and a stage to receive theatrical, musical ... will be created too.

The idea is certainly very good ... and very ambitious, for sure. An arts center to attract hikers from everywhere with a unique site in France, even in the world .... in the Center of Brittany .... (according to the Tourism Committee of Britain, visitors come overwhelmingly in the region to enjoy the coastline, coasts and sea ..). To divert the flow to the inside of Brittany, you need at least a mammoth project ... The musical festival in Carhaix, festival des vieilles charrues, is a good example of success, it is one of the biggest music scene in France...

I went to see ... this winter, these carved megaliths. It is not easy to find them... There was no sign for the precious valley. I was a bit lost in Carnoët when a nice lady told me where to go. It's in the land, park in front of a beautiful church with a beautiful Calvary and after a few meters, you'll arrive at the place which hosts the statues.



The three-meters high statues watch you from the top of the hill.

But for now, the Saints seem to be standing there ... ! and wait for friends! ... May be this outdoor celtic park in Brittany will be competing with Disneyland Paris!



Read this article in French : la vallée des saints : 1000 statues à Carnoët (Bretagne)

5 a day they say…

Ok, but when tomatoes have no taste, when peaches are unripe and when strawberries are time bombs, what should we eat ?
Well, choose the breton strawberries… the one produced at Plougastel, called gariguettes. They are slim, very long and really tasty…



Plougastel has a long reputation as a land of strawberries. Again, it is due to a mild climate ... as often for the cultivation of vegetables in Britanny. Sea regulates the temperature (it is never really hot and it does not freeze). The season lasts from April to November.

The strawberry fields are located in the countryside of Plougastel Daoulas. During the last century, strawberries were protected by small stone walls. Today the plants are hidden in tunnels or in greenhouses.

Let’s go back to the 19th century. Strawberries are grown, replacing the cultivation of flax which was then the wealth of Brittany. Flax was used to make canvas (called daoulas) that were exported around the world. But the international competition (American and British) is too strong, breton producers have to evolve. They began to grow strawberries on the peninsula to replace the flax.

At that time, 25% of the French production was breton. And soon they tried to exporte their fruits to... England. Or Paris when the railway connects Brest to the French capital in 1865.

Since then, the strawberry culture oscillates between periods of plenty and bad times....Competition is fierce on the large international market of strawberries.

Have you ever eaten a gariguette. It is not the cheapest one but it is full of smells and extremely tasty. They are picked by hand, when they are ripe enough and delicately layed down on trays. No need to add sugar, as it is harvested at maturity.

And then if you are interested in sustainable development, they don’t come from far, far away…

If you buy organic strawberries, have you noticed the one with strange shapes: these are flowers that have not been properly gathered… they grow "distorted" ...



Want to know more about the history of the strawberries… In Europe and in our countries, the wild strawberry has been around forever (at least during the Roman times). Amédée François Frezier (Frezier in French even if it is not spelled the same, means strawberry plant), a French explorer, brought back from South America a variety of strawberries that are the ancestors of those of Plougastel.

Visit a strawberry farm at Plougastel. You'll learn much more!

Then, what do you think ? Are the strawberry a Breton tradition? A gastronomic heritage? A speciality of Brittany? Please vote !



Read it in French : Les fraises de Plougastel : tourisme ou patrimoine gastronomique

Menez-Bre, this is the breton name of one the highest mountains of Brittany... 302 meters high ! Yes, and I climbed it... the rise of Menez-Bre it's 18% ... of fatigue... or of great pleasure...



Menez-Bre means sacred mountain in breton language (z is sometimes pronounced sometimes not depending on the corner of Britain you live in). It is a beautiful hill where St. Hervé chapel is built.
It is located in the middle of Brittany, a bit North, and it is surrounded by three villages Louargat, Pédernec and Tréglamus.
It can be hiked up from all sides and down on the opposite. And then walk the road, that returns to your starting point.
At the top, the Chapel Saint Hervé dominates the landscape and you will guess, through an orientation table, the different points of the land ... Monts d'Arrée ? Pink granite coast ?

A legend says that Conomor, the breton Bluebeard, was judged here... And it is also there that Gwench'lan, a prophet and a bard of the 5th C, (who refused to convert to Catholicism and had therefore his eyes gouged out, who was an enemy of Christians but a lover of birds) has been buried here after the battle against St. Hervé.
Hence the chapel Saint Hervé, symbol of the winner ! Parts of the building date from the 16th, 17th and 18th C, it has often been rebuilt.



It used to be a place of an important pilgrimage - but it is now unfortunately closed most of the time.

Let me tell you ... the history of Saint Hervé and this French first name.... and its chapel.
He is one of the few saints from Brittany to be born here in Britain in the 6th C. Blind since birth, God would not let him see the deceptive appearances of the world, he became a hermit and was always moving with a wolf. He was also a very popular confessor all over Brittany. He is also a holy bard and exorcist.

A bard ... He is the patron saint of Breton musicians and singers. That is why the Breton bards gathered here all night to pray ... And exorcist …Demons... watch out ! In fact, the 18th C exorcism sessions were held here on the sacred mountain.

One episode is often reported : a priest, Guillermic climbed the hill barefoot reciting prayers... Before him, many exorcists came here to celebrate a Mass at midnight to scare away evil spirits.

Saint Hervé is used to cure anxiety, fears or even depression.
This patron has also sparked a source close to the Chapel (300 meters East) where sick children were plunged to heal.
Many believers suffering from eye diseases or scalp came also on pilgrimage ... to be cured.
Finally, he has composed a the famous breton song the Paradise (Ar Baradoz). Hervé is celebrated June 17.

The Menez-Bre is also, since the Middle Ages, renowned for its horse fairs that stopped in the 1960s.



Hike on the village Louargat... too.
First, because the stones village is nice. And because you will find other excuses to walk around : or rather the menhir Pergat a few kilometers away from downtown. It is one of the highest menhirs in Europe, 7 to 10 meters according to sources.
And another smaller is quite weard... Put your back against the great menhir (don't wear nylon), look at the small menhir, a field of lines of force is created. your hair will tend to stand on your head.

There is also a mound (not easy to find ... I have not found any info about him) is in the opposite direction.

There are also many churches and chapels (Saint Eloi, Our Lady of Snow, St. John, St. Fiacre, Saint Paul, Saint-Sylvestre ...) in this town.

Why not spend a weekend here...
You can choose between accommodation in a cottage very close to the chapel of St. Hervé, or you can pitch your tent in a campsite within the Park of the Manor of Cleuziou (15th – 18thC).
You can even decorate your dishes or salads with herbs gathered in their garden ... Fun, no !



Read this article in French : Week-end de randonnées dans les montagnes de Bretagne : escapade dans le Trégor