1 –The biggest menhir in Brittany weights 30 metric tons ?
It weights much more. Menhir is a breton word : men means stone and hir means long. If you know the French Obélix, it is the stone he is carrying around. The biggest in Brittany lies in Locmariaquer (Morbihan) it used to be 21 meters (more than 65 ft) long but it is broken and lays down on the floor. It weights more than 300 metric tons.




2 – A dolmen is a circle of different stones ?
You’re wrong. A dolmen is a « stonetable » in breton language, that means upright stones that are carrying a roofstone. Dolmen are really often without roof and have misceallanous architectures : the passageway is short to long, it has one to many chambers that are round, rectangular… La Roche aux Fées (Essé, Ille et Vilaine) is a nice one. During the neolitic time, it was probably covered by earth and stones forming a barrow.



3- And what is a cromlech or a cairn ?
A cromlech is a circle of standing stones.
A cairn is a dolmen,( the stonetable I was talking about earlier), but covered by a barrow. It is hidden by an earthen mound and it looks like a small mountain. Barnenez and Gavrinis are two famous breton exemples. Here you can see the tumulus (barrow) of Dissignac close to Saint Nazaire, (Loire Atlantique).



All these buildings have been erected at several periods, some of the stones were carved with symbols. They probably have had different goals, but we don’t know for what. Some were graves, may be some others were temples but we can only guess, the stones could have religious functions, astronomical functions,... We also don’t know why our megalith builders destroyed them (menhir brisé de Locmariaquer). When Christianity begins to appear in Brittany, the stones are already used for pagan rituals, and the Church doesn’t like it. They try to christanize it and carved christian cross or others christian symbols on it.



4 – Were the Egyptian pyramides already built when our ancestors were carrying their menhirs.
Well, some of the breton buildings are much older. We know it surely since the 50’s when carbon 14 was found. And we finally discover that they are really old. The neolithic men built the megalitic buildings between – 5000 and – 2000 BC. Our Egyptian friends began their pyramids around - 3000 when our Bretons are megalith specialists. The megalith time lasted 3000 years. And the buildings done are quite different : short corridors, long corridors, square, circular chambers…



5 - Menhirs , dolmens and other megalithic buildings were built by
- a Celts
- b Druids

a – During the XVIIIth century when the “scientists” began to look at those strange constructions, they thought that the Celts built them. We know now thanks to Carbon 14 that they are much older as Celts arrived in Brittany around 500 BC.
b – Caesar wrote about the druids in their stonetemples but they just used it and did not built it.


6 – In Brittany we say that Pantagruel, and his friends let menhirs everywhere ?

May be you don’t know who is Pantagruel. he is a hero of a book from Rabelais, a French writer from the XVI th century. He is part of the French folklore. Pantagruel, a jovial fellow, is a giant with an enormous appetite, and he is good-humoured.
He is the one who left a tooth in Saint Suliac (menhir de Saint Suliac, Ille et Vilaine). He took a gravelout of his shoe and let it fall in Fort Lalatte,another one in Cap Frehel ...


7 – Others say that the fairies did it !!!
They actually did the dolmen called la Roche aux Fées, that explains its name fairyrock. Look at the work they’ve done with the stones !!!



We don’t have any written signs for this civilization and archeologists guess every time they discover something new. They think now that the settled agricultural communities, that erected the buildings, were quite organized. They probably had a leader and asked the other communities around to help them to built the monument. So the monument was a common work : it needed the help of geologists (stones were not choosen at random and were often extracted far from the place where they wanted to build the monument), engineers for the architecture, astronomists to position the building…they did not need mason as the building are done without mortar.
Some experiences have been done to try to carry the stones : in 1979 at Stonehenge, about hundred men succeded in towing a 32 metric tons stone, supported by logs and using vegetal ropes.
To extract the stones, they probably were introducing small pieces of wood in the crevices of the blocks, and swollen with water, it did fissure the block. What a job!!!


8 – The megalithic architecture was born in Brittany ?
No, it was not but the alignments of Carnac are a famous place because of his high number of stones ( about 3000 and specialists guess that they were much more, may be 10 000). You can see megaliths in many other places in the world, close to us in Corsica, in Sardinia, Malta, Majorca… but also in Asia or South America.


9 – There are just 5 to 10% menhirs left in Brittany ?
Yes, that’s right. During the XIXth century, the “learned society” wanted to study the past and were carrying out excavations. These excavations were destructives because they were just dismantling the sites and razed it after. And also for many centuries, people used the stones to build their houses, later to do the roads. They did not care of culture and inheritage at that time.


10 – Why don’t we find bones under breton stones ?

Well, because the dogs came first !!! Some of them were burial chambers and you find no bones because the soil in Brittany is acid and « eat » the bones. Flints, pottery, pearls,arrows…were found in the megalithic constructions.


11 – What were those stones used for ?
We can only guess, they must have had a religious purpose. Standing stones may be calendars, markers of territory … Dolmens or cairns were burials sites…

Read it in French : Menhirs, dolmens, cromlechs et autres cairns en Bretagne : testez vos connaissances,

Do you know that dandelion is a french name… dent de lion which means lion teeth… because of the shape of its leaves.

In April, land is covered with dandelion flowers. Yes indeed, this plant is useful and the wonders of the dandelion are to be discovered…

First of all it is an easy plant to find…It grows almost everywhere, even in weird places like walls or concrete…



But be careful not to confuse them with other plants : more than hundred species are alike and have also yellow flowers. But they are not as tasty or even they can be toxic.

How to recognize a dandelion ?

The flower smells honey and if you eat its heart, it slightly sweet and taste like honey.
The stem is hollow and oozes a white liquid.
There is only one flower per stem.
Once it’s faded, the plant has fine hairs… that’s the best way to recognize them.



Its leaves are dentated : that’s the origin of its name, remember…
In French we call it pissenlit (piss in bed) because of its diuretic properties.
What to do with it ?

In France, the classical salad with potatoes, bacon and eggs.
The leaves can also be eaten cooked as spinach.
The roots were used during the second world war as a substitute to coffee.
The flowers, melliferous (plants that bees used to make honey), are used to make a wonderful jelly.



Read it in French : Vertus des plantes sauvages : le pissenlit

On the French side of my blog, I wrote a post about what it meant to be Breton in Brittany... But it is not really interesting for non French people...
So, I'll do it on my English side more worldwide : What does it mean to you being French? Lots of clichés, for sure... Same things about French manners ! How French man or lady act in society ?
Wide question !
Are you intested in learning more about the real way of life of a French or of a Breton... If you travel by car, you must cross Brittany, our small Britain. And you want to understand more about this wonderful place for sure...
By the way, as you probably know, Bretagne in French is either Britain or Brittany. Britain is for us the Great one (Grande Bretagne, Great Britain) and Brittany (Bretagne) is the French one. And Breton can be used for British and for Breton.
So, while travelling around, investigate the French way of life and the one of Brittany's people ! and compare ! French clichés for beginners ! !!!

About French table manners
French people like to remain at table for hours
If you don't sauce your dish with bread, you're out !
One hamburger is eaten while 9 baguette sandwich are tasted
365 cheeses on the French territory, one a day... with green salad !

The French way of life in the Breton cuisine
- Bretons feast in a creperie
- They buy only cauliflower "Prince of Brittany" (and produced in Brittany , not in Britain!)
- They enjoy oysters on the port of Cancale (and during good months ...)
- They only eat Plougastel strawberries ... (Plougastel is a city in the west of Brittany)

French feel French when
They speak loud
They criticize their administration
They strike all the time
The national sport : to steal tax

Bretons feel Breton when they ...
- dance in the Fest Noz! (fest noz is a breton word meaning night party where you dance to Breton music).
- swear that their grandmother wore a cap in the last century!
- punctuate every sentence with a Kenavo (thank you in breton language)!
- wear a sticker "A l'aise Breizh" on the car (means be confortable, man)

How French Parisians look at Bretons
- They wear wooden clogs
- They have discovered the frigde in the 2000's
- They're narrow minded,backward.... in short stubborn like a Breton
- Brittany, it is "province", there's nothing to do there...

How Breton look at Parisians
- Look how slow he is driving... Must be a Parisian on holydays...
- Look at those Parisians with their yellow raincoat and boots... Ah, Ah, Ah !
- Don't know how to eat pancakes : just two ingredients, more you won't taste the galette, ignorant !
- I do love Parisians ! No, no way, they're too arrogant and do not know anything about anything ...

See how the love story goes ! French unions are perfect !
I could go on (LOL) .... !!!! but I leave the pen! For Your opinion! About French manners, acting, speaking, eating...
And don't act wrongly now !

TRUE OU FALSE

The island of Batz was connected to the mainland during the Iron Age (8th to 6th BC)
A village is buried in the east of the island
The island has never sent a soldier to the Army
The lighthouse of Batz has 500 steps
Enez Vaz means Dragon Island
Algae have replaced the trees on the island
British people settled fortifications on Batz
The island is a paradise for early vegetables and organic farmers

By bike or on foot, go and get the answers ...



The island of Batz was connected to the mainland during the Iron Age (8th to 6th BC) ?
Yes, you could walk there at low tide. Last century, thirty neolithic graves (4000 years old) were discovered by Georges Delaselle, the founder of the colonial garden. He dug a hole, protected by a hedge of cypress and pine trees, on the east end of the island (where the garden is now) to house his exotic plants.

A village is buried in the east of the island.
Yes, the present village (where the ferry arrives) is recent.
Until the 17th century, the village was located on the east side of the island, where are the prehistoric tombs. This place may have been continuously inhabited since the Iron Age, as other traces of human presence were found. In any case, the village is covered by 6 feet of dunes.

You’ll understand better if you go to the chapel of St. Anne. This Romanesque church is half hidden in the dunes.



Its square pillars replaced the monastery built by Pol Aurelian, a Welsh arrived in the 5th century to convert Britain. Towards 530, he created a monastery then destroyed by the Vikings in 878.
At the end of the 11th century, when calm has returned the monks rebuilt a church.
When the sands were threatening, it has been gradually abandoned for the Kernoc’h bay. The ruins of the church have been used as an artillery warehouse shortly before and after the French Revolution. Today a mass in the open air is celebrated for Sainte Anne (Holy Ann) end of July The chapel and the cemetery are listed since 1980.

The island has never sent a soldier to the Army.
That is how the tourist guide Joanne (1884) presents the island. On this island, all men are sailors. The soil is grown exclusively by women. And some of them let their name in the history of Batz.
A native Yves Trémintin began to serve the State as a pilot. Soon, he fought with courage against pirates and lost a leg. He finished his life on his island limping ...
There is also a Portuguese privateer ... Balidar, who hated the English and therefore helped the French during the Revolution ... With his vessel, he was hidden in the channel and awaited the enemy ... The Batziens (inhabitants of Batz) prevented him when ships were in sign and he attacked.



The lighthouse of Batz has 500 steps.
It was built between 1836 and 1852. But you have to deserve it… 210 steps to climb…



Enez Vaz means Dragon Island
No, Bazh means in Breton language stick. And it has no link with the legend of the island…
There once was a dragon ... who was terrible.
In the early centuries of the Christian era, Pol Aurelian arrived in Batz to convert the island. The governor of the island begged the saint to set the island free from the monster ...
With the help of another gentleman, he went dressed in his priestly vestments, to the lair of the beast. There, without being intimidated by the wrath of the animal, he surrounded the neck of the dragon with a stole*. And led him to the sea where it disappeared.

On the north of the island, the place known as "Toul ar sarpent", the Trou du Serpent, still has the claw of the dragon printed in the stone.



The two heroes were rewarded. The gentleman was given the privilege to go to church with the sword to the side. As for Pol, he received many presents : a palace that he turned into a monastery. He also made some more miracles : a spring gushed out and healed 3 blind men, two mutes and a paralyzed.
Around the year 600, he was buried in Saint-Pol-de-Léon.
*The stole is retained in the new church of Batz.

Sometimes in Brittany, in legends, snakes replace dragons (because dragons were frequently linked with fairies and fairies are not working all over). The serpent is also more familiar and therefore more credible. These legendary figures are in any case often a symbol of the pagan religions that have to disappear...

Algae have replaced the trees on the island ...
There were very few trees on the island ... Islanders used algae and cow pats dried in the sun as combustible to cook or heat the houses (Tourist guide Joanne, 1884).
The more difficult was to harvest them… at low tide or in water up to the knee, women pulled wrack out of the sea ... Not always easy ... being a woman in Batz!

Today the harvest is done by tractors



or with scoubidous these strange boats, with long arms that gather laminars on the seabed.

British people settled fortifications on Batz
Yes, there are many vestiges of fortification against the English…
4 batteries (18th C) used to defend the Bay of Morlaix : the Penn Ar C'hleguer one is after the exotic garden, the battery Bilvidic, on the opposite edge and the other two on the remaining points.
There are also remnants of the Atlantic Wall (German defensive system of the Second World War) with bunkers .... But the vegetation today hides them well ....

The island is a paradise for early vegetables and organic farmers
The parcels are sheltered by small walls or hedges and fertilized by seaweed. Potatoes, fennel, rhubarb grow ... with a few weeks ahead… early agriculture. 3 harvests a year, sometimes the collection is done by hand.
Half of the island is grown in organic agriculture.
The island deserves its label…

Read it in french : Les histoires de l'ile de Batz : prétexte à une balade

If you are visiting Saint Malo, you should stop at the shop producing and selling the breton speciality called “craquelin de Saint Malo”. Arriving from the highway, take Saint Malo centre and at the first round about, take a right, you’re on the factory (Z.A.C. de la moinerie, 35400 Saint-Malo, Tél : 02 99 81 92 89). You can no more visit it but you can still taste their different specialities.



What is a craquelin ?
Is it a brioche with sugar or a light craker eaten at breakfast time ? Well, craquelins are both ; they are european specialities. The first one is made in Belgium and the second is a breton product.



In Brittany, according to their website craquelins de Saint Malo, it is an old traditional product (almost 400 years). As in 1663 the Saint Malo hospital already mentions it.

Why do we find them in Saint Malo region ?
The first explanation is that Saint Malo has a long trade tradition and in particular with Flanders. And so ? The word craquelin is a Dutch word crakelinc, that means crispy biscuit.
The second one is that there use to be lots of forests on the Rance estuary. To bake the craquelins, you need lots of fagots…

Why is it so successful ?
A craker is dry and therefore easy to preserve and so easy to transport and sell. They were sold on the markets, and women used to carry them (2000 pieces) in big baskets on their backs and sell them on farms. At Dinard, the first seaside resort of the end of the XIXth century, British customers used to love them.

Why is it so special ?
It doesn’t come from its recipe, which is quite simple : flour, eggs, milk. It comes from the way it is baked. The dough is first quickly boiled, then cooled in cold water and then put in the oven. That makes it so special !!!

12 pieces bags are sold for 2,20 euros.



And if you buy 10, you get a discount as local customers do. Hotels are big buyers, and they make it known… Lots of tourists come to that shop to buy them before going home.

The traditional product has now other varieties : smaller ones for salty toasts, chocolate ones that taste like pyms but in much lighter… you can find them salt free.



If you never went to Saint Servan, go for a walk in that nice district of Saint Malo, it is worth it…

Read it in French : Les craquelins de Saint Malo, une spécialité bretonne de l'estuaire de la rance (France)

You’ve already visited Dinan and liked it ! Do you know then the small town Léhon which is really nice… and quite close (30 minutes walk). Have a look at it, it ‘s really worth it for whom loves old stones…



You have to go to Dinan harbour and cross the old bridge. Walk then along the canal for half an hour and you’ll soon see the old buildings of Léhon abbey.

To visit the religious priory, go on till a stone bridge.

Let’s talk a bit about this nice bridge.

It has been erected here because long ago, before the bridge, it was a ford. Rivers have always been a problem for whom doesn’t swim or doesn’t like to bath in cold waters…



Romans used to ford the Rance here and it was an important communication route between the main cities of the Roman Brittany. (Roman invaded Brittany during the first century after Christ).

Well the ford became a bridge when the monks during the Xth century thought it would be helpful… A nice bridge was built… but in wood… That means that when the river Rance was raging, the bridge could not stand… and when the Rance was in spate, the bridge did fly in the water...

Tired of this bridge coming in and going out, the inhabitants decided to build it in stones during the XVth to the XVI th century… but as the Rance was still not canalized… and still so vigourous… the bridge sometimes threatened to fall or even did fall apart.

And sometimes it was on purpose destroyed… specially when the Royal Army in 1799 wanted to conquer Dinan and as it was the only bridge around, the Bretons destroyed one of the arch…



The missing arch will be replaced by a wooden footbridge, and later during the XIX th century by a metal one.

In 1832 the Rance was canalized and an important trade using the canal began between the harbour Saint Malo and Rennes the breton maincity. The footbridge allowed the boats through. The horses used to go along the towpath to tow the boats, full of goods from Saint Malo.

The nowadays bridge was built in 1925. The large arch allowed the barges (special flat boat used on canals) to go through. But the events still go on…

During the Second World War, the German Army destroyed the central arch to slow down the Allied advance. It was raised again in 1946.

And now cross the bridge and I’ll meet you on the other side (next post !!!) to visit the Léhon abbey…



Read it in French : Balade à Léhon petite cité de caractère de Bretagne (France)

I was wondering what kind of green walk I could do when I remembered this legend...

Teillay is a small village about ten miles from Bain de Bretagne. It is in the forest, bordering the administrative border of Brittany and Pays de la Loire in France, that a story took place during the French Revolution.
Leaving the village take the first road into the forest on your right hand. Go a few hundred yards, you will notice a small trail that leads to a grave. The legend is reported in several versions, the end is the same : the girl died ! ...



Sainte Pataude is buried here, according to the legend, (Pataud means clumsy and it was the nickname given to Republicans by the Chouans) ...
And you'll understand why when you know the story of Marie Martin, (Sainte Pataude) a young woman from Tresboeuf... a village in the surroundings... She is 18, 19 years and works in a shop. The Chouans (the Monarchists) are looking for her... because she denounced the Royalists or because they did not like the attachment of her master to the Republic. Anyway, she did resist ...
The story happened in 1795, 6 years after the French Revolution, days of hate and cruelty in France between the Monarchists and the Republicans ... The girl didn't talk... The soldiers took her... She suffered all sorts of atrocities (I'll spare you the details, Amnesty International did not exist at the time but they would have had something to do!) and ended up hanged by the hair ... She is buried at the foot of the oak where she was found.



Soon rumors suggest that patients who went on her grave, came back healed ... Curiously the refractory priests tried to stop beliefs by threatening to excommunicate the "pilgrims" who came ... for miraculous cures. (Don 't forget the Chouans killed her, the defendants of the right to believe in God). Anyhow, as it is written in the report of the time, everyone, aristocrats (against Revolution) and patriots (for), went there.

The tomb is still visited today. It is covered with flowers, clothes are hanging on trees, shoes littered the floor, letters testify to the Saint's commitment. Sainte Pataude is still prayed for children, to help them walk (small children's shoes are around the grave), but also for many other ailments or hope of healing. The number of ex-votos on the site shows how Sainte Pataude can still help many desperates.



The local newspaper explains that the villagers continue to maintain the grave, for fear that if they abandoned it, they'll get bad luck and misfortune.

Read this article in French : Croyance populaire : tombe à la fille

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

Have you ever read Asterix and Obelix ? If you did, you surely know the menhirs Obelix is walking around with. Well, the dolmen of La Roche aux Fées was not done by Obelix but thanks to breton fairies…



The dolmen is at about 20 km east from Rennes, under old oaks in the country of the village Essé. Once you reach Essé just follow the signs to the megalith. It is open all year long and free.
The dolmen is one of the most impressive in France : 20 meters long , 4 meters wide and you can stand inside, it was build with about 40 stones, some of them weighing more than 40 tons… Yes,the people at that time were quite strong…



A dolmen is a breton word that means table of stones, it is a chamber made with upright stones and covered with large flat capstones for the roof.…. Quite simple no… This dolmen has a long corridor, a portico nicely cut



and at the end a room. Until the 50’s the megalithic monuments were seen as building done by the Celts (they arrived in Brittany in 600 BC) but we know now thanks to the Americans that discovered the Carbon-14 that it is much older, for this one around 3500 BC.
It did not look like that during the neolitic time, because it was probably recovered by a tumulus (mound of earth and little stones). Specialists still don’t know if it was a temple or a grave (dictionnaire du patrimoine breton d’Alain Croix).
Neolitic people were really strong when you know that the stones weight more than 40 tons and that they come from an area that is 4 kms away. (foret du Theil)
Neolitic time (in Brittany from -3500 to-1800 BC) correspond to the beginning of agriculture and breeding. Thanks to the domestication of plants, a new type of social organisation appears with a specialization of men and work. They begin to build those monuments. But to build them they need specialized workers : “ geologists ” that choosed the type of stones, “ architects ” that think and build the construction and "drivers" to transport the stones – we guess that they were using woodlogs to rool the stones - , and "astronomists" that decide in which direction the corridor will be.




The building is orientated Northwest-South South East but it is not fate. No, it is a solstice alignment. You should go there on a 21 december and you’ll see the sunrays penetrating the building just in its center. You said they were wearing beast skins…
But may be we’re wrong and the fairies did it. That explains its name (Roche aux Fées = fairies rock) , the legend says that the fairies carried the stones from Le Theil. They let some fall around (at Retiers la Pierre de Richebourg or at Janzé la Pierre des Fées). I ll tell you the legend another day…

To sum up, you have to visit the dolmen for three reasons :
- to quench your curiosity
- to do the same thing that neolitic men were doing on december 21st
- to be sure of your lover. Don’t trust meetic, and test your love at la Roche aux Fées (also called lovers’oracle). Take your love on a full moonnight. Count the stones. If you find the same number, go on and marry him or her. If you don’t… recount them…
Last thing : take care of the building. I want my grand,grand grandgrand children to see it...
Leaving the place you can taste nice local products, see you on the next post

Read it in French : Visite au pays de la Roche aux fées (Ille et Vilaine, Bretagne)

When I was walking on the seafront at La Baule, I saw a sign that attracts my attention : war cemetery. War cemeteries are quite usual in Normandy or at Verdun but here in La Baule, a place of watersports and leisure…
So I went to see it. And it is not an American but a British cemetery from the second World War.

It is hidden in a housing estate close to La Baule aerodrom. But it is part of another town la Baule Escoublac.

You may not know that we are no more in Brittany (administrative region) . In fact we are in the historical Brittany, that means the one that used to be the Duchy of Brittany. Loire Atlantique (which is the name of the department where La Baule is) does not belong anymore to Brittany but Pays de Loire. Explanation : During WWII, in 1941, Pétain (the leader of the occupied France at that time) decided to reorganise French regions for economic and strategic reasons. He wanted the department Loire Atlantique to be part of the Pays de Loire. The Loire flows to Nantes (capital of Loire Atlantique), but Nantes has been capital of the Duchy of Brittany… Anyway, the decision took effect in 1955, much later. But till now some Bretonese want it back...

Let’s go back to our cemetery. British people take care of it. More than 300 soldiers are buried there, most of them quite young. They died in 1940 and 1942 and a sign explains both in French and in English what happened to those combatants.



Why 1940 ? France lost the war and British troops are hurrying to Saint Nazaire, a port on the French Atlantic coast for the evacuation. Several ships are there, one of them is The Lancastria.
The requisitionned cruise liner is overloaded (survivors talk about 6 to 9000 passengers) and is sunk by the Luftwaffe (German Airforce). Probably between 4 to 7000 people died. It occured the day of the French capitulation (17th of june 1940) and Winston Churchill decided not to talk about it, he didn’t want to demoralize more his citizens. It is probably the worst British maritime disaster of all time.
In 1942, Saint Nazaire is a German naval base for submarines. The British wanted to destroy the only dry lock capable of repairing battleships. The soldiers, who rendered unusable the lock till the end of the war, were Commandos from UK, but also New Zealand,



Australia, from occupied countries such as Poland…



Operation Chariot was successful.

All the pictures of the graves.



Read it in French : Cimetières de guerre de la seconde guerre mondiale en Bretagne

I have some friends who tested the thalassotherapy establishment at Billiers in Morbihan. It is in the Domaine de la Rochevilaine (20 km south of Vannes). And they say it’s so nice…



Brittany has a long tradition of thalassotherapies : the first one was created in Roscoff at the end of the XIXth century. Roscoff was and is known for his incredibly huge variety of algae and thalassotherapies use algae for their cures, their massages, their cosmetics. Since then Brittany has a lot of thalassotherapies on its coasts and each one has its speciality : dietetics, relaxation, dermatology, and its famous cosmetics …

Rochevilaine (Spa Vannes - Domaine de Rochevilaine,Pointe de Pen Lan, 56190 – Billiers tel: 02 97 41 61 61) is in a small peninsula – just for the thalasso- and offers a wide range of cures with a tasty gastronomic program.

The Domaine de Rochevilaine is a Relais & Château (the label Relais &Chateau means it has to be a really nice, charming, silent place with character and really nice food). To enter the Domaine, you have to go through a XIIIth century porch and you are in a beautiful garden and you soon discover the manor house.



The center is also known for its medieval sculptures and the exhibitions of modern artists.

You want to make a thalasso , well, you re in the ideal spot. You have all the facilities of a spa center : spa, sauna, hammam, fitness room. The whole establishment is surrounded by the sea. There are two sea water swimming pools , one of them is an out door one on the cliffs and you have the feeling you’re bathing in the sea (that’s what I’ve been told).

And the food ? You know how are the Frogs with their bellies… Well the restaurant is also really nice : large bay windows makes you feel like eating on the water. The courses are done with sea products (lobsters, oyster, bass…) and other local goods. And it is SO good (I quote my friends).



Once you’ve eaten well, relaxed a bit, you can walk along the coastal paths and discover the curiosities of the village Billiers. On your walk on the coast you’ll find the dolmen du crapaud, the port and the lighthouse of Pen Lan,



Saint Maixent church which is a seamark (seamarks are white painted markers such as walls, stones… that are done to be seen from the open sea). The abbey of Billiers (abbaye de Prières) with its sole’s stone (pierre à soles) that was used as a build for the soles fished by the fishermen…

If you want to mix health and pleasure, that’s the right place to go to…



Read it in French : Thalasso et gastronomie en bretagne : domaine de la Roche Vilaine à Billiers (Morbihan)