The
name "
Brittany" derives from
the Britons who, back in the dark ages,
came south across the English Channel to seek refuge from the Anglo
Saxon invaders who were pushing them out of a large part of the island
of Great Britain.
In this historic past, other Britons
fled to the west and south west of their own island, to Wales
and Cornwall; and so it is that today, Brittany shares a historic
culture with the other Celtic regions of northwest Europe.
Today, the French administrative region of
Brittany covers four "departments", the
Côtes d'Armor (22)
in the north,
Finistère
(29) in the far west,
Morbihan
(56) in the south, and
Ille
et Vilaine (35) in the east, bordering on Normandy and the
Loire valley area. Another department used to belong to the historic
province of Brittany, and this was the Loire Atlantique (44), the area
round the city of Nantes which used once to be the Breton capital, but
is today no longer in the region.
The capital city of the modern Brittany
region is
Rennes, located in the central eastern part of the region; most of the
major lines of communication between Brittany and Paris pass through
Rennes, which is a large industrial and university city. Other
important cities in the region are Brest, one of the two most important
French naval ports, St Malo, an imposing walled city on the north
coast, and Vannes, the capital of the Morbihan, with an atractive old
town centre. Quimper, the capital of the Finistère, and St. Brieuc, the
capital of the Côtes d'Armor, are less important. Lorient, in the
Morbihan, was once a major shipping port trading with - as its name
suggests - the Orient; but its shipping and ship-building industries
have largely declined, and like other ports on the south coast of
Brittany, is better known today for its yachting and yacht-building
industry. It is also the venue for Brittany's annual Interceltiques
music and culture festival.
Despite its limited size, Brittany is quite a
diverse region; the north and west coasts, open to the force of the
North Atlantic, are rugged and rocky, with beautiful sandy coves and
beaches. The south coast, facing onto the Bay of Biscay, is flatter,
much milder, and graced by a number of large sandy beaches. There are
also a lot of inlets on the south coast, such as La Trinité sur Mer,
which in the past have been ports and commercial harbours, but today
are more popular with yachtsmen and a dwindling fishing industry. The
sea here is warmer in summer. The backbone of Brittany is a granite
ridge stretching from east to west, peaking in the Monts d'Arrée. But
most of inland Brittany is gentle farming country, a region famous for
its milk and butter and its early crops.
As a holiday region, it is of course
Brittany's coasts that attract the greatest number of visitors; the
inland regions are on the whole quite tranquil and for this reason have
attracted a lot of second-home owners from other parts of France, and
from Britain.
In cultural terms, Brittany is very
distinctive, with its own language and Celtic cultural tradition that
set it apart from the rest of France. The Breton language, though not
much used in everyday life, and not understood by most of the modern
population, has made a comeback in recent years, and is taught in a lot
of schools. Celtic traditions are alive or recalled today in Breton
folk music, its Celtic festivals, and its many prehistoric monuments
