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> About Brittany, Interesting info
WizardofOwls 
Posted: 30-May-2004, 08:29 AM
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Hello all!

Here's some interesting info on Brittany for ya...

This is from the site...
www.franceway.com/regions/bretagne/intro.htm

Jutting defiantly into the Atlantic, France's northwest corner has long been culturally and geographically distinct from the main bulk of the country.
Known to the Celts as Armorica, the land of the sea, Brittany's past swirls with the legends of drowned cities and Arthurian forests. Prehistoric megaliths arise mysteriously from land and sea, and the medieval is never far from the modern.
A long, jagged coastline is the region's great attraction. Magnificient beaches line its northern shore, swept clean by huge tides and interspersed with well-established seaside resorts seasoned fishing ports and abundant oysterbeds. The south coast is gentler, with wooded river valleys and a milder climate, while the west, being exposed to the Atlantic winds, has a drama that justifies the name "Finistère" , - the end of the earth. Inland lies the Argoat - once the land and the forest, now a patchwork of undulating fields, woods and rolling moorland. Parc Régional d'Armorique occupies much of, central Finistère, and it is in western Brittany that Breton culture remains most evident.
In Quimper, and in the Pays Bigouden, crèpes and cider, traditional costumes and Celtic music are still a genuine part of the Breton lifestyle.
Vannes, Dinan and Rennes, the Breton capital, have well preserved medieval quarters where half-timbered buildings shelter inviting markets, shops, crèperies and restaurants.
The walled port of St-Malo on the Côte d'Emeraude recalls the region's maritime prowess, while the remarkably intact castles at Fougères and Vitré are a reminder of the mighty border-fortresses that protected Brittany's eastern frontier before its final union with France in 1532.

Women dressed in traditionnal costume and "coiffe", the typical Breton lace head-dress.

Fascinating! I knew nothing about this place before today! I hope to learn more about Brittany, Galicia, Cornwall, and Manx through these new forums!


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Slàn agus beannachd,
Allen R. Alderman

'S i Alba tìr mo chridhe. 'S i Gàidhlig cànan m' anama.
Scotland is the land of my heart. Gaelic is the language of my soul.
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Catriona 
Posted: 30-May-2004, 09:05 AM
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I love Britanny and also Normandy. We've spent many happy holidays in both areas.

I especially love Quimper and ennvirons and also St Malo.

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celtica 
Posted: 31-May-2004, 05:41 AM
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As I'm living in Brittany I can confirm that all you said is absolutely right !
There are many historical cities with old castles and medieval quarter but the ones you quoted are probably the most renowned. Concarneau (in the south Finistère) is very interesting to visit too.
The celtic roots in Brittany are very deep and the people very proud of it. The celtic music is very popular and there is a lot lot of festivals in the country. The most famous is the Interceltic festival of Lorient every year in july.

In fact you made just one mistake....I'm sorry but women don't wear traditionnal costume and coiffe...except for the festivals ! biggrin.gif


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Que restera-t-il de notre sang mêlé au sel, sans trace dans les mémoires ? Une ultime navigation, trompeuse. Et des souvenirs, illuminés d'embruns. Mais condamnés au silence de la mer... Loïc Finaz.
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WizardofOwls 
Posted: 31-May-2004, 06:55 AM
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LOL! laugh.gif

Yes, but if you read what I wrote, it says DRESSED (past tense)!

Below is a picture from the article that I quoted above showing women wearing coiffe (not sure what the plural of that word is!)



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celtica 
Posted: 31-May-2004, 07:26 AM
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Oooups ! I'm sorry... didn't see the past tense rolleyes.gif

I found a link in english about the coiffes (that's the plural of the word ! wink.gif ) and the traditionnal costume :

Coiffes


And here is another (more modern I guess ! laugh.gif ) picture of a women wearing a coiffe : Jeune femme portant une coiffe
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WizardofOwls 
Posted: 31-May-2004, 03:11 PM
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Nice pics, Celtica! And cool websites about Brittany! Thnaks for sharing them with us! I got some more info for the Breton Language thread from there!
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WizardofOwls 
Posted: 01-Jun-2004, 08:06 PM
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Here's some more general info I found about Brittany at
http://www.brittany-net.com/indexeng.html#1)

Brittany is a province in the western part of France corresponding to the departments of Finistere, Cotes- d'Armor, Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine and Loire -Atlantique. The area is 27,194 sq km and consists of two distinct zones: maritime zone and inland zoneThe climate is oceanic: the winters are mild and the summers are cool. Agriculture, fishing and tourism are the main sources of income along with canneries and shipyards. With the exception of Rennes all the main cities are located on the coast.

Rennes (pop.203 533) is the administrative and cultural capital of Brittany. It has a large industrial zone and is also a major agricultural and business centre.

Nantes (pop.270 000) is the biggest city of Brittany It is a city of art with a great industrial centre and a busy port.

Brest and its suburbs (pop. 159 000) draw their living mainly from the navy and the industrial centre. It has developed into the 2nd university city of Brittany.

Quimper (pop.58 000), capital of Cornouaille, celebrates its great festival on the 4th Sunday of July.

And for those who don't know where Brittany is, here is a map of France. The upper left-hand corner which is a slightly darker color is Brittany.

This pic is from www.franceway.com/regions/bretagne/into.htm


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WizardofOwls 
Posted: 07-Jun-2004, 08:30 PM
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Here is some more general info I found about Brittany at various websites. Hope you enjoy!

this was found at:
http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgresults...=brittany%40241


Wherever you wander in Brittany you'll hear the primal pulse of Celtic music. France's most fiercely and determinedly ethnic people, the Bretons celebrate their culture often and well, dancing in a ring at street fairs, sporting starched lace bonnet coiffes and striped fishermen's shirts at the least sign of a regional celebration.
They name their children Erwan and Edwige, carry sacred statues in religious processions called pardons, pray in hobbit-scaled stone churches decked with elfin, moon-faced gargoyles. And scattered over the mossy hillsides stand Stonehenge-like dolmen and menhirs (prehistoric standing stones), eerie testimony to a culture that predated and has long outlived Frankish France.
Any similarities in character or culture to islands across the Channel are by no means coincidental. The Celts who migrated to this westernmost outcrop of the French landmass spent much of the Iron Age on the British Isles, introducing innovations like the potter's wheel, the rotary millstone, and the compass. This first influx of Continental culture into Great Britain was greeted with typically mixed feelings, and by the 6th century AD the Saxons had sent the Britons packing southward to the bulbous portion of western France that juts out into the Atlantic and still bears their name. So completely did they dominate their new, Cornwall-like peninsula that in 496, when they allied themselves with Clovis, the king of the Franks, he felt as if he'd just claimed a little bit of England. Nonetheless the Britons remained independent of France until 1532.
Yet the cultural exchange flowed two ways over the Channel. From their days on the British isles the Britons brought a folklore that shares with England both the bittersweet legend of Tristan and Iseult, and the mystical tales of the Cornwall/Cornouaille of King Arthur and Merlin. They brought a language that still renders village names unpronounceable. And with them, too, they brought a way of life that feels deliciously exotic to the Frenchman and -- like the primordial drone of the bagpipes -- comfortably, delightfully, even primally familiar to the Anglo-Saxon.
This cozy regional charm extends inland to Rennes, Bretagne's biggest city at 200,000 inhabitants, as well as to Dinan, Vannes, Quimper, and seaside St-Malo. Though many towns took a beating during the Nazi retreat in 1944, most have been gracefully restored. And the countryside retains the heather-and-emerald moorscape, peppered with sweet whitewashed cottages, framed in forests primeval, and bordered by open sea, that first inspired wandering peoples to their pipes.

this was found at:
http://www.celticnationsworld.com/countrie...s--brittany.htm


Celtic countries:
Brittany
Featured country of the 1999 Celtic Nations Heritage Festival, including the traditional dance ensemble "Ar Bleunioù Kignez " of La Foret Fouêsnant
"If you travel as far west in France as you can, you will reach a peninsula just across the sea from Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall. You have arrived in Brittany - called Breizh in the Breton language, a Celtic language related to Welsh, Cornish, Manx, and Scottish and Irish Gaelic.
Bretons are, in fact, close cousins of the Welsh and the Cornish, having emigrated to Brittany from Britain during the 4th through 7th centuries. In their movement to the far western peninsula of what is today France, the Bretons brought back a Celtic heritage which had stretched across the European continent before Roman and Germanic expansions.
--Dr. Louis Kuter, Anthropologist / Ethnomusicologist

This was found at:
http://oseda.missouri.edu/~kate/guardians/...den/breton.html


Brittany
Brittany (French: Bretagne; Breton: Breiz) is a region and former province of northwestern France. The region is bordered on the north by the English Channel and on the south by the Bay of Biscay. Brittany is distinct from other French regions because of its Celtic heritage. About one-quarter of its estimated population of 2,750,000 (1985 est.) are able to speak Breton, a Celtic language similar to Cornish and Welsh. The language, customs, and costumes are preserved mainly in the more isolated west. Rennes (1982 pop., 192,000) is Brittany's route focus, traditional capital, and cultural center. Its university is an important center of Celtic studies.
Brittany's rugged indented coast, called Armor (Breton for "country of the sea"), has only about a dozen frost days a year--no more than the Riviera. Early vegetables, soft fruit, and flowers are grown for the Parisian and British markets. Traditionally,
Bretons have been sailors and fishermen. Their catch includes cod from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, oysters, lobsters, sardines, and tuna. The interior is a relatively barren, often misty, plateau called Argoat ("country of the woods"); only two woodland ridges rise above 245 m (800 ft). Hedgerows surround small fields, resulting in a picturesque landscape called bocage.
Between 3500 and 1800 BC early inhabitants built stone monuments at Carnac and other sites. Celts later settled in the area, and in 56 BC they were conquered by Julius Caesar. The Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries drove Celtic refugees to settle in Brittany. In the 9th century, under the leadership of Nomenoe, Brittany was united, winning independence from Carolingian rule. In the 10th century, Brittany became a duchy with its capital at Rennes. For the next four centuries it sought to retain its independence amid French and British rivalries. In the 15th century the duchy became closely linked to France with the marriage of Anne of Brittany to two successive kings of France. In 1532, it was formally incorporated into France.
Excerpted from Compton's Encyclopedia.
Article written by Timothy J. Rickard
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