Brittany

Mont-Saint-Michel

Perched on a rocky islet in the midst of vast sandbanks exposed to powerful tides, at the limit between Normandy and Brittany, stands “Wonder of the West”, a Gothic-style Benedictine abbey dedicated to the Archangel St Michel, and the village that grew up in the shadow of its walls. Built between the 11th and 16th centuries, the abbey is a technical and artistic tour de force, having had to adapt to the problems posed by this unique natural site.

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Saint-Malo and Dinan

Saint-Malo is a port city in Brittany, in France’s northwest. Tall granite walls surround the old town, which was once a stronghold for privateers (pirates approved by the king). The Saint-Malo Cathedral, in the center of the old town, is built in Romanesque and Gothic styles and features stained-glass windows depicting city history. Nearby is La Demeure de Corsaire, an 18th-century privateer’s house and museum.

The picture perfect port town of Auray Brittany

Alignments of Carnac

7000 years old, the megalithic alignments of Carnac are world famous and are one of the most important centres of European prehistory in existence. The singularity of the Carnac megaliths is their extrordinary alignments and their sheer numbers, this is the largest gathering of standing stones of this type in the world. The two main sites (Ménec and Kermario) alone account for nearly 3,000 menhirs, and the alignments extend over almost four miles!
The stones are placed in descending order and each alignment ends on a megalithic stone circle, some more visible than others.

Why were these stones erected and aligned? There are many theories that attempt to explain the origin of the alignments, including that they were religious monuments, related to the worship of the moon or sun, or to the farming calender. One legend even has it that they were a Roman army turned into stone! But their origin continues to be a mystery. The remains of this prehistoric period suggest, however, that they had a sacred and funereal function.

To protect these ancestral monuments and promote this exceptional heritage, local towns are pooling their resources in an attempt to have the megaliths of southern Morbihan listed as a UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites.

Ploucha point

Dance of Death at Chapelle Kermaria an Iskuit

IN THIS 800 YEAR OLD French chapel is a well preserved 15th Century fresco of the Danse Macabre, or “Dance of Death,” the only church in France to have such a fresco. Popular in the middle ages, Danse Macabre paintings and drawings showed kings, popes, peasants, beautiful women and people from all walks of life dancing together as skeletons. A type of “memento mori” they were meant to remind people that they were mortal and that earthly positions means little in the long run.

This particular painting is surprisingly found in a Catholic Church where earthly hierarchies were quite important. It shows the legendary figure Ankou, death’s assistant and sometimes said to have been the first child of Adam and Eve, is seen leading figures from all strata of society in the dance of death – the great leveler. According to the legend, the last person to die in a village during a year becomes Ankou for the following year.

The chapel itself is from the 13th Century and contains some interesting statues of saints.