Bienvenue en Normandie et Bretagne

We have enjoyed our visit to northwest France so much that we decided to write a new brochure for the regional Office de Tourism.

Dear visitor. We invite you to step back in time to explore this peaceful corner of France where the ghosts of musketeers still ride through the cobbled streets…

The pastoral lowlands of Brittany and Normandy are criss-crossed with the rivers and canals that powered the mills and made this region the commercial envy of Europe…

Here you can visit many ancient harbours which, four centuries ago, were bustling with schooners readying to set sail for the new lands of Canada and the Americas...

The shouts of matelots and longshoremen, and the slapping of sails in the breeze, can still be heard above the crash of the waves and the cries of the gulls but, today, the ports are the havens of pleasure yachts and fishing trawlers like those at Loctudy…

France is now a secular country, but its history is entwined with Catholicism. While grand cathedrals are the centrepiece of all of the cities, every town and hamlet has an ecclesiastical oeuvre reflecting the historical significance of religion in the daily life of its citizens. Church spires dot the landscape in every direction, and even eight-hundred-year-old ruins like the Chapelle de Languido are still places of worship…

The wayside cross at St-Jean Troliman was erected in 1450 and is one of seven calvaries in Brittany where poor travellers could worship…

This impressive monument depicting the birth and life of Christ was once gaily painted. The paint is long gone, but the carvings have survived nearly 600 years without protection from the elements and are a testament to the craftsmanship of the stonemasons of this region whose works can be seen in every street and public park….

From the granite cliffs that are a fortress to the pounding Atlantic waves, to the many medieval fortified chateaux, Brittany’s landscape and history is carved in stone…

Paleolithic humans hunted and fished these lands and, as recently as six thousand years ago, stone-age people left a legacy of stone menhirs…

While the original function of these monoliths has been lost in the midst of time, their presence is a reminder of the resilience of the people who have called this land home for more than 500 thousand years.
The resilience of the population was tested in more recent times when Normandy became the scene of one the greatest battles the world has ever known – the D-Day landings. It is impossible to visit this region without paying tribute to the great sacrifices its citizens made and, while there are many museums dedicated to that time, the great expanses of sandy beaches are themselves a salutary reminder of the trauma once visited on this land…

While there is so much to see and do in Normandy and Brittany, no visit would be complete without enjoying its wonderful cuisine: Enjoy farm-raised ducks and poultry and the flavourful lamb from the sheep that graze on the salt marshes of Mont St. Michel; savour the Normandy butter, cream and cheese from the cows that happily graze the lush grasslands; enjoy the riches of the ocean, especially the lobsters, oysters and scallops, brought to our Atlantic shores on the Gulf Stream; and accompany every meal with a glass of Brittany cider or a tot of Calvados – apple brandy.

Salut.

We have driven almost 2,000 kilometres on excellent roads in the past two weeks on the first leg of our Tour de France and now we will take a short holiday on the Italian Riviera. We will begin the second leg of the tour in Aix-en-Provence next week and hope that you will join us there.