Brittany, the other France

                                                                                         

The main point about Brittany is that its not France. Well, at least not France as we are used to seeing it. Cities in the east of Brittany – Fougeres, Dinan, Saint-Malo – do bear the resemblance of French antiquity, which can also be discovered in Burgundy or Aquitaine. By farther to the west the cities become less usual and less typical.
Let’s start with language. There are two languages used in Lower Brittany: guide-boards and signboards are written in French and the Breton language. This old Celtic language has the same routes as the languages on the other side of La Manche (the French name for the English channel) – Scottish and Irish. Houses also look like German ones.
Brittany is the only French province that does not have its own type of wine. Local people drink Celtic beer, which has a specific taste – tastes very different from Czech, Bavarian or British beer. This mead has the name you want to pronounce in a whisper – chouchen. Sparkling cider has the alcoholic content of 8 – 9 %. Well, there is a nice white wine produced in Nantes, which is formally a part of Brittany. But historically this place is Celtic. However, local wine is goes well with local specialties – oysters and mussels. Fourteen kilometers from Saint-Malo there is the world oyster capital – Cancale. Its coast is covered with taverns. You could stay here till the end of your life.
But, let us forget about this until we get older. Now we shall go to the far inland - the true Celtic Brittany. Cross the Paimpont forest (also known as Brocéliande), filled with tales about the Holy Grail, Arthur’s knights and magician Merlin. You could, for example, search for interesting road crucifixes. This is a real Brittany’s feature: many of these granite crucifixes stand next to the churches. Sometimes they form multi-figured compositions, up to 200 stone items.
When finding yourself in Brittany, it is hard to get rid of the impression that these truly Christian sculptures are the successors of ancient pagan megaliths – stone constructions erected 4-5 thousands of years ago. Scientists still dispute about their meaning but one thing that is quite certain is that they had no practical importance and were constructed as religious objects. Megaliths can be found all around Europe, but a great part of them is located in Brittany (Carnac, the small town in the south of the province, has long rows of these stones). Here, like nowhere else, you will feel the connection with time.
The idea that Brittany is located at the edge of Europe makes one feel agitated. It comes as no surprise that the most dashing corsairs come from Brittany. There are even two monuments found not far from Saint-Malo: one Robert Surcouf’s and the other commemorating René Duguay-Trouin. In 1534 the famous explorer Jacques Cartier set off from the shores of Brittany to discover the Saint Lawrence River, named Canada. Though his aim was to reach Asia. The similar story happened to Columbus, but this is another story.

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