Brittany's tourist attractions
Welcome to Brittany, France's Celtic Fringe
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Carnac

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The main tourist attractions in Brittany are undoubtedly its beaches, coastal walks, rocky shoreline and small fishing harbours; but beyond this the region has an impressive collection of sites that are worth a visit, for their historic or cultural value, or just because they are really worth the visit.
Mont-saint-michel from the air
   First among these is undoubtedly the Mont Saint Michel, St.Michael's Mount,  the most visited tourist site in France after Paris, and  listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The mount, an outcrop of granite bursting through in the middle of a very flat bay, has been a sanctuary since the year 709. Most of the buildings that now stand on the rock date from the XIIIth to the XVIth centuries, and include  the gothic Benedictine Abbey, the houses that went with it, and the fortifications to protect this strategic location.
    In the olden days,  the mount stood in the midst of quicksands and moving water courses, and access to it was treacherous; the causeway that now carries tourists and pilgrims across the bay was built in 1880, and its construction led to a heavy silting up of the area round the mount, transforming much of the bay into grazing lands. There are currently plans to turn the clocks back, and remove the causeway, so that the sea can once again come in and wash right round the mount.
Photo Le Korrigan - Licence CC Saint Malo
The most visited town in Brittany, St Malo is, like the Mont St. Michel, a fortified enclave standing on a peninsula at the mouth of a river. The city grew up many centuries ago at the mouth of the river Rance, and became famous as the home of adventurers and pirates. Jacques Cartier - the man who discovered Canada - came from St. Malo, but so too did the privateers and corsairs who for centuries preyed on shipping rounding the western tip of France.
    Built in the local grey granite, St Malo has a historic centre crammed in behind its ramparts which owe their current form to the great French XVIIth century military architect, Vauban.  A large part of the historic heart was severely damaged by action during the second world war, but has been carefully renovated to its former glory. The city has a number of interesting places to visit, notably the Cape Horn museum devoted to the mariner-explorers of the past, the aquarium, and the castle - known as the Bastille of the west - which has exhibits about the city's history and its pirates.
La Pointe du Raz and the tips of Brittany
Photo I Sameli - Licence CCFrance's "Land's End", the Pointe du Raz is the most westerly point of the French mainland, the end of Cape Sizun , which forms the westerly tip of the department of Finistere (which means the End of the Earth - or Land's End). After decades of over-exploitation, operation of the area was handed over to a nature conservancy organisation, with a remit to return the area to its natural state and manage it as an environmentally sensitive area. Many of the buildings that once disfigured the site have been demolished, and today a new visitor centre has been built near the car park, which is weel away from the point. Visitors can either walk from there, or take the gas-powered shuttle bus. The area of the Pointe du Raz is now served by a network of managed footpaths, allowing visitors to admire this exceptional natural site, and the Atlantic waves crashing onto the rocks  below.


Boat trips
A visit to Brittany would be incomplete without a boat trip; and for those who prefer a calm inland waterway to the tossing of the Atlantic waves. Chateaubriand cruises offer trips on the river Rance, near Dinard and St. Malo, which also allow visitors to see the famous Rance tidal hydroelectric plant, which was the world's first full-scale tidal power-generation unit when it was opened in 1966.
    Brittany has some 600 kilometres of navigable waterways, and boats can be hired in many locations; short cruises are also available from a number of sites, including Arzal (Morbihan). In  la Gacilly, near Redon, small cabin cruisers can be hired for a day's or an afternoon's excursion from Day Boats.
    The Penn Ar Bed line runs daily services from Brest to the coastal islands of Ouessant, Molène and Sein.



Events
The annual Lorient Interceltiques Festival  (6th to 15th August 2010) is one of France's biggest international festivals.
For more details, see the Celtic heritage page.

The Vieilles Charrues festival (15th to 18th July 2010) takes place each year in July near Carhaix, Finistère. Started in 1992, this open air music festival has rapidly established itself as the French equivalent of Glastonbury, and is now the biggest open air music event in France, attracting an eclectic variety of top musicians from France and abroad.

The Festival de Cornouaille (17th - 25th July 2010) Quimper, Finistère; Brittany's biggest annual festival of Breton culture. The annual parade will take place on Sunday 27th July

The Fête des filets Bleus (the Blue Fish Nets festival) (20th - 22nd August 2010) in Concarneau (Finistère). An opportunity to see the old streets of this fishing port filled with people in traditional Breton costume, and see traditional Breton dancing to the sound of traditional music. The festival first took place in 1905 !

Miscellaneous Attractions:
Brest: Oceanopolis - Fifty aquariums, divided into three climatic zones, and stocked with over 1000 varieties of fish and marine life from the polar regions, temperate zones and the tropics.

Cornouailles Botanical Gardens - Combrit / Pont l'Abbé, Finistère. Extensive botanical gardens and arboretum, stocked with 3500 plant varieties from all over the world.

Château and zoo de La Bourbansais,  Pleugueneuc (Ille et Vilaine); located in the grounds of a chateau, which can also be visited, the zoo, involved in the protection of endangered species, has a wide collection of animals from different continents. The giraffes are particularly popular..

Celtic Brittany
Brittany is famous for its ancient monuments, the most famous of which are the standing stones of Carnac (photo left).


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Text ©  Gitelink.com 2008-2010  Photos licenced under Creative Commons. Aerial view of Mt St Michel: by Fabos

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