Dictionary:
Brit·ta·ny (brĭt'n-ē)  also Bre·tagne
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A historical region and former province of northwest France on a peninsula between the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay. It was settled c. 500 by Britons driven out of their homeland by the Anglo-Saxons. The region was formally incorporated into France in 1532.
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Brittany |
For more information on Brittany, visit Britannica.com.
| French Literature Companion: Brittany |
The distinctiveness of Brittany is due to large-scale immigration from south-western Britain in the Dark Ages. The Brittonic or insular Gaulish language thus introduced is thought to have fused with surviving Armorican Gaulish and ensured that peninsular Brittany would remain massively Celtic-speaking until the beginning of the 20th c. In 850 the Bretons extended their hegemony deep into Romance-speaking territory, annexing definitively the large cities of Rennes and Nantes, which became the centre of gravity of a bi-ethnic duchy. The frontiers of Brittany remained stable until 1789, although its autonomy, already variable in medieval times, was further limited by a treaty of union with France in 1532.
1. Writing in Breton
Old Breton (800-1100), quite abundantly, if fragmentarily, attested in glosses and proper-names, is very similar to Old Cornish and Old Welsh. Technical terms indicate its use in learning and government, though one can only speculate as to its literary traditions on the basis of evidence found sparingly in Middle Breton texts (1450-1659) and more abundantly—but more problematically—in the matière de Bretagne and in Modern Breton oral literature.
Middle Breton, when after three barely documented centuries it appears in writing, is heavily Gallicized in spelling and vocabulary. There is no evidence of any official use of the language, and beyond two dramatized lives of British saints and one Arthurian fragment, the literature, dominated by religious verse and drama, shows little thematic originality. Evidence for a tradition of cultivation by trained practitioners is to be found, however, perhaps in the relative uniformity of the language and certainly in the versification. This makes systematic use of elaborate schemes of internal rhyme, a feature found in the more complex and more consonant-based cynghanedd of Welsh.
Early Modern Breton printed texts are almost exclusively devotional and practically all translations. There is, however a substantial body of manuscript plays which, although rarely original, cover a wider spectrum of themes. Their performance by humble amateurs for mass audiences was repeatedly proscribed under the ancien régime, yet the tradition survived down to the mid-19th c. The 19th c., through a Romantic nationalism sharpened by counter-revolution, reawakened the interest of intellectuals, bringing the first wave of puristic standardization in the work of Le Gonidec. Oral literature was first presented to a general public in Hersart de La Villemarqué's Barzaz-Breiz (1839), a collection of ballads with translations. Their basic authenticity has only recently been finally demonstrated, but the texts were very heavily edited and accompanied by generally spurious historical explanations. With increasing literacy popular publications became numerous, with secular material increasing; these were mainly didactic and traditionalist in character.
Literacy in Breton had never been a majority phenomenon and, after nearly 40 years of compulsory schooling exclusively through the medium of French and the upheavals of World War I, the 1920s saw the traditional readership of Breton begin to melt away quite rapidly. This is when Roparz Hemon (1900-78) launched as a supplement to the nationalist Breiz Atao the bimonthly Gwalarn, whose declared policy was to develop a Breton-language literature aimed at a modern educated middle class. Despite deep-seated tensions and contradictions, these ambitions have to some extent been realized in the last 30 years. More is being published in Breton than ever before, with 60 or more books appearing every year. There are 50 or more writers of sustained and regular productivity, but given the small size of their public, they cannot live by their pens and are generally confined to the shorter genres. It is remarkable to find so much variety and reassuring to find some real creative skill, but not surprising to find that the works with most depth to them are autobiographical [see Hélias]. This is all happening against the depressing backdrop of the rapid collapse of Breton as a community language, with speakers representing less than a third—an ageing third—of the peak figure of 1, 500, 000 estimated for 1914.
There have in recent times been attempts to develop the Romance vernaculars of Upper Brittany, traditionally referred to as le (s) patois gallo(s), as a written medium, often in this case called la langue gallèse. In substance, they are very close to the vernaculars of rural Maine and Anjou, but being more peripheral to the Île-de-France have rather more archaisms. One important figure from the Pays gallo is Paul Sébillot (1843-1918), whose Revue des traditions populaires and collection Littératures populaires de toutes les nations were milestones in the study of oral literature in France.
Before passing on to French texts, which after all represent the great bulk of literature emanating from both halves of Brittany, it should be noted that the Breton language has considerable symbolic power. Some writers ignore or reject it, while at the other end of the spectrum others claim it to be the sole defining characteristic of Bretonness. A strange, though not uncommon, phenomenon can be found in critics' claims that the Breton language is viscerally present in French works in which the Breton-speaker would never discover any such thing. Paradoxically, in written Breton literature French influences are all-pervasive: very few texts in any period are the work of monoglots.
2. Writing in French
Throughout the Middle Ages, Latin was cultivated as elsewhere in Europe. Hagiography was the most interesting genre of the period, with the first complete text dating from the 9th c. The most notable medieval French texts produced in Brittany are: La Chanson d'Aiquin, a verse epic located in north-eastern Brittany, a 12th-c. composition preserved in a 15th-c. manuscript; the 12th-c. satirical Livre des manières by Étienne de Fougères, also a productive Latinist; and Meschinot's allegorical Lunettes des princes (1491). An interesting feature is a late-medieval school of historiographers best represented by Pierre Le Baud and Alain Bouchart, continued by Bertrand d'Argentré; this provided the basis for further development by Dom Lobineau (1667-1727).
16th-c. production extends from mystery plays (a Vie de sainte Catherine being published as late as 1576) to typical Renaissance verse best exemplified by Charles d'Espinay (1531-91); the outstanding author is Noël du Fail. The 17th and 18th c. show greater integration with French norms, with what is specifically Breton tending to be confined to works of erudition, of which the Celtomania of père Paul-Yves Pezron's Antiquité de la nation et de la langue des Celtes (1703) is fortunately not typical, although it turned out to be quite influential. In a general climate of conformism, the Enlightenment was far from absent, especially in parliamentary circles—the Encyclopédie sold 400 copies in Rennes. The novelist Lesage, the critic Fréron, the essayist Trublet, and the philosopher Maupertuis made their careers on the Parisian scene, as have many Breton writers.
Of the three best-known names of the 19th c., Chateaubriand and Lamennais show no specific Bretonness, whereas Renan, despite his travels and erudition, never lost contact with the Breton-speaking milieu of his childhood. For most outside observers such as Balzac and Mérimée, Brittany was a convenient reserve in which to imbibe the local colour of savages both noble and otherwise from a perspective of authoritative ignorance; Flaubert and Loti are the honorable exceptions. Poetry is abundant throughout the century, with Auguste Brizeux (1803-58) the best-remembered of the Romantics and Tristan Corbière the most striking in his cultivation of the barbaric—his father Édouard, a Morlaix slave-trader, wrote seafaring novels. Paul Féval was the most prolific of the novelists, a popular and successful writer of cloak-and-dagger fiction, some of it specifically set in Upper Brittany. The interpretation of Lower Brittany and its inhabitants to a French-speaking public is a genre which developed and expanded; the precursor was Émile Souvestre (1806-54), and the most important name Anatole Le Braz (1859-1926).
The 20th-c. writers who have established themselves firmly in the general French literary scene have almost all been primarily novelists. The first generation is represented by Segalen and Max Jacob, both innovative, the former in his quest for the exotic, the latter in his Surrealism. Next come Guéhenno, Queffélec, and Guilloux, and the much younger Le Quintrec, Mohrt, and Hallier, all of them classic in the sense that they associate reflection with careful naturalistic observation. Robbe-Grillet, the best-known of them, stands out as a pioneer of the Nouveau Roman. The less public literature of poetry is also widely practised, the foremost names being Guillevic, Angèle Vannier (b. 1917), Le Gouic (b. 1936), Le Men (b. 1943), and Keineg (b. 1944). Themes range from the cosmic to the political, often associated with the sudden changes in both society and landscape which economic change has brought since World War II. The question of identity is ever-present and some of its aspects can be profitably followed up in Morvan Lebesque's influential pamphlet Comment peut-on être breton? (1965).
— Humphrey Lloyd Humphreys
Bibliography
| Celtic Mythology: Brittany |
Former duchy and province of north-western France on the Armorican peninsula, coextensive with modern French Departments of Finistére, Côte d'Armor, Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Loire-Atlantique (although the last is officially declared not a part of Brittany since the Vichy Regime, 1941). Occupying 18,630 square miles, the region is more than twice as large as Wales and more than half the size of Ireland. Brittany has been occupied by Celtic-speaking populations since pre-Roman times, but it takes its name from the Brythonic people who fled the isle of Britain in the 5th century. In Breton it is known as Breizh (cf. Breizh Uhel, ‘east or Upper Brittany’ (Fr. Haute Bretagne); Breizh Izel, ‘west or Lower Brittany’ (Fr. Basse Bretagne)); in Welsh it is Llydaw; Cornish Breten Vyghan; Old Irish Letha; Modern Irish An Bhriotáin; Scottish Gaelic Breatainn na Frainge; Manx Yn Vritaan. The coastal regions are known in Breton literature and folklore as Arvor [Breton Ar-Mor, sea], while the interior is known as Argoad [Breton Ar-Goat, Ar-Koad, woods, forest]. In early Christian times the region now called Brittany was divided among three petty kingdoms, Domnonia in the north, Cornouaille in the south and west, Bro Waroch in the south and east. The Fir Morca of early Irish myth, although sometimes placed in west Limerick, are Armoricans/Bretons.
In Welsh tradition the emigrants to Brittany were led by the legendary St. Cynan Meiriadog (or Meriadoc), who is described as a conqueror in Breuddwyd Macsen Wledig [The Dream of Macsen Wledig]. According to that story, the Roman emperor Macsen [Maximus] rewarded his British allies with a portion of Gaul then called Brytanieid. Macsen had married a British princess, Elen, whose brother Cynan had brought a British army to Rome. Cynan and his allies cut out the tongues of all the women of the province lest the language of the conquerors be corrupted, and thus they name it Llydaw [Welsh lled, half; taw, silent]. Cynan is also described as the British invader in Breton legends, where he is known as Conan. With the subsequent influx of British ecclesiastics, the area increasingly became known as ‘Brittany’ instead of Armorica, although the two terms were interchangeable for many centuries.
A P-Celtic language of the Brythonic family, Breton is historically linked to both Welsh and the now extinct Cornish. On the testimony of Giraldus Cambrensis (12th cent.), spoken Breton was more closely related to the Cornish of his day than to Welsh. But despite many lexical similarities, modern spoken Breton and Welsh are not mutually comprehensible. In 1907 scholars determined that Breton language and tradition should be divided into four parts. Three in the north and west are closely interrelated: KLT, named for Kernev (Cornouaille), Leon (or Léon), and Treger (Trégor, Tréguier). The G dialect of the south-west stands somewhat apart, taking its name from Gwened, Breton for Vannes, capital of Morbihan; the dialect is also known as Vannetais in French, Gwenedeg in Breton. The first great political leader of the Bretons, subject of many legends, was Nominoë (9th cent.), who first accepted Frankish suzerainty but later revolted and restored Breton independence.
Although Giraldus Cambrensis speaks of ‘tale-telling Bretons and their singers’, no Breton literature survives from before 1450. The Anglo-Norman writer Marie de France (1160–80) brought the purported Breton lai or lay, often employing Breton subject matter, into the mainstream of European literature. Breton folk-tales and songs were not collected until the 19th century. An attempt to fill the void of early Breton tradition was made by Hersart de La Villemarqué's spurious, Macpherson-like ‘translations’ in 1839. Traditional symbols of Breton national culture are the ermine, triscele or triskelion, and biniou (a distinctive Woodwind instrument). See N. K. Chadwick, ‘The Colonization of Brittany from Celtic Britain’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 50 (1966); Early Brittany (Cardiff, 1969); Léon Fleuriot, Les Origines de la Bretagne: I'émigration (Paris, 1980). See also the Bibliography under ‘Breton’.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Brittany |
Land and People
The coast, particularly at the western tip, is irregular and rocky, with natural harbors (notably at Brest, Lorient, and Saint-Malo) and numerous islands. Important rivers include the Odet and Vilaine. The emigration of the young has resulted in a serious decline in the region's population. Brittany and the Breton people have retained many old customs and traditions. Breton, their Celtic language (akin to Welsh), is spoken in traditionalist Lower (i.e., western) Brittany outside the cities (see Breton literature). Brittany has remarkable stone calvaries, some built at the close of the 16th cent. to ward off the plague. Many megalithic monuments, formerly ascribed to the druids, dot the Breton landscape, notably at Carnac. These sights and the local traditions (old-fashioned peasant dress and high lace headgear, processions, and pilgrimages), which its inhabitants jealously maintain, have made Brittany an outstanding tourist attraction.
Economy
The economy of the region is based on agriculture, fishing, and tourism. Apples, from which the distinctive Breton cider is made, are grown extensively inland. Industry includes food processing, and automobile manufacturing. A major space telecommunications center is at Pleumeur-Bodou. There is a nuclear power plant in the Arrée Mts. and a tidal power station at Rance.
History
A part of ancient Armorica, the area was conquered by Julius Caesar in the Gallic Wars and became part of the province of Lugdunensis (see Gaul). It received its modern name when it was settled (c.500) by Britons whom the Anglo-Saxons had driven from Britain. Breton history is a long struggle for independence—first from the Franks (5th–9th cent.), then from the dukes of Normandy and the counts of Anjou (10th–12th cent.), and finally from England and France.
In 1196, Arthur I, an Angevin, was acknowledged as duke. King John of England, who presumably murdered him (1203), failed to obtain the duchy, which passed to Arthur's brother-in-law, Peter I (Peter Mauclerc). The extinction of his direct line led to the War of the Breton Succession (1341–65), a part of the Hundred Years War (1337–1453). With the end of the Breton war, the dukedom was won by the house of Montfort. The dukes of Montfort tried to secure Brittany's neutrality between France and Britain during the remainder of the Hundred Years War.
The unsuccessful rebellion of Duke Francis II against the French crown led to the absorption of Brittany into France after the accession of his daughter, Anne of Brittany, in 1488. King Francis I formally incorporated the duchy into France in 1532. Brittany's provincial parlement met at Rennes, and its provincial assembly remained powerful until the French Revolution.
The 16th and 17th cent. were generally peaceful in Brittany, but the region, never reconciled to centralized rule, became one of the early centers of revolt in 1789. However, its staunch Catholicism and conservatism soon transformed it into an anti-Revolutionary stronghold; the Chouans (anti-Revolutionary peasants) were never fully subdued, and in S Brittany and the neighboring Vendée the Revolutionary government resorted to ruthless reprisals.
Breton nationalism grew in the 19th cent. and was fueled by the anticlericalism of the Third Republic. The Breton autonomists, long successfully repressed by the French government, nevertheless resisted German bids for collaboration in World War II. During the 1970s, Breton nationalists once again protested the French repression of Breton culture. Groups such as the Breton Revolutionary army and the Movement of National Liberation by Socialism committed sporadic acts of violence, such as the exploding of a bomb in the palace of Versailles in June, 1978.
Bibliography
See N. Lands, Brittany (1986); E. Baclone, The Appointed Hour (1989).
| History 1450-1789: Brittany |
Jutting into the ocean, far from Paris's central state, Brittany had close economic and cultural ties to its Atlantic neighbors. Until 1550, when larger and more efficient Dutch ships displaced them, Breton fleets swarmed European coastal waters, carrying salt, linen, hemp, hides, grain, and wine to distant ports. They returned with oranges, leather, and silver from Spain, with herring, cheese, and naval stores from Holland, and with cloth from England, Holland, and Flanders. Brittany remained a bustling manufacturing power until 1680: its two million inhabitants gave it a population density matched in Europe only by the urban regions of the Low Countries.
In western Brittany, war between France and England disabled the manufacture of linen, crucial to the region's economy, at the end of the seventeenth century. This region lapsed into an enduring poverty, and became a leading center of emigration to Paris in the nineteenth century. Nantes followed a different path: it prospered mightily in colonial trade, becoming the largest French slaving port, and reexporting West Indian sugar and coffee throughout Europe.
Brittany enjoyed a quasi-independent status until 1491, when the last Breton ruler, Duchess Anne (1477–1513), married Charles VIII of France (ruled 1483–1498). He died childless; she then married Louis XII (ruled 1498–1515). Their eldest daughter, Claude, married Francis I (ruled 1515–1547); Claude's son, Henry II (ruled 1547–1559) inherited the duchy, making it the personal property of subsequent kings of France.
Brittany until 1790 preserved its provincial Estates, which met annually until 1626 and biannually after 1630; a full complement of local courts, headed by the parlement at Rennes; its customary laws; and its tax system, run primarily by the Estates. These local institutions enabled the Breton nobility to maintain unusually tight control over the province: alone among early modern French peasant rebels, the Breton bonnets rouges ('red caps') in 1675 targeted noble landlords, rather than royal taxes.
Western Brittany stood out culturally because its inhabitants spoke Breton Gaelic. Many French speakers shared the views expressed by the marquis of Lavardin, lieutenant general of Brittany, in 1675: Celtic Brittany "is a rude and ferocious country, which produces inhabitants that resemble it. They poorly understand French and scarcely better reason." The Catholic Church sent out "missionaries," led by the Jesuit Julien Maunoir, to "convert" the nominally Catholic Bretons, whom it viewed as pagans. One of his hymns set forward the church's view of peasant sociability: "Listen all of you [Bretons]/The evil of your veillées,/And your savage dances/That the mad devil/Has brought here/To plunge young people/Into eternal torments . . . From these dances/Come lewd thoughts!" (The veillées, evening village gatherings, for storytelling, matchmaking, and general socializing, remained a staple of Breton life into the 1930s.)
Bretons left a visual legacy of their remarkably rich civilization in parish closes, ensembles of churches, Calvary scenes, and ossuaries. The wealth produced by linen and livestock enabled the peasant-merchants of a St-Thégonnec or a Pleyben to commission magnificent statuary, often created by the workshop of Jean Dauré (1706?–1736/1747?) of Landerneau. Artists richly decorated the interiors of the rural churches, either with imaginative paintings on ceilings and pillars, or with stunning altars, as at Lampaul-Guimiliau, whose gilded fallen angels are based on a painting by Rubens (1577–1640). These masterpieces show the European dimension of early modern Breton civilization, and offer some of the richest rewards rural France has to entice the twenty-first-century visitor.
Bibliography
Collins, J. B. Classes, Estates, and Order in Early-Modern Brittany. Cambridge, U.K., and New York, 1994.
Croix, Alain. L'âge d'or de la Bretagne, 1532–1675. Rennes, France, 1993.
Tanguy, J. Histoire de la Bretagne et des pays celtique: La Bretagne province 1532–1789. Morlaix, 1986.
—JAMES B. COLLINS
| Wikipedia: Brittany |
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| Brittany Bretagne / Breizh |
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| Motto: Kentoc'h mervel eget bezañ saotret "Plutôt la mort que la souillure" |
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| Country |  France |
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| Area | |||
| - Total | 34,023 km2 (13,136 sq mi) | ||
| Population (January 2007 estimate) | |||
| - Total | 4,365,500 | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| - Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
Brittany (Breton: Breizh pronounced [brɛjs]; French: Bretagne, 
[bʁətaɲ] (help·info); Gallo: Bertaèyn) is a former independent Celtic kingdom and duchy in France. It is also, more generally, the name of the cultural area whose limits correspond to the historic province and independent duchy. It was at one time called Less, Lesser or Little Britain (in opposition to Great Britain).
Brittany occupies a large peninsula in the north west of France, lying between the English Channel to the north and the Bay of Biscay to the south. Its land area is 34,023 km² (13,136 sq mi). The historical province of Brittany is divided into five departments: Finistère in the west, Côtes-d'Armor in the north, Ille-et-Vilaine in the north east, Loire-Atlantique in the south east and Morbihan in the south on the Bay of Biscay.
During World War II, the government of Vichy France detached the Loire-Atlantique département (around the city of Nantes) from Brittany, and placed it within a region based around the city of Angers.[1] Today, 80% of historic Brittany has become the administrative région of Bretagne, while the remaining area, the Loire-Atlantique département around Nantes (formerly one of the historic capitals of Brittany), forms part of the Pays de la Loire région. For the current debate regarding reunification, see the Bretagne article.
In January 2007 the population of Brittany was estimated to be 4,365,500. Of these, 71% lived in the Bretagne région, while 29% lived in the Pays-de-la-Loire région. At the 1999 census, the largest metropolitan areas were Nantes (711,120 inhabitants) Rennes (521,188 inhabitants) and Brest (303,484 inhabitants).
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The peninsula that became "Brittany" was a centre of ancient megalithic constructions in the Neolithic era. It has been called the "core area" of megalithic culture.[2] It later became the territory of several Celtic tribes, of which the most powerful was the Veneti. After Caesar's conquest of Gaul the area became known to the Romans as Armorica, from the Celtic term for "coastal area". Its transformation into "Brittany" occurred in the late Roman period. According to medieval Welsh sources, the Roman usurper Magnus Maximus brought his British troops to Gaul to enforce his claims. He settled them in Armorica, and this Romano-British colony expanded when Britain itself was invaded by the Anglo-Saxons, forcing the native Celts to the west and overseas and establishing the dominance of the Brythonic (British Celtic) Breton language in Armorica.[3] The Armorican British colony expanded, forming a group of petty kingdoms which were later unified in the 840s under Nominoe in resistance to Frankish control.[4]
In the mid-9th century Nominoe and his successors won a series of victories over the Franks which secured an independent Duchy of Brittany. In the High Middle Ages the Duchy was sometimes allied to England and sometimes to France. The pro-English faction was victorious in 1364 in the Breton War of Succession, but the independent Breton army was eventually defeated by the French in 1488, leading to dynastic union with France following the marriage of Duchess Anne of Brittany to two kings of France in succession.[5] In 1532 the Duchy was incorporated into France.
In the 18th century the Pontcallec Conspiracy arose from continuing Breton claims to legal distinction from France,[6] but the Duchy was legally abolished during the French Revolution. The area became a centre of royalist and Catholic resistance to the Revolution during the Chouannerie. In the 19th century the Celtic Revival led to the foundation of the Breton Regionalist Union and later to independence movements linked to Irish, Welsh and Scottish independence parties in the UK and to pan-Celticism. There was a major cultural renaissance in the 20th century associated with the movement Seiz Breur.[7] The alliance of the Breton National Party with Nazi Germany in World War II weakened Bretonism in the post-war period. However, Brittany was legally reconstituted as the Region of Brittany, though the region excluded the ducal capital of Nantes and the surrounding area. Over this period the Breton language declined precipitously. Nevertheless Brittany retained its cultural distinctiveness.
Brittany is home to many megalithic monuments, which are scattered across the peninsula. The largest alignments are near Karnag/Carnac. The purpose of these monuments is still unknown, and many local people are reluctant to entertain speculation on the subject. The words dolmen (from "taol" table and "maen" stone) and menhir (from "maen" stone and "hir" long) are Breton and commonly used by either Breton or French people.
Brittany is also known for its calvary sculptures, elaborately carved crucifixion scenes, to be found at crossroads in villages and small towns, especially in Western Brittany.
Besides its numerous intact manors and châteaux, Brittany also has several old fortified towns. The walled city of Saint-Malo (Sant-Maloù), a popular tourist attraction, is also an important port linking Brittany with England and the Channel Islands. It also was the birthplace of the historian Louis Duchesne, acclaimed author Chateaubriand, famous corsair Surcouf and explorer Jacques Cartier. The town of Roscoff (Rosko) is served by ferry links with England and Ireland.
Significant urban centres include:
The island of Ushant (Breton: Enez Eusa, French: Ouessant) is the north westernmost point of Brittany and France, and marks the entrance of the English Channel. Other islands off the coast of Brittany include:
The coast at Brittany is unusual due to its colouring. The Côte de Granit Rose (pink granite coast) is located in the Cotes d'Armor department of Brittany. It stretches for more than thirty kilometres from Plestin-les-Greves to Louannec and is one of the most outstanding coastlines in Europe. This special pink rock is very rare and can only be found in two other places in the world, Corsica and China.[9]
The landscape has inspired artists, including Paul Signac, Marc Chagall, Raymond Wintz and his wife, and Renee Carpentier Wintz, who both painted coastal and village scenes. Paul Gauguin and his famous School of Pont-Aven in the Finisterre département, Britanny also painted many village scenes.
French, the only official language of the French Republic, is today spoken throughout Brittany. The two regional languages have no official status with regards to the state, although they are supported by the regional authorities within the constitutional limits: Breton, strongest in the west but to be seen all over Brittany, is a Celtic language most closely related to Cornish and Welsh. Gallo, which is spoken in the east, is one of the Latinate Oïl languages.
From the very beginning of its history and despite the end of the independence of Brittany, Breton remained the language of the entire population of western Brittany, except for bishops and French administrators or officers but has always been widely spoken everywhere else. French laws and economic pressure led people to abandon their language to that of the ruler, but until the 1960s, Breton was spoken and understood by the majority of the western inhabitants.
Breton was traditionally spoken in the west (the "Breizh-Izel" or "Basse-Bretagne"), and Gallo in the east (the "pays Gallo", "Breizh-Uhel" or "Haute-Bretagne"). The dividing line stretched from Plouha on the north coast to a point to the south east of Vannes. French had, however, long been the main language of the towns. The Breton-speaking area formerly covered territory much further east than its current distribution.
In the Middle Ages, Gallo expanded into formerly Breton-speaking areas. Now restricted to a much reduced territory in the east of Brittany, Gallo finds itself under pressure from the dominant Francophone culture. It is also felt by some to be threatened by the Breton language revival which is gaining ground in territories that were never part of the main Breton-speaking area.
Privately funded Diwan ("Seed") schools, where classes are taught in Breton by the immersion method, play an important part in the revival of the Breton language. They are denied State funding by the French government. The issue of whether they should be funded by the State has long been, and remains, controversial. Some bilingual classes are also provided in ordinary schools.
Despite the resistance of French administration, bilingual (Breton and French) road signs may be seen in some areas, especially in the traditional Breton-speaking area. Signage in Gallo is much rarer.
A large influx of English-speaking immigrants and second-home owners in some villages sometimes adds to linguistic diversity.
While Christianization may have occurred during Roman occupation, the first recorded Christian missionaries came to the region from Wales and are known as the "Seven founder saints". They are:
Other notable early evangelizers are Gildas and the Irish saint Columbanus. With more than 300 "saints" (only a few recognised by the Catholic Church), the region is strongly Catholic. Since the 19th century at least, Brittany has been known as one of the most devoutly Catholic regions in France, in contrast to many other more secularised areas (see "Bl. Julien Maunoir"). The proportion of students attending Catholic private schools is the highest in France. As in other Celtic regions, the legacy of Celtic Christianity has left a rich tradition of local saints and monastic communities, often commemorated in place names beginning Lan, Lam, Plou or Lok. The patron saint of Brittany is Saint Anne, the Virgin's mother. But the most famous saint is Saint Ivo of Kermartin ('saint Yves' in French, 'sant Erwan' in Breton), a 13th century priest who devoted his life to the poor.
Once a year, believers go on a "Pardon", the saint's feast day of the parish. It often begins with a procession followed by a mass in honour of the saint. There is always a secular side, with some food and craft stalls. The three most famous Pardons are:
There is a very old pilgrimage called the Tro Breizh (tour of Brittany), where the pilgrims walk around Brittany from the grave of one of the seven founder saints to another. Historically, the pilgrimage was made in one trip (a total distance of around 600 km) for all seven saints. Nowadays, however, pilgrims complete the circuit over the course of several years. In 2002, the Tro Breizh included a special pilgrimage to Wales, symbolically making the reverse journey of the Welshmen Sant Paol, Sant Brieg, and Sant Samzun. Whoever does not make the pilgrimage at least once in his lifetime will be condemned to make it after his death, advancing only by the length of his coffin each seven years.[10]
Some old pagan traditions and customs from the old Celtic religion have also been preserved in Brittany. The most powerful folk figure is the Ankou or the "Reaper of Death". Sometimes a skeleton wrapped in a shroud with the Breton flat hat, sometimes described as a real human being (the last dead of the year, devoted to bring the dead to Death), he makes his journeys by night carrying an upturned scythe which he throws before him to reap his harvest. Sometimes he is on foot but mostly he travels with a cart, the Karrig an Ankou, drawn by two oxen and a lean horse. Two servants dressed in the same shroud and hat as the Ankou pile the dead into the cart, and to hear it creaking at night means you have little time left to live.[citation needed]
Brittany is an area of strong Celtic heritage, rich in its cultural heritage. Though long under the control of France and influenced by French traditions, Brittany has retained and, since the early 1970s, revived its own folk music, modernising and adapting it into folk rock and other fusion genres.
Although some white wine is produced near the Loire, the traditional drinks of Brittany are:
Some hogdys are also produced. Historically Brittany was a beer producing region. However, as wine was increasingly imported from other regions of France, beer drinking and production slowly came to an end in the early to mid-20th century. In the 1970s, due to a regional comeback, new breweries started to open and there are now about 20 of them. Whisky is also produced by a handful of distilleries with excellent results. Another recent drink is kir Breton (crème de cassis and cider) which may be served as an apéritif.
Tourists often try a mix of bread and red wine.
Very thin, wide pancakes made from buckwheat flour are eaten with ham, eggs and other savoury fillings. They are usually called galettes (Breton galetes), except in the western parts of Brittany where they are called crêpes (Breton krampouezh). Thin crêpes made from wheat flour are eaten for dessert or for breakfast. They may be served cold with local butter. Other pastries, such as kouign amann ("butter cake" in Breton) made from bread dough, butter and sugar, or far, a sort of sweet Yorkshire pudding, or clafoutis with prunes, are traditional.
Surrounded by the sea, Brittany offers a wide range of fresh sea food and fish, especially mussels and oysters. Among the sea food specialities is cotriade.
Located on the west coast of France, Brittany has a warm, temperate climate. Rainfall occurs regularly - which has helped keep its countryside green and wooded, but sunny, cloudless days are also common.
In the summer months, temperatures in the region can reach 30 degrees Celsius, but remain comfortable compared to parts of France south of the Loire. Brittany generally has a moderate climate during both summer[11] and winter,[12] and rain is neither uncomfortably common nor rare.
Brittany's most popular summer resorts are on the south coast (La Baule, Belle Île, Gulf of Morbihan), although the wilder and more exposed north coast also attracts summer tourists.
There are several airports in Brittany serving destinations in France and England. TGV train services link the region with cities such as Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Lille in France. In addition there are ferry services that take passengers, vehicles and freight to Ireland, England and the Channel Islands.
Brittany Ferries operates the following regular services:
Irish Ferries operates the following routes:
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| French Literature Companion. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Celtic Mythology. A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Copyright © James MacKillop 1998, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more |
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| History 1450-1789. Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Brittany". Read more |
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