Breton Life and Traditions
 
Breton people are characterised by their friendliness and warmth. They are proud of being Breton first, and French second.
 

Religion and Superstition

Brittany, with its magicians, spirits, fairies and demons - both male and female - has more saints than any other part of France. They are numbered in hundreds and are represented by painted wooden statues adorning chapels and churches. In fact, very few have actually been recognised by the Vatican authorities.

Breton saints are often credited with powers that obviously originate in earlier Celtic beliefs. So St-Triphine is invoked at Tréal to bring rain, while at Glénac St-Leon brings good weather if an offering of red flowers is made. St-Venier at Langon makes the milk of nursing mothers flow, and St-Meen has the power to cure skin diseases.There are saints who are invoked on all occasions, whereas innumerable others are invoked against specific ailments - rheumatism, baldness, etc. Even horses and oxen have their own saints - St-Cornely and St Herbot. Many ancient pagan shrines, including springs, have been christianised.
 

These old photographs, circa 1900, shows the famous sorceress, Naia, giving a consultation.


There are many adverts in the local papers for mediums, clairvoyants and fortune-tellers.

Traditional Breton Crafts
 
Wooden Shoes (Sabots)
 
The Breton sabot, made by a sabotier, still survives and is still worn, usually by older people in rural districts, where it proves to be extremely useful in wet and muddy conditions. It is surprisingly comfortable, too! Tourists enjoy the chance to watch a sabotier at work, and the shoes are popular souvenirs - often rather tastelessly filled with plastic flowers and other inappropriate objects....
 
Decorative Pottery (Faience)
The famous Quimper pottery was started in 1690 by a potter from Provence, Jean-Baptiste Bousquet, who settled in the nearby village of Locmaria. The site, with its nearby clay deposits, proved fortunate, as the port was also at the centre of a network of roads leading across Brittany. Another potter, marrying Bousquet's grand-daughter, went on to reproduce the then-popular faience pottery from Rouen. Eventually the distinctive Quimper style developed, in which everything was painted by hand with the familiar tear-shaped brush-strokes forming flowers and foliage. This style is known as à la touche. Perhaps the most distinctive and popular feature, which first appeared around 1850, was the peasant in traditional costume set between two clumps of vegetation.
 
Hay tedding
Potato picking - the hard way....
 
Agriculture and Fishing
 
Agriculture and fishing have always been at the heart of Breton life and the Breton economy. In modern times, a high proportion of France's vegetables - potatoes, cauliflowers, artichokes, cabbages and so on - are produced in Brittany. Pigs, hens and ducks are raised, there are oyster farms and clam and mussel beds, and several of the country's most important fishing ports are situated here. Traditionally, the Bretons are the best sailors in France; the first major three-decked ship-of-the-line ever built was constructed at La Roche-Bernard, and the most feared and successful privateers of the late eighteenth century made their forays from Breton ports. The greatest hero among these privateers, incidentally, was Robert Surcouf who, in his ship, the cutter Renard based in St-Malo, terrorised British trade during the Napoleonic era.
Tuna catch, Douarnenez
The artichoke harvest
 

Well over twenty thousand old postcards, like the ones above, are displayed in CARTOPOLY, the superb Museum of Breton Postcards - rather portentously translated as "The Baud Regional Postcard Conservatory" - in the town of Baud, north of Auray. The history of the Post Card is clearly explained, and there are examples made from metal, wood, leather, cork, parchment with flowers stuck on, sequins and even hair.

Cartopole, Rue d'Auray, BAUD Tel: 02.97.51.15.14

Open all year round. June - September 9-30am to 12-30pm & 2-00pm to 7-00pm

October to May - Wednesday,Thursday & Saturday 10-00am to 12-30 pm & 2-00pm to 5-30pm. Sunday 2-00pm to 6-00 pm. (It costs around £2-50 per person, with child reductions.)