These lovely watercolours are by Bernard Beaulien of Roscoff
 

Brittany (French Bretagne, Breton Breizh, Gallo Bertaèyn) is a peninsula in north-west France, hugged by the English Channel on the north and the Bay of Biscay on the south. It is also an administrative région of France. The historical capital was Nantes, but the modern capital of the region of Brittany is Rennes.

Oddly, there are either four or five departments in Brittany, depending which tourist book you read, or who you talk to. The département Loire-Atlantique (including the city of Nantes) was historically part of Brittany, but is now part of the Pays de la Loire region. A movement exists to transfer Loire-Atlantique back to the region of Brittany. The reason for this is that Loire-Atlantique was historically - until the Second World War - part of Brittany, and the grand Château of the Dukes of Brittany is at Nantes.

Brittany is famous for its megalithic monuments, which are scattered over the peninsula, the largest alignments being near Carnac. The purpose of these monuments is still unknown. The words dolmen and menhir come from the Breton language, even though they are not used in Breton.
     

Rows of stones at Carnac
Prehistoric sunset
A lone survivor
 
Brittany is also known for the calvaires (calvaries), elaborately carved sculptures of crucifixion scenes, to be found in churchyards of villages and small towns, especially in Western Brittany.
 

Church at Noyal-Pontivy
Calvary at Pleyben
Guimiliau Parish Close
 
The economy of Brittany is based on three major activities: agriculture (breeding cows, pigs and poultry and growing vegetables), the fishing industry, and latterly tourism. There is no heavy industry or mining and hence no pollution, so the air is clean and fresh.
 
Going fishing
Breton trawlers
A lonely beach
 
Since the beginning of time, this land resisted the furious attacks of nature and the scars of its tumultuous history. Along the coasts of the English Channel, sea and land merge together in strange ways, cutting out broad fjords named Abers by the Bretons. The powerful waves of the Atlantic crash heavily on some of the long sandy beaches of the southern coast.
 
Strange rock formations
Pounding the shore
Big sea at the Ile de Bréhat
 
It is also called the 'Pen rear Bed' ('the end of the World' in Breton). The Romans came up with the term Finis terra - world's end - , which of course gives us the modern Finistère. La Bretagne is the most Western land of the old European continent, last rampart known against the marine monsters which reigned on the mysterious depths of the ocean and the imagination of our ancestors. It is also where the legendary city of Atlantis supposedly disappeared.
 
 

Populated by fugitives from Wales, fleeing for their lives from the Angles and the Saxons, the coasts and the forests of Brittany provided refuge, and thus were preserved the legends and the tales of the Celts. The heart of Brittany is still covered by the mysterious 'Forest of Brocéliande', with its Arthurian legends and the tomb of Merlin himself.
 
The Fountain of Youth
Merlin's Grave
Many Breton Saints lost their heads
 
The visitor to Brittany is struck by the pretty granite houses with slate roofs, the numerous medieval churches, the enclos paroissiaux with their magnificent granite medieval sculptures which punctuate the country roads, the tiny chapels usually hidden away, as well as the large majestic cathedrals - and flowers everywhere, particularly hortensias (hydrangeas) and pelargoniums.
 
Chapel near Roscoff
Pretty Chaumiere (thatched cottage)
Créperie in Concarneau
 
In the heart of this country, you will find amazing untouched little villages of granite buildings like Locronan in Finistère where it seems that nothing changed since the last king died centuries ago. The best of these are given the title "Petite Cité de Caractère" - and La Roche-Bernard in the Morbihan is one of these.

Even the language they speak among themselves the further west you go seems from another era. They do not speak French but Breton. Everybody can speak French nowadays, of course, but they prefer to speak Breton in order to keep their traditions alive.

At first sight, Bretons can appear cold and hard but if you take time to speak with them and to listen to them they will quickly show you that no one should trust appearances. Traditionally very welcoming, the Bretons are extraordinarily open and love to meet new people. Travellers by necessity but also by taste and choice - and they are France's finest sailors - the Breton welcome foreigners like family and friends.
 
Locronan - a medieval survival
Pretty Rochefort-en-Terre
Poul Fétan - restored as a museum