The Cap Sizun parish keeps a pardon for each of its churches, and this one belongs to the Église Saint-Vinoc at Plouhinec. Saint Winoc was born in Armorica, near Dol, and left for Flanders, founding the monastery at Wormhoud, under Mont-Saint-Winoc. The church has carried his patronage since the fourteenth century and holds a fragment of his relics from Bergues. The CRER, the committee for restoring religious buildings, keeps it standing.
Tag: local-history
Le Mystère Abgrall: a trail through Guerlesquin
Guerlesquin hands over a game booklet and a problem: Erwann Abgrall, a wealthy Breton eccentric, has vanished, leaving an immense fortune of murky origin, no will and no heir. The booklet turns each walker into an investigator, reading the heritage of the Petite Cité de Caractère to crack the riddles. Maître Braouzec, a notary in Rennes, carries the succession. The trail covers twenty-four Breton towns of the Petites Cités de Caractère network.
Des écailles, des carapaces & des hommes
The Musée de la Conserverie Le Gall turns its temporary exhibition to the world of fishing through five species: sardine, thon, maquereau, langouste and langoustine. Collections gathered with the Musée de la pêche de Concarneau trace how techniques changed and what comes next. The route runs outdoors, to the port de pêche and the théâtre de verdure. Conférences follow the species one by one, among them la langoustine, l’or rose du Pays bigouden.
La Nocturne, the château de Châteaugiron by torchlight
Motte castrale, medieval fortress, then a residence of pleasure: a thousand years of lives sit in one building. Ten steps reach the keep, twenty-five the main building, twenty-five more the attic, one hundred and seven the clock tower. A castle chapel turned contemporary art centre stands on the way, and at sunset the walls start telling their stories. Departure is from the Pays de Châteaugiron tourist office, and a hand torch is needed.
Saint-Énogat Cemetery, the Cradle of Dinard
Saint-Énogat cemetery holds the burial monuments of the figures who shaped Dinard, from the prestigious first English families to the local councillors who ran the seaside town. Stylistic wealth is the thread of the walk: tomb and mausoleum styles read as a hidden facet of the parish the tourist office itself calls the cradle of Dinard. Dinard Émeraude Tourisme leads the visit and takes bookings in advance at its reception areas, with no reservations by telephone or e-mail. Topography and street layout close the route to people with reduced mobility, though other routes are possible on request.
Des monuments bien vivants: Trégrom war memorial
A guide of the Pays d’art et d’histoire du Trégor leads a commented visit of the monument aux morts of Trégrom, by the Église Saint-Brandan. The reading moves from the stone to the memorial practices that settled in after the Great War. The series title, Des monuments bien vivants, argues that a village monument is still in use. Lannion-Trégor Communauté holds that label from the Ministry of Culture, and prints its season in Breton too.
Café-criée : les coulisses de la criée de Concarneau
Concarneau’s criée works in the early morning, as the catch is graded and sold on the floor. Visitors follow the rouages of the sale, then sit down to a breakfast with the guide-conférencier of the town’s Patrimoine service. Talk turns to testimonies collected from the men who worked the hall, to fishing techniques, and to how the whole filière has changed. The auction is the emblematic site of fishing in Concarneau.
Le Petit Théâtre en Famille at La Passerelle
La Passerelle takes children through the Petit Théâtre, the Italian-style house it keeps at Saint-Brieuc, on a free visit. The room is inscribed on the inventory of historic monuments and has carried thousands of spectators across its seasons. Visitors learn the vocabulary of the place: where cour and jardin fall on a seating plan, where the parterre sits and the poulailler hangs. One group takes five to eight year olds, another nine to twelve.
Au fil du lin, de la culture à la texture
The Maison des talus et des routoirs à lin opens at Pouldouran, in La Roche-Jaudy, around the plant that made this corner of the Trégor rich. Lannion-Trégor keeps the site and sets out what the little blue flower left behind. The route that starts at its door passes the routoirs, the talus and the fermes massives, and reaches the port goémonier. Each stop carries the story forward, from the crop in the field to the texture of the finished linen.
Dinardais de cœur : Alain Colas, navigateur solitaire
A lecture, a film and a discussion make up the Histoire & Patrimoine session in Dinard devoted to the solo ocean racer Alain Colas, who disappeared at sea during the first Route du Rhum forty-eight years ago. The film is Rêves d’Océan, by Eric Le Seney, who is present for the screening. Jean-François Colas, the navigator’s younger brother and once a crewmate of his, sits in on it too. Admission is free.