Jean-René Guérin spends an evening on gallo and lets the language show its many facets. The session mixes short films, slideshows and told stories, and the audience is there to join in, not to sit still. What holds it together is the langue gallèse itself, carried by a host who works for it, not explained from outside. A friendly get-together follows at the salle polyvalente of Lamballe-Armor.
Tag: storytelling
Three trades behind the forest of Brocéliande
Brocéliande is known for its legends, and this walk asks what work goes on behind them. Around the Jardin aux Moines, three parties read the same stretch of forest in turn: a storytelling guide from the Office de tourisme de Brocéliande-Paimpont, timber professionals from Fibois Bretagne, and foresters from the CNPF. Visitors hear how the forest is told, then how it is cut and sold. The trail runs two kilometres and sets out only if five sign on.
Kalon Eusa, contes et légendes d’Ouessant
Kalon Eusa guides the oral heritage of Ouessant on two separate routes. The Armor walk leaves Lampaul at nightfall and turns to the sea, where the island’s magical characters surface, sometimes benevolent and often malevolent. The Argoat walk goes inland to the marshes, springs and fountains, and to groves of willows, alders and chestnut trees where a small magical people shelters. Armor names the sea-facing country and Argoat the interior.
Breton tales read at the Ti ar Bleizig crèche
Two hours of tales told in Breton, read aloud at the Multi-Accueil Ti ar Bleizig in Saint-Thégonnec Loc-Éguiner. The reading is done by volunteers from the commune, which built the crèche’s pedagogical project with it to carry Breton forward. The house was the first structure to reach level 1 of the Ya d’ar brezhoneg Petite enfance charter, and it runs weekly Breton sessions with the association KLT. Entry is free.
Le Temps des Fileuses: Breton tales and archive film
Compagnie Marmouzic brings a told, musical and filmed passage through rural Brittany as it was in the decades either side of the war. Catherine Le Flochmoan tells three humorous Breton stories on stage, set against four films drawn from regional archive and documentary reels. Jérôme accompanies her on accordion. The spinners the title names stand for a round of farm work that has gone, and the piece tours under the Culture en Partage banner.
Contes et histoires du pays at the Ferme d’Antan
Angélique leads her listeners from one end of the Écomusée de la Ferme d’antan to the other, telling the contes et légendes du pays. The figures she summons are the korrigans, the lavandières de la nuit and the croquemitaine. The telling moves on foot through the farm village at Le Saint Esprit des Bois, in Plédéliac. It is one evening of the fifth Minutes Bleues, the Côtes-d’Armor festival staged in the blue light of dawn and dusk.
Dremmwel : quarante ans de scène
Dremmwel is a traditional-music group based at Quimper, and this concert marks the forty years it has spent on the road. The programme reworks part of its repertoire and honours the musicians who shaped it. The storyteller Patrik Ewen holds the narrative thread on the theme of the horizon, which is what dremmwel means in Breton. The guests around him include the harpist Klervi Rivière and the Bigouden ensemble Bagad Cap Caval.
Les Minutes Bleues: Les Périls de la Grande Pêche
Côtes d’Armor Destination brings its Minutes Bleues to the Musée Mathurin Méheut, in the blue light of dusk. Shadow puppeteers follow the Fils de Croguennec from the Breton moors to the desolate ports of Iceland, where drowned fishermen haunt the memory. The tale is Pêcheur d’Islande, the book by Pierre Loti that Méheut illustrated; the technique belongs to Henri Rivière, the other painter in these rooms. Each spectator cuts out a paper puppet.
Des histoires à la bougie at the Abbaye du Relec
The guide opens at the Abbaye du Relec while there is still light enough to pick out the detail of the site, and sets out its history. The atmosphere shifts once night has fallen. By candlelight the walk becomes a veillée, and the légendes bretonnes take over from the history. The stories told in the dark are the lugubrious ones of Brittany, recounted on the departmental estate at Plounéour-Ménez for anyone from eight upwards.
La Baie des Livres, salon jeunesse du Pays de Morlaix
The association La Baie des Livres gathers children’s books and illustration at the Roudour hall in Saint-Martin-des-Champs, and its fifteenth edition turns on Gourmandises. An exhibition of Les recettes des contes de fées and another devoted to François Place hang beside the signing stands. Kamishibaï readings, comptines and an Alfajores workshop fill the halls. A Causerie en breton carries the Breton tongue through this Pays de Morlaix fair.