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.
Region: Brittany
Dinan se savoure à l’heure bleue
Les Minutes Bleues walks a small group along Dinan’s medieval ramparts as the light goes out of the lanes. A guide carries the route, folding the town’s history into local anecdote. It closes inside the walls at a fine grocery, where regional flavours are tasted and shared. The festival stages each encounter at a listed heritage site of the Côtes d’Armor, in the blue light of dawn or dusk. Walking shoes are asked for.
Armateurs de Rhum opens its rum workshop
At Saint-Jouan-des-Guérets, outside Saint-Malo, a family distillery opens the room where its liqueurs, gins and rums are made by hand. A guide takes callers along the production line, from the raw material to the bottling. The talk covers traditional methods and what a terroir does to a spirit, and ends with a tasting of the house’s bottlings. The house ages rum at sea, ships some under sail, and distils its gin from buckwheat and Breton seaweed.
Solomon Rossine : La Bretagne qui est toujours avec toi
The Chapelle des Ursulines at Lannion hangs the series Solomon Rossine completed after thirty-five years in the town. 77 oil paintings and many drawings came out of excursions made on foot, by bike and by car, always with a sketchbook. Visitors follow what those sketchbooks brought back: the old train station, the streets of Lannion, rain in the countryside. Wayside shrines, Breton festivals and the Pardon give the series its subject.
Empreintes du crépuscule: linocut at Saint-Thélo
At nightfall the Maison des Toiles at Saint-Thélo opens the house of a linen-cloth merchant for a linocut workshop. Visitors read its architecture detail by detail in the failing light, then cut a block and print what they took from it. Their prints are set beside the work of Jeanne Malivel, the artist who worked in woodcut. The sittings belong to Les Minutes Bleues, which opens twenty-four heritage sites of the Côtes d’Armor in blue light.
Le mystère du Haras, Haras national de Lamballe
The Haras national de Lamballe lets teams behind the scenes to work out what became of an archive that has gone missing. The clues sit among the stud farm’s historic buildings, and progress takes exploration, reasoning and pooling what each team has spotted. Children from eight take part with an adult beside them. The hunt belongs to Les Minutes Bleues, whose programme also opens the Abbaye de Beauport and the Château de La Hunaudaye.
Arc-en-Ciel Imprimeurs, a print works at Lécousse
Arc-en-Ciel Imprimeurs has printed from Lécousse for more than 50 years, and its 12 salaried staff keep the offset and digital presses running for local firms, authorities and associations. The guided tour crosses the workshops step by step, following production from books to advertising panels. The trade on show is at once traditional, technical and constantly evolving. Photography is prohibited inside, so nothing leaves on a phone.
Pouldu blockhouse, an Atlantic Wall visit
The Clohars-Carnoët Memory and Heritage Association opens a 775 m3 casemate of the Atlantic Wall above Grands Sables beach at Le Pouldu. Inside the restored artillery hall, the troop shelter and the rear firing post, panels and period weapons and uniforms set out the Breton Resistance, the fighting of the Lorient Pocket and the Laïta Front. A guide leads the round, or it can be walked alone. A booklet on the blockhouse is on sale at the door.
Fête automnale des Amis du Monde à Meneham
Les Amis du Monde de Kerlouan gather in the heart of Meneham for their autumn fete. The afternoon is a fest-deiz, danced in daylight to a traditional music group. Pumpkin soup, sausage galettes and crêpes come out of the kitchen beside a refreshment stand. Meneham is the village the association works in, and the Côte des Légendes office opens the site this season for lantern-lit visits, giant werewolves and Ar vro Bagan’s pirate play.
Session de musique bretonne at Mar’mousse
Musicians gather at Mar’mousse, a kav, bar and resto in Plérin, to play Breton tunes together. The invitation is to come and play, not to listen: newcomers are eased in on an easy stretch first, and the session proper is launched afterwards. Anyone who would rather dance than play is welcome to, which is what the repertoire is for. The house signs its own pages in Breton, Produet e Breizh hag e brezhoneg gant karantez. Entry is free.