The Aquarium des curieux de nature at Belle-Isle-en-Terre holds the flora and fauna of Brittany’s rivers, and hands young visitors a map and clues for the tanks. Riddles along the way follow the salmon’s life cycle from stream to sea and back. Teams puzzle out each step together until the hidden treasure turns up. The Centre régional d’Initiation Rivière runs the place, and Les Minutes Bleues adds it to its dusk programme in Côtes-d’Armor.
Region: Brittany
Le Grand Bal d’Arsonora : bal Renaissance à Lanvallay
Into The Winds, directed by Adrien Reboisson, turns the Salle des fêtes de Lanvallay into a Renaissance dance floor. An initiation session in medieval and Renaissance dances comes first, then the ball itself. The ensemble reads its steps from l’Orchésographie de Thoinot Arbeau and plays on instruments anciens. The ball belongs to Arsonora, the medieval music festival of the Association Fête des Remparts de Dinan. Costumes can be hired on site.
Exhibition « Le fest-noz s’affiche »
A fest-noz poster is first an announcement and then a keepsake of a night already past. The exhibition asks what such a poster is for, what it can do visually, and where it turns up: billboards, bus shelters, EDF transformers, the rear window of a car. It also sets out a short history of the fest-noz, carried on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Ti ar Vro Treger-Goueloé and Dastum Bro-dreger are partners in it.
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.
Taolennou, the painted banners of Mikeal Jestin
Mikeal Jestin calls himself a peinteur, in homage to the craftsmen who painted Quimper earthenware. On the walls of his Plouescat showroom hang his Taolennou, the kind of painted banner once carried around the countryside to tell a story. The tales they carry turn religious as often as pagan, which is to say Breton. Painted on solid panels, they are shown where they are made, and the door opens in summer at weekends or on a phone call.
Kig ha farz cooked by the FCLP in Lanhouarneau
Kig ha farz is the dish and the whole of this gathering at the Complexe sportif in Lanhouarneau. The village football club, the FCLP, cooks the meal with local ingredients and serves it in the hall. Those who would rather eat at home bring their own containers and carry a portion away. The commune keeps the meal in its own annual programme, alongside the Foire à l’artisanat and the Trail de la vallée des moulins.
Geological Walk from Tréhorenteuc to the Jardin aux Moines
Samuel Piriou, a geologist and guide, walks a five-kilometre route out of Tréhorenteuc into Brocéliande, reading the ground as he goes. Erratic blocks and rock outcrops carry the explanation, and maps account for the shape of the landscape. The route reaches the Jardin aux Moines, the megalithic site whose significance Le Géologue Ambulant interprets on the spot. Ancient heritage is described too, and places on the free outing must be booked.
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.
Festival du Livre en Bretagne in Carhaix
Most of Brittany’s publishing houses, about a hundred, set up stands alongside close to three hundred authors. The fair is run by the Centre culturel breton Egin, and publishers time their main releases to it, which makes Carhaix the pivot of the Breton literary season. Roundtables and screenings run in French, in Brezhoneg and in Kabyle. The bill includes a roundtable on contemporary Breton literature and a tribute to the musician Soïg Sibéril.