The second edition of the Salon Vibrations fills the Abbaye de Léhon with contemporary work. Paintings, sculptures, wall pieces and one-off objects form a route laid out so that each work answers the space it stands in. The artists and the artisans d’art stay for the whole run and talk through the story behind a given piece. The abbey is a protected monument whose heritage the organisers treat as part of the show.
Region: Brittany
Erquy on Foot: Chapelle des Marins to the Sea
The Office de Tourisme leads this walk through Erquy on the theme of its réginéen religious and seaside heritage. It sets off from in front of the Chapelle des Marins and works from the town centre out to the boulevard de la mer. The guide sets the commune’s religious buildings beside its villas de bord de mer and the protected natural setting that frames them both. Children from ten upwards can follow, and a place has to be reserved.
Fest Noz with Kastelodenn and Tam Glaz
A fest noz is an evening of dancing to live playing, and the Auray-Utting Sister City Committee holds one at the Espace Les Chênes in Crac’h. The music is shared by two groups, Kastelodenn and Tam Glaz. Refreshments and food are served on site through the evening. A raffle is drawn during the night, and the committee behind it is the one that twins Auray with Utting.
Cidrerie Kerloïck : le parcours de la pomme
The Kerloïck cidery at Plestan follows the apple from the orchard to the bowl, a route opened for the Economic Tourism and Craftsmanship Weeks. It begins in the heritage orchard, among the varieties, where the growers explain planting, pruning, mowing and grafting, then continues through the pressing workshop, in operation while the Weeks run, the cellar and the bottling line. A tasting of the house products closes it, for groups of four to twenty-five visitors.
Le chant des Bienveillantes at Abbaye de Beauport
Les Minutes Bleues sets its fifth edition at heritage sites across the Côtes-d’Armor, in the blue light of dawn and dusk. Its Paimpol evening belongs to the Abbaye de Beauport, where a community of women once lived on after dark. Their history is told aloud inside the abbey, then carried by song, and listeners are asked to close their eyes and simply hear it. The group is held to sixteen, and the piece is written for ages twelve and up.
Du Val sans Retour au Graal avec Ozégan
Ozégan leads this balade contée out of Tréhorenteuc into the Val sans Retour, the valley at the heart of Brécéliande that Breton legend gives to Morgane la fée. Tales of the Golden Tree, the Fairy Mirror Pond, the Rock of False Lovers and Merlin’s Seat are told along the way, legends of this mysterious forest. The Chapelle du Graal ends the route, a mythical and mystical place whose uniqueness in the world the storyteller explains on the spot. His bag of tricks, tales and music honours the beauty and magic of life, played on unusual instruments, some of them medieval reconstructions.
Tréguier’s episcopal city, walked with Ella or Yvette
Ella or Yvette lead the walk through Tréguier, the ancient episcopal city above the Jaudy estuary. The route follows imposing facades of stone and half-timbered wood that made the Petite Cité de Caractère famous, then stops beneath the elegant spire of the cathedral of Saint-Tugdual, 63 metres up. Tréguier’s quarrels of opinion and of territory come into the telling. The little local anecdotes hold the larger history together.
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.
Fest-deiz with Danserien Plourae
Afternoon dancing is the whole point of a fest-deiz, the daytime form of the Breton danced gathering and the counterpart of the fest-noz. Danserien Plourae, a Breton-named village association, organises this one. The public register of associations declares the group a “groupe de danse bretonne et d’enseignement de la danse”, so the steps are taught as well as danced. Rue du Midi in Plouray holds the floor, in the village where the association itself is seated.
Michel Denis on 130 ans de cinéma à Dinard
Dinard has been filmed, and has filmed itself, for the better part of a century and a third. Michel Denis takes that span as his subject in a lecture given for the town’s history and heritage association, with film clips shown alongside the account. The hall is the Palais des Arts et du Festival on Boulevard Wilson, haut lieu du Dinard Film Festival, a building the city lists as hosting conferences. Admission is free.