Opozit builds custom steel bicycles inside Atelier OPN, a former farmstead in the Breton country, and opens its workshop for the Semaines du Tourisme Economique et des Savoir-Faire. Pierre, once a research engineer, chose the workbench over the design office. A frame is followed from the first digital sketch to the final weld, through bending, cutting and brazing. Computer-aided design sets its geometry to the millimetre for one rider’s build.
Topic: events
Une saïrée avec Mélie at the Ferme d’Antan
Mélie is the farmer at the Écomusée de La Ferme d’Antan, and as the light goes she hands visitors her own chores: the animals to see to, the eggs to gather. The work earns a collation à l’ancienne by the fire in the hôté. Mélie speaks cor’gallo throughout and is understood anyway, which is the whole point of the hour. Twelve people at most join her, as one of the Minutes Bleues sessions set in Côtes-d’Armor heritage places at dawn or dusk.
Festival Presqu’île Breizh in Carnac
Carnac takes its turn in the Presqu’île Breizh festival, a Breton music event gathering the cercles and bagads of Brittany and beyond. On the Grande Plage the cercle de Lorient performs as Celtique Bugale an Oriant. The Koroll GR34 project then opens twenty-six emblematic Breton dances to anyone who wants to try them. Thirty women pipers of the Hundred Percent collective parade up Rue Saint-Cornély to the Place de l’Église.
Le Brut de l’Avette reed workshop, Québriac
Nolwenn Zaour and Simon Froger make anches at Le Brut de l’Avette, the cane reeds that give the bombarde and the veuze their voice. The visit follows one through every stage, from choosing the cane to the adjustments that settle its sound. Wind instruments also come here for repair, so a bench is usually in mid-job. The atelier opens inside the Semaines du Tourisme Économique et des Savoir-Faire, the Breton fortnight of company visits.
Autumn fest-noz for Patrick Galopin, Plouezoc’h
Plouezoc’h holds its autumn fest-noz in honour of Patrick Galopin, and the bill is built the way a fest-noz is built: soneri and kaneri, the pipers and the singers whose playing the dancing follows. The Maison des Associations fills with dancers in sets, behind whichever couple is on. Crêpes go out on site through the evening. The tribute is to a musician the commune knew, which makes this a local gathering and not a programmed concert.
Skol Diwan Kraon ouvre ses portes à Crozon
Skol Diwan Kraon, the École Diwan Naig Rosmor, opens its buildings and gardens in Crozon for guided and self-guided tours. The school teaches wholly through Breton and has for more than thirty-five years, from the Très Petite Section up to CM2. Former pupils and parents come back to give their own account of life after the school, and the teaching team opens the day over coffee. The travelling duo Antoine et Clairette plays for the occasion.
Cépi Ébénisterie: Straw Marquetry in Moncontour
Cépi Ébénisterie opens its workshop on Rue Charbonnerie at Moncontour, one of 27 taking part across Lamballe Terre et Mer. The cabinetmaker works in two registers: furniture and objects made to measure, and the restoration of older pieces. The rarer trade shown is marqueterie de paille, straw marquetry, which the workshop also teaches as an initiation. Each opening is a short presentation of the craft with a demonstration, six people at a time.
Halloween baking at the Biscuiterie Ménou
The Biscuiterie Ménou gives this holiday session to the gâteau breton. The short programme around it also takes in a spider-shaped bread and a pumpkin brioche. The house has baked at Plougonver since 1879, three generations of the family have worked the bakery, and its range runs to palets, galettes and gâteaux bretons. The group is capped and booking is required. The boutique-musée beside the ovens carries two centuries of the craft.
Visite de la cidrerie du Penthièvre, Hénansal
Eva and Nathan opened this family cidrerie at Hénansal a year ago, and they now walk visitors through the whole of it. The round begins in the orchards, with the apple varieties and the blending, then moves to the vats and the press that draws the juice. Fermentation does the rest, turning the cider sparkling on its own with no gas added. The bottling line closes the circuit, and a tasting with the two growers ends the visit.
Taverniers d’un soir au château de la Hunaudaye
The château de la Hunaudaye hands its Taverne over to visitors for one sitting of the festival Les Minutes Bleues. Each team pits its knowledge against the others and calls on creativity, exploration and strategy. Shakers in hand, the players mix the best breuvage sans alcool they can manage. The team that comes out ahead is declared Tavernier du château. The festival opens the hauts-lieux of Côtes d’Armor under the blue light of dawn or dusk.