The Écomusée du Pays d’Auray runs this Morbihan grandeur nature session in the Verger Conservatoire at Saint-Dégan, where some two hundred apple varieties are kept. Participants follow the stages that turn fruit into juice: broyage, pressage, then a dégustation of what they have made. The Breton language arrives with the work, picked up through the gestures, objects and shared moments the pressing calls for. Boots and warm clothing are advised.
Topic: events
Au fil du lin, de la culture à la texture
The Maison des talus et des routoirs à lin opens at Pouldouran, in La Roche-Jaudy, around the plant that made this corner of the Trégor rich. Lannion-Trégor keeps the site and sets out what the little blue flower left behind. The route that starts at its door passes the routoirs, the talus and the fermes massives, and reaches the port goémonier. Each stop carries the story forward, from the crop in the field to the texture of the finished linen.
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.
Jeanne Malivel, from woodcut to Ar Seiz Breur
The Espace Kenere media centre in Pontivy gathers the many-sided work of Jeanne Malivel, mounted with the Association Jeanne Malivel. Visitors move between engraving on wood, furniture, stained glass, textile, ceramics and painting, much of it lent from private collections. Her aim in Ar Seiz Breur was to draw on Breton heritage for an artistic language of its own time. The pieces beside hers were made by schoolchildren working from her motifs.
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.