Brittany is a large peninsula in northwestern France, bordered on the north by the English Channel and to the west by the Atlantic Ocean. From the beginning of time, this terrain has stood firm against the ravages of nature and history. Along the northern coast, the land is cut into fjords, which the Bretons call abers. The powerful waves of the Atlantic crash along Brittany’s southern beaches. “Fish speak Breton”, said the American writer Jack Kerouac, whose  ancestry was Breton.

Brittany  is definitely a landscape forged by the sea. Certain older citizens also know it as “the end of the earth” or Pen ar Bed in Breton. You have to remember that the sea was a mysterious place for our ancestors, and that this was the last piece of land before the great unknown. Populated by exiles from Wales who fled the Anglo-Saxons, the coasts and forests of Brittany have always kept their Celtic legends. The heart of Brittany is covered with the Brocéliande forest, home of Merlin and the legend of Arthur.

Rich in local history, Brittany is proud of its ageless megaliths, its stone houses with slate roofs, its medieval wayside crosses, its tiny chapels which shelter the memory of numerous generations of sailors. We find at the heart of these tiny villages a strong hint of how life was when Brittany was separated from the rest of the country by impregnable forest, and the Bretons did not speak any French.

Very close to their Welsh, Irish, and Cornwall cousins, the Bretons make the distinction between their own character and that of the rest of France (more Latin and German). Initially rather brusque, they open up as the conversation progresses, and are in fact a very hospitable, cultured people. They are sailors and farmers and have a long tradition of sea salt gathering. The Breton language is a Celtic/Gaelic language, very close to Gaul, and is avidly learned by younger generations today.

Brittany is known in France as a retreat from the tumult of city life. The healing powers of the ocean are potent here; dining on sea food and taking spa treatments are popular pastimes both among visitors and residents.