S. Baring-Gould

“ It has a gallery above the porch, another at the summit of the tower, and curious flying buttresses support the turrets at the angles, and a cupola in the centre surmounted by a lantern on three stages. The church itself is late flamboyant. The porch is wide and enriched with Ionic pillars, within it is vaulted, and the groins meet in a pendant. A curious statue in the S. transept represents the Virgin and child. She is trampling on the Devil, who tauntingly upholds the fatal apple. Good metal-work encloses the baptistery. ”

“ Moreover, the scenery about Pont-aven is pleasing, and it serves as a better headquarters than Concarneau, where the smell of the sardine pickling is offensive, and produces in some stomachic trouble. Pont-aven is picturesquely situated on the Aven, the same name as our Affon, Awne, and Avon, and at the foot of two hills crowned with granite rocks that have been rounded by the action of the weather, which dissolves the silicate of potass in it, when the other matters, mica, felspar, hemblend, and quartz fall away in gravel and sand. ”

“ The S. porch is vaulted and has niches within. The chapel contains very fine glass of 1550, but falling to pieces and fragments detaching themselves with every storm. The subjects represented are the Nativity, the Passion, and the legend of S. Fiacre. A roodscreen of 1480 has been badly "restored" and painted. The condition of the magnificent glass is disgraceful. The chapel is a "monument historique," so that the curé can do nothing to it, and the State will do nothing for its preservation. The foliage carving in granite is admirable for its boldness. ”

“ But the student of men and manners will find much to interest him at such a gathering. The churches are of extraordinary beauty, they are for the most part of granite, but of a fine-grained granite that lends itself to elaborate carving. And the kersanten stone is employed, a dark volcanicvi product that is undercut and preserves its sharpness through centuries, and is employed for carving of lace-like delicacy. The coast scenery is fine, but not of the finest description, and varies very greatly from the granite cliffs of Finistère to the sandy dunes of the Morbihan. ”

“ Once a thriving little town living on its looms, but since weaving has been done by steam, its prosperity has gone, and many houses are in ruins. Those that remain occupied are all of granite, and some, if not all, old. The church has the Chapel of S. Ronan on its south side opening out of it by a couple of arches. All is flamboyant. The church had a spire that was struck by lightning in 1806 and fell, carrying away pinnacles and the lace-like parapet on the N. side. On this N. side is a little chapel with a graceful flamboyant window in the gable, and saints in niches at the sides. ”

“ The church in the old town in decadent flamboyant, is bad of its kind. The tracery had been removed from the windows, and has been replaced by new stuff of no character except feebleness. The W. tower is octagonal with a spire surmounting it. The castle has been in part destroyed, but two faces remain with singularly low drums of towers. In it is now the museum. The costume of the neighbourhood of Pontivy in the women is not remarkable, but that of the men is picturesque, white jackets bordered and ornamented with black velvet. ”

“ A pretty walk up the glen of about three miles leads to the chapel of the Sept-Saints, a cruciform structure erected in 1702, with a S. transept over a dolmen that serves as crypt, and with an altar in it to the Seven Sleepers. At S. Marcel at some little distance from Plouaret is a mutilated statue of a Roman horseman trampling on a half human monster, that receives a religious cult. Although the heads have been knocked off, and the clergy set their faces strongly against this devotion, the peasantry still have recourse to the image. ”

“ The ranges of the Montaignes Noires and the Monts d'Arrez are insignificant. Yet the valleys are pretty, but never grand. The charm of Brittany is to be found in the people and in the churches. The former with their peculiar costumes, and their customs are full of interest, and the latter are of remarkable beauty and quaintness. The ordinary tourist will hardly see much of the costume unless he attends a pardon, the Patron of the Irish peasant; the patronal feast at some chapel frequented only on the day of the pardon. ”

“ Plougrescent, a fallen menhir 19 ft. long, is near Maznoë. The parish church is modern and very creditable. But the main object of interest in the parish is the chapel of S. Gonery. The tower is early 1st pointed, and was never completed. Above it is now a leaning wood and lead spirelet. The chapel consists of a single nave, with chancel and two chapels, one on each side of the chancel. The glory of the chapel is its magnificent painted ceiling in ten lower ranges, representing on one side the incidents of the Nativity, on the other those of the Passion. ”

“ There is a Calvary. The tower dates from 1656. Over a side altar is a painting representing in a series of groups the legend of S. Hervé, a blind bard saint who contributed greatly to the downfall of Conmore, acting in conjunction with Gildas and S. Samson.
Bodilis. The tower of this church was erected when Gothic architecture was in its decline. It is surmounted by a spire with spirelets at the angles rising from a gallery. The porch is of 1570, and is of unusual beauty. Within are the apostles; below the niches runs a band of marvellous richness of sculpture and great variety. ”

“ There are no fine buildings on the embankments. The most pretentious structure on the left bank, between the station and the river, is the lycée, with a chapel in a nondescript style. Several bridges, all mean in character, cross the river. On the right bank are the most important buildings. The cathedral is a hideous structure commenced in 1787 and completed in 1844. The two side doors and the niches at the west end belong to the earlier building and are renaissance. ”

“ The date of the porch is 1604, and the tower is of much the same date. Landerneau was a great artistic centre in the 16th and 17th cents., and its architects and sculptors erected the splendid work in the Elorn valley and the region around. The style they created is very original and deserves attention. They delighted in adorning the churches with noble porches, bold, and often with the gable crowned with a spirelet. Within, niches hold statues of the twelve apostles. When all other detail is Italian, the foliage remains of flamboyant character. ”

“ At a great Basse-Bretagne Pardon and fair, one may wander till late among the thousands gathered there, enjoying themselves on merry-go-rounds and at shooting stalls, and see no horseplay, no rudeness, no drunkenness. ”

“ The church is late flamboyant with a fine renaissance tower and porch within which are the apostles. Side by side may be seen a doorway of the earlier and of the later periods. There is a fine painted 16th cent. reredos in the church to a side altar. The gallery of the roodscreen has been made into a west gallery. About a mile distant is the Holy Well, with a stone trough at the side in which patients were placed and given a bath in the miraculous water. No such an attempt to recover health has however been made of late years. There is a chapel at the Peniti of S. Goulven at a little distance. ”

“ Two dolmens are near the road, in the parish of Plomeur, which has an ugly modern church.
Penmarch was once a thriving seaport, rivalling Nantes, but for various causes declined, and is now reduced to a couple of hamlets. The church (S. Non = Ninidh, an Irish Bishop) is an interesting late flamboyant structure, the tracery in the windows affecting the forms of fleurs-de-lys. Beneath the E. window is a treasury surmounted by a gallery. At the junction of the chancel with the nave is a spirelet supported by turrets, connected with it by flying buttresses. ”

“ On the way to Roscoff, just beyond the railway, is an allée couverte or dolmen.
Roscoff is a quaint place, with an old house or two, situated near the sea, and commanding the Island of Batz. The church has a very remarkable renaissance tower and spire (1550) , more fantastic than pleasing, with ships carved on it and cannons or culverins as gargoyles. It is in three stages with galleries. The church is late flamboyant. There are two ossuaries; one is very rich. In the church are preserved the panels of an alabaster retable of the 15th cent. ”

“ The cause of the poverty of the Breton flora is the uniformity of the soil and the absence of calcareous rocks, and this deprives us of an entire series of plants that abound in Normandy although the climate there is more rigorous. A small number does exist, but only, as already intimated, where there are pockets of limestone, or else on the seaboard, where they can feed on the wreckage of shells cast up by the sea, and carried inland by the gales with the sand. ”

“ The high altar is a mass of silver gilt, decorated in a style suitable to a restaurant rather than to a church. There is a good, restored, bishop's chapel. The Church of S. Mathieu has been rebuilt and has a modern spire. The fine stained glass representing the scenes of the Passion in the east window has been retained; it is of the 16th cent. The musée should be visited. Besides containing an admirable collection of paintings, many by Breton artists, it has a large group of lay-figures dressed in the various costumes of Léon and Cornouaille, representing a marriage. ”

“ The geological structure of Brittany is simple. It consists of an immense upheaval of granite through beds of Silurian and Cambrian schist. Rare deposits of lime occur in the folds of these beds. Dykes of quartz and diorite have traversed the schist and granite, and the face of the country is spotted with eruptions of igneous matter. It is as though the crust had been full of blowholes through which the molten diorite had rushed to the surface. The presence of quartz or diorite in the neighbourhood can always be recognised by the employment of one or the other to metal the roads. ”

“ Such are the Rance, the Gouet, the rivière de Morlaix, with the result that there is no coast-road,2 and the traveller passes along the main arteries of traffic at some distance from the sea, catching a glimpse of it only once at the Anse d'Iffinac, and has to branch off from it to the coast so as to make acquaintance with the bold and picturesque coast.
The mountain range is nowhere high, and rarely reaches a thousand feet. The highest point is the Mont Saint Michel which attains to slightly over 1200 ft. ”

“ Unhappily a passion has possessed the people of late to pull down their ancient churches and build new Houses of God in very questionable taste. In the diocese of Vannes the modern architecture is execrable, but the architects of Quimper are of a vastly higher type. They follow the old lines, and imitate what is good, whereas in the Côtes du Nord and in Morbihan, the modern work is insufferably vulgar and bad. The whole country teems with prehistoric antiquities, but these will only interest those who have made such monuments a special study ”

“ The old Royalist tendency of the Breton is a thing of the past. He is content to be under a republic, if the republic will only leave him alone. Fishing and shooting may be obtained on easy terms, and both are good. The roads are excellent for the cyclist, and the costumes and the architecture present inexhaustible subjects for the camera. The inns are always clean, the charges are moderate, and the fare very passable. No part of Europe is so accessible, and contains so much of interest in varied directions as Brittany. ”

“ The fine central spire was added in 1859, and was the gift to the town of Napoleon III. The tide at S. Malo rises to an extraordinary height. At ebb by a causeway the islets of le Grand and le Petit Bey can be reached. On the nearest are ruins of a castle, and the tomb of Châteaubriant. On the further is a fort that is not occupied. In the offing is the island of Cézambre. Here S. Brendan, when obliged to quit Ireland, founded a monastery, in or about 524; and when S. Malo arrived about a quarter of a century later, he was well received by the abbot and monks on it. ”

“ Annually numerous tourists visit this village to see its very remarkable ecclesiastical monuments, its church, porch, sacristy, calvary, and the little Chapel of Ste. Anne. The porch rivals that of Bodilis and Landerneau. The doorway into the porch has a series of biblical scenes in sculpture in the mouldings. The date is 1617. The voluted keystone alone proclaims the abandonment of Gothic for Italian architecture. To the west side of the porch is attached an ossuary, the roof supported by columns. ”

“ The Bigaudens delight in bright colours, but they are not a religious or a moral people, and they do not exhibit the fervent and deep-seated piety of the genuine Bretons. The Bigaudens occupy the promontory of Sizun and Pont l'Abbé. This people, peculiar in appearance29 and distinct in character from the Bretons, are supposed to belong to the primitive population of Ivernians before the coming of the British colonists. They are looked on with mistrust, if not aversion by the Bretons, whom they can generally over-reach in a bargain. ”

“ The costumes of the women are very pretty. The church is Romanesque, but was frightfully maltreated in the 18th cent., when large round-headed windows were introduced. The tower was struck by lightning and rebuilt at the same time. The piers are 11th cent. From above them rise pilasters that sustain relieving arches under which are the clerestory windows. The capitals have byzantine-looking work on them. The Chapel of Ste. Anne, in the midst of trees, was built in 1685, and has a tower for two bells and spire between two detached turrets surmounted by cupolas. ”

“ The abbey church is of the 11th cent., and is without transepts, but has a large chapel of a later date built on at one side. In a crypt is the reputed tomb of King Grallo. The monastic buildings were rebuilt in the 17th century. The Grève des Anglais is so called because it was here that landed an expedition against Brest which failed, because betrayed to the French Court by Marlborough and Godolphin. The consequence was that eight hundred British soldiers fell into a trap and were butchered to the last man. ”

“ At Maël Carhaix is the cave whence issues the spring that supplied Vorganium with water by an aqueduct.
* CARNAC, com. of Quiberon. Noted for the vast numbers of its prehistoric monuments. It lies on the low flat shores of the Baie de Quiberon, and is a great place for the cultivation of oysters. To obtain a good general view of the place it is well to ascend first of all the Mont S. Michel, a huge cairn piled up over a natural elevation of granite. It is oblong in shape and rises to about 60 feet. On the summit is a chapel of the Archangel, with an old granite cross. ”

“ The North coast of Brittany is eaten into bays from which the sea retreats to considerable distances, and is fringed with reefs and islands. It is a favourite resort of Parisians, throughout its stretch, from Dinard to Plestin.
The West of this peninsula is torn into shreds of promontories with deep inlets between them. The promontories of S. Mathieu, Crozon, Sizun, and Penmarch are bald, but bold. Below the point of Penmarch the coast rapidly trends S.E. and alters in character; it loses its bleak desolation and ragged rocky nature, and forms landlocked seas, as those of Belz and the Morbihan ”

“ Quimper. This little town is far more attractive than Audierne, and is better suited to stay at for a visit to the numerous objects of interest in the peninsula. It is built about a remarkable abbey church, one of the finest in Finistère, and with the noblest tower and spire in Brittany. Most of these towers and spires look like hot-house growths, and are over-weighted by their spires. But the tower of Pontcroix is solid and in perfect proportion to its spire. ”

“ On the south side of the church is a walled-in quadrangular space where, according to tradition, a whole Christian population was massacred by pagans. No certain details exist, and it is probable that the pagans were the Northmen, who committed frightful atrocities in Brittany in the 10th cent. In the midst of the enclosure is the graveyard of the unnamed saints, laid down with polygonal and various shaped pieces of granite. It is enclosed by a dwarf wall overlaid with pieces of slate. At the east end is a sort of altar sustaining a cross and some fragments of carving. ”