By name you'd think Brittany belongs to England. The assumption isn't entirely wrong. Brittany means "little Britain" and early inhabitants of this French coastal province were Celts who had crossed the English Channel in the 5th and 6th centuries to escape Anglo-Saxon aggressors.
The area was an independent duchy for more than a century. Later it was the subject of a bloody tug-of-war between England and France. It landed firmly in French hands in the 15th century when the Duchess of Brittany, who was married to Francois I of France, ceded her duchy to her husband's kingdom.
I mention Brittany's past because it is a remarkable part of its present. Ramparts, legacies of its battle-scarred heritage, still surround its oldest settlements.Fishing villages line the coast. Like their predecessors, many contemporary Bretons earn their living from the sea.
And port cities, once major players in European commerce, still celebrate their maritime history. During the late 18th century, for example, merchant marines working for the India Company set sail for India and China from Port Louis on Brittany's Atlantic coast. They returned years later with spices, porcelain, silk and carvings from the Orient. Today the India Company Museum at Port Louis displays treasures brought to France from the Far East more than two centuries ago.
But Brittany is more than history. It is secluded and scenic, too. Thatch-roof farmhouses dot a lush countryside. Villages have beautifully restored half-timbered houses. Brightly painted boats bob up and down in harbors.
PThe coastline varies from the wide, sandy beaches of La Baule on the Atlantic to the rocky inlets and oyster farms near Cancale up north.
I visited Brittany with several other travel writers as the guest of the French Government Tourist Office, Air France and FrenchRail.
We traveled from Paris to Rennes on the high-speed TGV train. We drove through Brittany in rental cars and returned to Paris from Nantes, again on the TGV.
Highlights of our week-long stay in Brittany included the port cities of St. Malo and Vannes, and the charming villages of Combourg, Josselin, Dinan and Dinard.
To my Anglicized ears, the French pronunciation of Dinard and Dinan is virtually the same. But the towns are vastly different. Dinard is a seaside resort with villas and promenades; Dinan an inland village overlooking the Rance River. Beautifully restored buildings surround its market square. One of them houses a Michelin two-star restaurant where we whiled away hours over a memorable meal.
One of Brittany's assets is the fact that it's off-the-beaten path. Paris and the Riviera are the best-known French tourist destinations. But in my mind it is the countryside and small villages where La Belle France is her most seductive.
Highlights of the trip follow:
Several well-known Frenchmen were born in Brittany. The writer Francois Rene de Chateaubriand was among them. Born in St. Malo, he spent two years of his youth at Combourg Castle, an imposing stone structure on secluded grounds near the village of Combourg. He and his sister Lucile led an isolated life there, seeing no visitors for months on end. When the family met in the drawing room, their father, moody and somber, walked back and forth in silence for hours. No one dared speak. Their mother was unwell and kept her children at a distance.
The young Francois Rene slept in a haunted room on the top floor of one of the towers. A former Lord of Combourg was said to return there at night as a black cat. Owls fluttered against the window and the wind rattled the door, adding to the boy's fear.
Woods surround the castle. A small lake is also on the grounds. The setting is lovely but eerie, a melancholy beginning for the somber writer. "I became what I am in the woods of Combourg," he later said.
Chateaubriand died in Paris where he lived on the Rue de Bac. He is buried in his beloved Brittany on a small island off the coast of St. Malo.
A few rooms of the castle at Combourg are open to the public: the chapel, the drawing room and the boy's bedroom in the "Cat Tower." They are dark and morbid. Small windows let in little light. The parapet walk takes you alongside the roof and overlooks the woods, the pond and the grey-roofed village.
The castle is on a direct route between Rennes and St. Malo and is a pleasant place to stretch your legs.
St. Malo, located on the northern coast, is the jewel of Brittany's crown. The French refer to the area as the Emerald Coast because of its lush inland greenery and rocky inlets. The walled city is beautifully intact with ramparts from the 12th century. Take a walk on top of the wall for rooftop views of the city. Wealthy ship owners' houses from the 17th and 18th century have steep slate roofs and rows of dormers. You also see the island where Chateaubriand is buried. Mazes of ponds are laid out in neat rectangular blocks across marsh lands near the Bay of Bourgneuf. Here, on Brittany's west coast, the sea provides a livelihood for many Bretons. The harvest is salt, not seafood. The method dates back to the Romans.
Workers bronzed by the sun harvest salt by hand. They painstakingly route ocean water into a network of ponds. Water flows slowly from one pond to another evaporating along the way. The result is crystalized salt that harvesters rake into piles and store in sheds in huge mounds. The salt is sold "au naturel," chunky and with no additives.
Although the sea and land are intertwined with Brittany's heritage, the province is not without its luxuries. It has its share of Michelin-starred restaurants and opulent hotels.
Chateau de Locguenole located in the wooded countryside near Hennebont (near Port Louis) is three stories of old-world luxury. I slept on the third floor in an enormous room furnished with antiques. A Michelin two-star restaurant is in the basement.
We also spent a night at the Hotel Royal in the resort town of La Baule. A spa specializing in treatments with sea water is on its premises. I relaxed there one morning in a seaweed bath and had my back massaged by a high-powered jet in a swimming pool. Treatments with sea water are referred to as "thalassotherapy," the newest health rage in Europe. Massage by water jets is considered more effective than having a massage by a person.
A journey to Brittany would not be complete without going to Carnac where large boulders in straight lines have puzzled historians for centuries. Carnac was a prehistoric capital and the rocks, nearly 5,000 of them, raise more questions than they answer. They preceded Celts who set foot here in the 6th century.
One theory speculates that seafaring people settled the area in the early Bronze Ages. Whatever their origin, they add intrigue to a land whose charms center around farming, fishing and fortresses.
For information on travel in France write the French Government Tourist Office, 9454 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 303, Beverly Hills, CA 90212, or call 1-900-420-2003, Monday thru Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern time. The call costs 50 cents a minute.