LA
BRETAGNE
COTES
D'ARMOR AND ILLE ET VILLAINE
MARCH/APRIL
2017
My
Spring Expedition to France started with a Portsmouth – St Malo
ferry and a short drive to Taden, a small village just outside Dinan,
where there was a campsite that opened earlier in the season than
others which didn't receive visitors until early April or even later.
I stayed for a fortnight, arriving on 28 March and leaving on 10
April.
BRITTANY
The
region has been occupied by humanoids for 500,000 years or so, first
by Neanderthals, then 35,000 years ago, by modern man.
The
Celts became prominent around 400-500 BC but were defeated by Julius
Caesar in 56 BC who named the region Armorica, meaning Coastal region. Roman occupation lasted until about 400 AD.
Thereafter
many Celtic immigrants arrived fleeing from the Anglo-Saxon invasion
of Great Britain and these newcomers named the country Brittany,
after their previous homeland.
Brittany
became a unified independent country in the 9th
Century but a century later King Alan II paid homage to King Louis IV
of France and the region thus became a Duchy (later a Province) of
France roughly comprising all the land West of a line drawn between
Mont St Michel and Nantes with the latter becoming the capital.
For
the next 500 years or so sovereignty over the region was variously
claimed and contested by and between the local ruling families and
the Kings of England and France. In 1488, the Breton army was
defeated by the French and in the ensuing Treaty, Francis II of
Brittany was compelled to agree Charles VII of France could decide
whom Francis's 11 year old daughter was to marry.
That
was effectively the end of an Independent Kingdom of Brittany. Francis died only one month after signing the Treaty and Anne became the nominally independent (and much
revered) Duchesse de Bretagne but was compelled to marry, first
Charles VIII and then, his successor Louis XII. After Anne's
death in 1514 the title went to her eldest daughter who
then married Louis's successor thus initiating a formal union of
France and Brittany.
In
modern times historical boundaries have been replaced by new ones so
Nantes is now capital of the Pays de la Loire Region with Rennes
having become the capital of a reduced size Brittany comprising the
four Départements shown on this map.
La Bretagne (Modern)
North
Eastern Brittany
ST MALO
As
a coastal city the people of St Malo have long had a close
association with the sea. This became particularly pronounced
after discovery of the New World with St Malo Merchants and seamen
playing an important part in French Voyages of discovery and
colonialism.
That
led also to the city becoming a notorious base for Corsairs –
private fighting ships and men holding a Lettre-de-Marque, also known
as a Lettre-de-Course, authorising them to attack ships and cities of
enemies with whom France was at war. The captain had to commit
to paying the Crown a high proportion of any treasure captured but he
then had authority (in France) to keep the remainder for himself and his crew, and a guarantee (in France) of not
being prosecuted for piracy.
Other
nations made similar arrangements of course and sometimes captured
corsairs were treated as prisoners of war but on other occasions they
were hanged as pirates. The ones based in St Malo were
particularly active and the city became wealthy on the proceeds in
the 17th
and 18th
centuries.
After
the French Revolution things quietened down for a bit until in 1944 during World War II the city was destroyed by Allied bombing and assaults. Much effort and time was expended on a reconstruction project over
many years restoring the old town walls and buildings to their former
state, and of course expanding the surrounding area.
I
remember this well because in 1996, the year that Alchemi was
delivered I sailed into St Malo on my first passage across the
English Channel. So I didn't attempt to visit the "Old City" this
year and confined myself to a couple of visits by car to take
advantage of modern big city facilities.
DINAN
Dinan
is situated about 25 miles due south of St Malo on high cliffs
overlooking the Lower Rance Valley.
Control
of Dinan has been important for many centuries because of its
location and strategic importance. One of the earliest
examples of this is a record in the Bayeux Tapestry showing William
the Conqueror accepting the keys of Dinan from a defeated Duke of
Brittany in 1065 (aided at this time by Harold Godwinson who, for his
pains, got an arrow in the eye one year later at the Battle of
Hastings!).
Two
hundred years later Dinan was also in the news when Thomas of
Canterbury (brother of the famous archbishop) besieged the city;
As no side could gain a decisive advantage history has it that Thomas
and the local defender - Bertrand du Guescelin - agreed to settle the
matter in single combat. Du Guescelin won and is still
celebrated as a hero with a statue in the town.
A
few years later John, Duke of Brittany built a Castle and extensive
Town Walls that still survive today and are one of the most
well-known Medieval sights in Brittany.
In
the late middle ages a Port was developed at Dinan on the River Rance
to promote and serve increasing trade between the city and St Malo.
In
modern times the city has expanded to absorb previously independent
surrounding villages, promoted itself as a tourist destination and
become choked with traffic and limited parking as a result. The old
city still has many medieval buildings as well as the castle and
ramparts to enjoy and the Port has developed as a centre for pleasure
boating with many restaurants near the waterside.
Town
Ramparts high on the hill and a modern road viaduct across the deep
valley
The
Old Bridge across the Rance
The
River and Port from the Old Bridge
Medieval Street from Port to Town
THE LOWER
RANCE VALLEY
The
Rance reaches the sea at St Malo and in its lower reaches is of
course tidal with the very large range experienced by all narrow
waterways situated on a shallow continental shelf near the deep
ocean.
Local
inhabitants have been taking advantage of the particularly favourable
range on the Rance for centuries – average range between 26 feet at
Neaps and 44 feet at highest Spring Tides.
Hundreds
of years ago the exploitation took the form of small lagoons filled
by incoming seawater as the tide flowed in that was then released over water-wheels
when the tide went out.
But
this idea was developed to a different level between 1921 when first design and then construction in 1963 of the world's first Tidal Power Station was begun
at a narrow section of the river near its mouth to the sea.
The
Power Station was opened in 1966 and has a peak capacity of 240 MW
(comparable to a medium size modern combined cycle gas turbine plant)
but rarely generates at this level. That's because its mostly
used in a dual flow manner generating on both the flood and ebb tides
over a longer period than it would if the flood were stored and then released some time after the tide had turned.
There
have been some adverse ecological effects on marine and bird life
because of the knock-on consequences of changing natural flows and
wetlands but most people seem to think those have been a price worth
paying for the availability of power that is now even cheaper than
that generated by Nuclear Stations (both types have in common high
capital and low running costs in comparison with other methods of
generation).
There
is another barrage across the Rance higher up the valley at
Vicomte-sur-Rance and this constitutes the boundary between salt and
fresh water. Fortunately there is an ancient towpath, now
converted to a cycle and walking path, that follows the left bank of
the river for nearly four miles between Port Dinan and the end of the
barrage opposite Vicomte.
One
day I parked the car about half way along this path, rode into Dinan
to have lunch at one of the riverside restaurants then afterwards
downriver to the barrage and back again to the car. It was a
great outing during which I learned in conversation with a pair of
elderly walkers that all pleasure craft upstream of the barrage were
trapped for 3-4 months whilst maintenance work was carried out on the
swinging bridge above the barrage!
The
Lower Rance near Dinan
Marina
upstream of the barrage at Vicomte-sur-Rance
THE
ILLE-ET-RANCE CANAL
The
small town of Léhon lies in the valley bottom just upstream from
Port Dinan and is notable as the site of a very old castle that was
destroyed and rebuilt several times during Viking raids and in the
struggle for supremacy between Brittany, England and France.
South
of Léhon the land rises quite quickly until the sides of the Rance
Valley become much less steep and the riverbed itself has a shallower gradient. As long ago as the 1500's the relatively flat land further south
gave rise to the idea of constructing a canal to link this point on
the Rance with the important inland city of Rennes. At that time nothing came of the idea but by the late
1780's plans were made to construct the canal, and even more
ambitiously, to extend it until it could join the river Vilaine.
If that could be accomplished there would be a continuous waterway
between St Malo in the English Cannel and a port on France's
Atlantic Coast in the south of Brittany.
But
the French Revolution put paid to those plans until Napoleon revived
them, as he did with the Nantes Brest canal, seeing both as a means of
circumventing the English blockade of French ports. Again like the
Nantes Brest canal he did not live to see the results of his strategy
because work on the Ille-et-Rance canal between Rennes and the hills
above Léhon was not completed until 1832.
Like
other canals of the same period it was initially used extensively
but then challenged by the development of Railways and Roads until
the construction of the Tidal Power Station in the 1960's spelled the
end of its use for the transportation of goods. Also like
other canals it then had a new lease of life as a leisure attraction
for boaters, fishermen, walkers and cyclists!
The
canal is 50 miles long in total and passes through many attractive
little towns as it winds its way through extensively cultivated
countryside.
Rides
Beside The Canal
The
nearest place on the high ground at which I could leave the car to
ride the towpath was opposite a small settlement called Tressaint
which nowadays is really just a suburb of the larger town of Lanvally
on the far side of the valley opposite Dinan.
From
here I made a return ride of about six miles in each direction to
Évran where I had lunch in a local restaurant.
Picnic
Area near Évran
Springtime
by the canal
On
another day I drove to Saint Domineuc for lunch then back to Évran
where there was more secure parking before picking up where I had
left on the previous ride and again following the towpath for about
six miles in both directions to the bridge near my lunchtime
restaurant.
Wild
Primroses
Le
Pecheur
These
two rides were absolutely delightful matching the future I had in
mind when first conceiving this way of spending my post-sailing life
way back in 2010 in New Zealand.
The two lunches were also a far cry from the touristic places along the waterfront in Dinan. Quite a few people still work the land in France, albeit using tractors and other machinery, and these country restaurants catered for them with simple but well cooked food at a very reasonable price – three course lunch with 25 cl of wine and coffee for € 12.
The two lunches were also a far cry from the touristic places along the waterfront in Dinan. Quite a few people still work the land in France, albeit using tractors and other machinery, and these country restaurants catered for them with simple but well cooked food at a very reasonable price – three course lunch with 25 cl of wine and coffee for € 12.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.