get to know Brittany Better...
...You might be surprised to know that some clients call us and say that, whilst they want to buy a house in Brittany they either, know very little about the peninsula or have never actually been there...
I know...amazing!
So, here's an opportunity to find out more from me in a potted format of my own and also via some links that I have discovered along the way...But, what a fantastic place it is...1,700 miles of beautiful coastline...history and legend by the bucketful and some of the best seafood in the world...In fact, when you have a house anywhere in Brittany, you're never more than 1 hour away from the sea...
you're picking up the vibe already!
My standard spiel about Brittany is that it has much in common with Britain...(the secret's in the name) and, in fact, it has been British territory a couple of times down the centuries... so it has long been a kind of 'cousin by marriage' and now we are all (or should I say, both) like it or not... part of Europe. The Bretons are part of that Celtic band that unites Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Corsica and The Basque under the skin. You know; countries that have become a part of a national alliance but spend a lot of time wishing they hadn't! Just as the Welsh have long wanted to be independent again from Britain, Bretons have the same yearning to show their individuality and be different from the French. And they are different from what I call 'main land French'... On first visiting our own house in Brittany I asked my new neighbour what did he think about an English couple buying the house next door and he said... "It could be worse you could be from Paris". So we got on well right from the off! You'll find the Bretons warm and friendly. Give them a burst of their own language (by that I mean French - not Breton) and they will be helpful and supportive. In fact...within 12 hours of our first shared meal together our neighbour brought his tractor to our garden and cleared 10 years of 'Sleeping Beauty' style bramble and weed growth to unveil what we are now delighted to call a 3/4 acre garden!. Now that's what I call a good neighbour!
The topography of Brittany is fairly similar to England's south coast because about 8,000 years ago it was joined up...So the striking resemblances between the north coast of Brittany and the south coasts of Devon & Cornwall are more than just a coincidence. And that's what you get. The south coast of Brittany, the Morbihan and Southern Finistere coasts have long and sandy beaches with river creeks and inlets that will remind you of sweeping Devon beaches and the inlets of Cornwall. Finistere and the Cote d'Armor's north coast is more rugged and a lot like the north Cornwall coast with its natural craggy inlets and harbour entrances. The western end of both Brittany's Crozon Peninsula and Cornwall have that rugged, 'fists clenched' face of determination that snarls at the Atlantic as it enters La Manche (the English Channel)...But Penzance, St Ives, Falmouth and St Mawes in Cornwall all mirror quite nicely against Douarnenez, Quimper, Morlaix and Concarneau. - God fearing sea faring towns where best use of their tapering peninsula land and the Gulf Stream allow them an income by hook or by crook - by sea and on land; like Mussel farming and Daffs in December.
Brittany is an intensley agricultural region of France laced with thousands of hamlets and hundreds of villages all spawned by the Agricultural Revolution - people to farm the fertile plains and somewhere for them to live and work...consequently and in conjunction with some negatively motivating inheritance laws, even now, you will find plenty of houses in need of renovation or repair. You'll also find a proliferation of and pride in locally grown produce in supermarkets and/or farmer's markets... something of which the Bretons are justly proud. You're a lot less likely to find Mange Tout from Egypt or Haricot Verts from Kenya in LeClerc than you are in Sainsbury's.
There are many things that have developed through Brittany's (and more than likely France's) historical, social and political growth that make for a very interesting and comfortable environment in which to live. Just for starters almost every village, except the very smallest, has its own leisure lake, park and salle de fete (celebration hall). And, by the way, many communes (as does our own) have welcome meetings for newcomers; gatherings to help incomers integrate with their new neighbours. It's relevant to mention here that an organisation known as AIKB (Association Intégration Kreiz Breizh) exists regionally to welcome and integrate Brits moving to Brittany. There are organised activities and visits to the places you'll enjoy discovering (and that you'll also want to show to your own visitors from UK) to encourage cultural exchange within the community. It sounds invaluable and it's my own intention to get stuck in with AIKB when I am full time in Brittany...
