Salut c’est Géraldine, bienvenue sur Comme
une Française TV, Sound French, even to the French!
What raises three fingers and lives on the
West Coast ? La Bretagne !
It’s a land of rainy plains and round hats,
sitting in the North-Western corner of the
French hexagon.
A peninsula of gorgeous landscapes, proud
sailors, and ancient landmarks.
A region with a long history and specific
traditions.
And its own flag.
And even its own language!
Let’s dive in.
1) La Bretagne : qu’est-ce que c’est ?
La Bretagne, qu’est-ce que c’est ? What
is Brittany?
La Bretagne is the western peninsula of continental
France.
If you represent the French territory with
a hexagonal shape, it would be in the North-Western corner.
It’s the region with the three little fingers
in the Atlantic ocean!
And here it is! It’s technically une région, an official
administrative region.
More informally, it’s also an area with
a strong historical and cultural identity.
Some of the main cities are Rennes, within
the interior of the country, Lorient and Brest,
with their Navy harbor by the sea, and also
the historical and artistic city of Quimper.
Nearby, Nantes used to be Brittany’s capital;
though nowadays the city isn’t officially
part of the region, but they share some strong
cultural ties anyway.
The main cultural pride of Brittany are ses
racines celtiques, its celtics [“keltiks”] roots.
In the late days of the Roman Empire, many
Britons from the Britain Isles immigrated
to the continent: and thus was born la petite
Bretagne, little Britain in opposition to
Great Britain, or simply la Bretagne, Brittany.
Its inhabitants are called les Bretons / les
Bretonnes.
The area is also sometimes called l’Armorique,
or etymologically “the place near the sea.”
Since, you know, there’s a lot of coasts
there.
2) Le folklore breton
Le folklore breton, folklore from Brittany,
draws from several sources.
The most famous of them are les légendes
arthuriennes, the legends of King Arthur,
of knights and wizards.
As the story goes, Merlin died in la forêt
de Brocéliande, which you can visit in Brittany.
Nowadays though, the most famous hero from
the region is Astérix!
He’s been everywhere in the Roman Empire
and beyond… and even in space in 1965,
since he gave his name to the first French satellite!
His friend Obelix is a professional menhir-maker.
Un menhir is an actual great standing stone,
which you can find mostly in Western Europe.
They were actually put there by people from
before the Celts.
And many of them still stand proud in the
landscape of Brittany.
Finally the third most famous figure from
Brittany’s mythology is… la bigoudène!
“La bigoudène” is both the name of this
traditional high hat, and of the woman who is wearing it.
It used to be very common in southern Brittany.
Nowadays, women only wear la bigoudène for
a few traditional celebrations.
This hat, however, remains a powerful symbol
for French celtic culture.
But among the traditions of la Bretagne, another
one is still strong and popular…
3) Boire et manger
Bien boire et bien manger, to eat well and
have good drinks!
La cuisine bretonne , cuisine from Brittany,
is famous for being rich food.
The most famous ingredient is le beurre salé,
salted butter,
it's used in place of le beurre doux, sweet butter without salt.
Le Kouign-amann for instance, is a famous
cake made out of butter, and also butter,
with another touch of butter.
It’s delicious but ça tient au corps, it’s
a hearty dish.
Various biscuits and cookies from Bretagne
are very buttery.
Another local desert is le far breton, which
looks a bit like a clafoutis but with prunes.
But the main dish of Brittany is still la
crêpe bretonne, with sugar, or la galette,
with salt, both with various different ingredients
added in the middle,
from bacon to spinach to chocolate.
It’s a popular food, and you’ll find une
crêperie, a restaurant that serves crepes,
in most French cities nowadays.
And maybe you’ll be lucky enough to taste
les fraises de Plougastel, the famous strawberries
from the small town of Plougastel, by the
sea.
Bretons are famous drinkers, as well.
Mostly wine, but there’s been an effort
to import more of le cidre, cider, a much
lighter alcoholic beverage, from Normandy
close-by.
Ask around in Brittany and you’ll also find
Breizh Cola, a local soda with fun marketing.
And you can do all this at a fest noz, a traditional
party with local dances and celtic music.
Brittany has an active music scene, from the
traditional songs of Tri Yann to the modern
style of Yann Tiersen, for example.
4) Le “patriotisme breton”
The culture and history of Brittany has led
to a strong cultural identity, un patriotisme
breton, breton patriotism.
It took off in the early XXth century, when
oddly enough many poor people from the region
emigrated to the capital, to look for menial
jobs; and nowadays it’s estimated that a
tenth of the Parisian population are breton.
Anyway, this cultural identity centers around
a language, le breton.
Le breton used to be spoken alongside le gallo
, until both were almost wiped out by the
most recent official French language.
Nowadays, le breton is having a revival: local
road signs are subtitled in the language,
and there’s been a stronger effort from
French culture and media to use the local
dialect to maintain it as part of our French
heritage.
That’s why you might see mentions of Breizh
[“Breille’z”]:
it’s the name of la Bretagne in breton.
And that’s why their own Internet extension
is : .bzh
Finally, a little less than a century ago,
they also created a flag that proved very
popular : le Gwenn-ha-Du, literally meaning
the “Black and White”.
And for some reason, you’ll see that flag
somewhere in every sports event, festival or protests.
You’ll also get to see it fly proudly when
you come and visit the region.
Just be sure to bring an umbrella, for the
constant rain…
But don’t ever mention it!
Or you’ll hear this famous local proverb:
En Bretagne il ne pleut que sur les cons,
in Brittany it only rains down on idiots :)
Et toi ?
Have you ever been to Brittany?
Which region in your country is proud of its
customs and flag?
Tell me in the comments section, I want to
hear from you!
If you’re on Youtube, you’ll find a link
below this video to the blog CommeUneFrançaise.com:
on the site I read all the comments and answer
all your questions too!
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Allez, salut !
