A bit of French Britanny and Normandy

by Jose Manuel Echevarría and Pilar León

This article shows some photographs taken during a short trip to the West of France we did a few weeks ago. We travelled with our car around 1300 kilometres, from Madrid to Caën, with a stop of two nights in the city of Nantes. We had, therefore, the opportunity to visit several places in the French Britanny and the Lower Normandy. From our "gîte" at St Martin de Besaces, forty kilometres from Caën, we visited beautiful and interesting places such as Fougères, Vitré, Caën, Bayeux, St Malo, ... (more)

Castle of Nantes
The city of Nantes was our first stop. Nantes was for a long time the city of...

Castle of Nantes
Nantes belongs today to the Loire Atlantique department, but was formerly the...

Castle of Nantes
The castle of Nantes was the place of the signature of the Nantes...

Castle of Nantes
The castle was built in a beautiful white chalky stone following the...

Castle of Nantes
This castle was for a short time the prison of a novelistic character of the...

Umbrellas in red
The old disctrict of Bouffay is placed back of the castle. It's...

Cathedral of Sts Pierre et Paul, Nantes
The cathedral of Sts Pierre et Paul is placed in the heart of Bouffay. It was...

François II, Duke of Britanny
The mausoleum of François II, the last Duke of Brittany, and his wife...

Grave of the Duke
It's done in a splendid white marble, and displays the statues of...

Grave of the Duke
The statues of the Dukes' mausoleum are not only beautiful, but are also...

Commercial street, Nantes
In the XVIII century, Nantes became the first commercial port of...

Passage Pommeraye, Nantes
A beautiful example of the commercial development of Nantes is the Passage...

Passage Pommeraye, Nantes
The galery is a neoclassic-style work of the local architects Buron and...

Passage Pommeraye, Nantes
It is placed between two streets that have a difference in height of...

Passage Pommeraye, Nantes
That staircase can be seen in full from the lower floor thanks to two...

Japanese gardens, Nantes
Nantes is placed in the confluence of two rivers, the Loire and the...

Main door of the wall, Fougères
Going to the North to reach our destiny in Normandy, we stopped in the...

Fougères
The village is placed close to the current border between the French Britanny...

Fougères
The face of Fougères is its fantastic castle, which is already cited in...

Castle of Fougéres
Its border emplacement between the kingdoms of Brittany, Normandy and...

Fougères from the castle's towers
Peace came to the village at the end of the XV century, once the...

Castle of Fougères
During the XVI century, the French regions close to Belgium and to the...

Castle of Fougères
The political conflicts returned, however, to Fougères after the French...

La Brasserie le Roi Arthur
Thanks to their well preserved historical buildings, Fougères is...

And its happy owner
After a great meal, his owner will offer you another excellent product of the...

Castle of Vitré
A few kilometres South of Fougères, in the way to Rennes, we found the...

View of the Vitré's old district
Vitré is placed on a rocky elevation on the river Vilaine, and was a...

The Mont St Michel
We have to confess that this amazing piece of stone, half natural,...

The bourg and the Abbey of St Michel
The place known in the Middle Age as the "Mons Sancti Michaeli in...

Growing tide
Formerly, the waters of the Couesnon river and the tides kept the mountain...

Bay of Mont St Michel
The construction of this dike changed so much the circulation of the...

Bay of Mont St Michel
The result of this proccess is, any way, spectacular, a huge sandy plain...

Abbey of St Michel
It's thought that the Mont St Michel has been a place of religious...

Abbey of St Michel
In support of that interpretation is the fact that the Romans knew the...

Windows in the refectory
It's known that the Merovingians built small chapels dedicated to...

The refectory
The official foundation of the abbey was done in year 966. That was a time of...

Abbey of St Michel
At the beginning of the XIII century, the warriors of Britanny set the...

Abbey of St Michel
During the next two centuries, the abbey was enlarged with new...

Houses of the bourg
St Michel was a prosperous abbey until the end of the Hundred Years...

Houses and the bay
In the XVII century, the congregation of St Maure made some...

Fortified walls
After the French revolution, the ruins of the abbey were used as a prison for...

A bay of sand
Fortunately, the fate of the abbey changed at the begining of the XX century....

Magic circles
Today, the Mont St Michel is visited by more than three million...

Our "gîte" at St Martin de Besaces
Our "operational base" in Normandy was this wonderful...

Rose at sunset
By a very reasonable price, we had a well equiped house with six...

Donkeys in the mist
The house was sourrounded by green meadows dedicated to cattle...

Our friend Marguerite
A group of friendly donkeys used to come to the neighbour meadows, and this...

Trapped in the spider net
Thank you, Pablo, for giving me this idea. The result has been nice.

Justine and Bambi
Bambi was so beautiful that he doesn't look real, does it?.

Water mill, Bayeux
Normandy holds a series of wonderful cities, all of them full of art and...

Cathedral of Bayeux
Bayeux was a city of bishops as soon as from the IV century, and holds a...

Cathedral of Bayeux
The cathedral is an excellent example of the Normand romanesque style...

Stained-glass window (XIII century)
Most stained-glass windows of the churches of the region were very...

Cathedral of Bayeux
Bayeux lived a key moment in its history when the bishop Odon and the duke...

Cathedral of Bayeux
Once Wilhem the Conquerer was crowned as king of England, Odon ordered...

Romanesque crypt
The Bayeux Tapestry is a set of nine pieces of linen tissue 50...

Bishop's grave in the crypt
The Bayeux Tapestry is shown at present on the wall of a room of the...

Omaha beach
It was also very emotional to reach the Omaha beach in the afternoon...

The Men's Abbey, Caën
The beautiful city of Caën is at present the city capital of the...

Mae with stones and flowers, Caën
The Esplanade Jean-Marie Louvel, with the city council building, the...

The City Council, Caën
In year 1050, the duke Wilhem married his far cousin Mathilda with the...

Men's Abbey, Caën
Works of the Men's Abbey begun in year 1063, and the management...

Men's Abbey, Caën
In June, 1944, after the invasion of Normandy by the alliates, Caën...

Men's Abbey, Caën
Most of the monuments were destroyed or seriously dammaged, but the effort of...

Street in the old district, Caën
The reconstruction of Caën included the houses of the old...

Church of St Pierre, Caën
The castle of Caën was built by the duke Wilhem in year 1047, and new...

Ladies' Abbey, Caën
The Ladies' Abbey was founded by the duchess Mathilda in year 1059. Its...

Laidies' Abbey, Caën
Works of the abbey ended in year 1130. The church is a beautiful...

Laidies' Abbey, Caën
The church display many of the details of the romanesque style that we...

Ladies' Abbey, Caën
A beautiful, gardened court opens in front of the residence buildings of the...

Walls of St Malo
Formerly a village of pirates at the service of the French crown, St Malo has...

Walls of St Malo
The old district of the city, known as the citadelle, is surrounded by wide...

Rochebonne beach, St Malo
The coast of the gulf of St Malo is known as the Emerald Coast, and...

La Digue, St Malo
St Malo has been the place of birth of several personalities of the French...

Painter's market, St Malo
Cartier was born in December 1491, less than one year before the discovery of...

Dinard from the wall of St Malo
In year 1532, Cartier was introduced to the king François I by...

The Emerald Coast, St Malo
During the next two years, Cartier sailed on the St Lawrence river and...

Old district, St Malo
A second personality born in St Malo was the politician and writer...

Moules et frites, St Malo
In a sunny day of August, St Malo looks like a fiesta. Crêpes and...

A walk on the wall, St Malo
The wide walls of St Malo are provided of an avenue on the top. A walk around...

Cap Fréhel, Emerald Coast
Unfortunately, we lacked time to visit quietly the many beautiful...

Cliffs at Cap Fréhel
Cliffs at Cap Frèhel reach seventy meters over the sea, and harbour an...

Gardens of the house of Monet, Giverny
Forty kilometres from the city of Rouen in the way to Paris, the small...

Rose on orange, Giverny
In year 1883, nine years after having published his painting "Impression:...

Dahlias at Giverny
Giverny is today a village dedicated to the impessionist art and the...

Portrait of Max (Maximus Minimus)
Further to the Monet's house and the gardens you find everywhere, Giverny...

Cathedral of Rouen
And to finish this quick "promenade" by the French Brittany and...

Rue de l'Horloge, Rouen
Rouen was the city capital of the dukedom of Normandy in the X century and is...

Rue de l'Horloge, Rouen
The emplacement of the city on the last strecht of the Seine river,...

Commercial street, Rouen
And this picture of the bussy Rouen close our report on Brittany and...

article published 08/28/2007

Comments

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Thanks SO MUCH, for all these marvelous photos of France!! There is TOO much to see, in that beautiful country!! I think it's better, to spend the night at Mt. St. Michel, so as to see it without some of the crowds!! That's what I hear!
— Eleanor Robb, August 8, 2008

Bambi is lucky she lives in France.
Bambi IS cute, and he's lucky he doesn't live in North Africa or the Middle East. Somebody would be using him to schlepp oranges, olives or perhaps even as a firing board to launch an assault on U.S. troops.

The horror!
— Rick Ruffin, March 25, 2008

Beautiful photos and many memories for me . Thank you and regards .
— Margaret Sherwood, August 29, 2007

Thanks for such an interesting article!
I love the pix from Caen and its reconstruction efforts. All the sites are beautiful. It is interesting a bit of Canada's history as well.
— Ben Hsu, August 28, 2007

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