1936 On the Continent

in advancing along the bare summit, especially not to be blown over into the abyss by a gust of wind. From the farthest point the view extends across the narrows sown with foaming reefs which separate the mainland from the Ile de Sein. On the right is a bay with the sinister name “Bay of the Dead,” where, according to the Breton legend, on All Souls’ Day all those who have died during the year meet to await the black vessel which will carry them to the other world.
    One reaches the Ile de Sein by a boat service which leaves from Audierne. Two hours are amply sufficient for the visit of the small, windy treeless territory where the women are dressed always in black, where all the men are fishermen, and where almost all the wooden articles, including the furniture, come from shipwrecks. A Druidic sanctuary, Sein has numerous reminders of that distant and mysterious epoch. Its church was built of stones brought from the port on the heads of the women of the island. At its far end rises the lighthouse of Ar Men, near which the sea isalways so dangerous that one can never approach it, and the keepers are forced to regain their post by means of a rope.
Lower Brittany and the Department of the Morbihan
    Sometimes the whole southern part of Brittany is called “Breton Brittany,” of which the most southern city is Nantes. As a matter of fact, it is undoubtedly the part of this province where the customs have remained most individual, perhaps because of its inhabitants’ lack of natural vivacity, which a Breton song describes in these terms: “The inhabitants of Lower Brittany are as lively as broomsticks.” Sown with wastelands, with heather and with furze, deeply infiltrated by the sea, which even on the coast near Vannes forms a sort of small inland lake, the Morbihan, this part of the country is covered with megalithic “menhirs ” and “dolmens ” which are the main curiosity.
    Nantes, a big city and important port of 150,000 inhabitants, is the centre of this region. Situated at the mouth of the Loire, it is particularly important from the commercial and industrial standpoint, with its outer harbour of Saint-Nazaire which has the same relationship to Nantes as that of Le Havre to Rouen. In the centre of the city is the Rue Crébillon, where the citizens of Nantes come to stroll during idle hours, as well as on the Place Graslin, its prolongation. From there, by the Rue Voltaire, you can stroll round to see a graceful little manor, the manor of Jean V, and beside it the Musée Dobrée, one of the richest archeological museums of France. The Cathedral Saint-Pierre, built in 1434, has a magnificent nave some 300 feet long. In the right transept is the tomb of the Duke of Brittany, François II, and of his wife. Stop preferably at the Hôtel de Paris, near the Place Graslin, the rooms are comfortable and you will taste a highly appreciated speciality,
croustade aux champignons arrosée de muscadet
. From Nantes you can go down the Loire to Saint-Nazaire, a big busy transatlantic port, but where there is really nothing else remarkable to see. North of Nantes stretches a huge swamp where you can shoot water-fowl if you happen to like that sport. It is the Brière made famous by a recent novel by Alphonse de Chateaubriand. Butaccess to it is difficult and it is better to be accompanied by someone of the locality.
    Between the Brière and the sea spreads a whole region of beautiful beaches: Pornichet, le Croisic, la Baule and le Pouliguen, composed of large strips of sand between the sea and the vast salt marshes. Inland is Guérande, an old town fortified by enormous ramparts decorated with large towers.
    Finally, to the north, is Vannes, situated at the end of the small inland sea, the Morbihan, strewn with as many islands, it is said, as the days in the year. Vannes has 25,000 inhabitants. It still has very beautiful old houses, and its cathedral in the Flamboyant Gothic and Renaissance styles is unforgettable. But the town is above all a centre for interesting excursions. The main one leads to Sainte-Anne-d’Auray where at Whitsuntide pilgrims flock to its miraculous fountain. Several miles farther on in the direction of the peninsula of Quiberon, known by the unfortunate landing of the Royalist troops during the Revolution, stand the enigmatic “alignments of Carnac.” In ten rows, each longer than a kilometre, rise 1,099 gigantic “menhirs.” Beyond, at Kermario, 982 more raised stones of large size