Marcus Hanke
[PuristSPro Moderator]
11296
Letter from Brittany: What am I doing here??
As I am sitting here
in a wonderfully tranquil rural scenery, with old granite walls behind
me, a blue sky with some wind-chased clouds above me, and the smell of
freshly baked “baguettes”, or French white bread, around me, my
thoughts are miraculously absent of watches or horology for the first
time since long.
Everyday routine: Bringing home fresh baguettes
Of course, this would make me a bad moderator of a watch forum, and a candidate for immediate retirement from my position. However, you will certainly tend to agree, the fascination for fine watchmaking is but one of many symptoms the French sum up as “savoir vivre”, the art of living. And sitting here in an old farmhouse somewhere in Brittany, is another. Thus I am positive you won’t criticise me too loudly, when I leave aside mechanical watches for once in the year, and tell you something about this wonderful country I am spending my vacation in.
The fortified port city of Concarneau
Let me call these notes
“Letters from Brittany”
In spite of being a rather active photographer, I would not be able to illustrate these letters only with actual pictures shot during this vacation. To show you all the facets important for me, I am also using my collection of pictures shot during all the years I came to Brittany, every second year now since twelve years. As a pure coincidence, I have my picture database also saved on my notebook’s hard disk. However, these pictures are but small and quickly made index scans of colour slides, so their quality is often not good, for which I apologise.
Coastline on the Crozon peninsula
Fascinating Brittany: a personal introduction
I am a child of the mountains; geographically. That means, I grew up in the Austrian Alps, amidst the glaciers and mountains. My youth took the ordinary path, with the first own pair of skis at the age of four, with a training as skiing instructor, which assured me enough income during the school holidays to help financing my university studies. However - and strangely - I never loved the mountains, I still dislike them. I feel suppressed, somehow, by the sheer mass of rock, they take my breath, and limit my sight. As soon as I saw the sea for the first time, I knew that this was where I wanted to be. But the Mediterranean, the traditional holiday bathing place of whole Austria, still was too small for me, so only I found myself on the Atlantic coast in France, I had the impression of finding my spiritual home.
The Eckmühl lighthouse
Unfortunately, I still live in Central Europe, so far away from my beloved sea. And so my holidays spent more or less regularly here in France are the only opportunity to see and feel the ample space, to taste the salty air on my lips, and to hear the never ending sound of the waves breaking on the shore.
Near the Point du Raz
But why Brittany?
There are many coasts bordering the Atlantic Ocean, why does it have to be Brittany? Because there is some special fascination around this country. I am not alone with that feeling. In fact, more and more people seemingly are attracted to the beauty of the Bretagne, as the French call this part in the far west of their nation, or Breizh, as the Bretons themselves say. I hope that our French readers do not feel offended when I claim that Brittany is not typically French, I think this province has a higher complexity in understanding and presenting itself; but then: what is “typically French”? I do not dare to offer an answer to that question.
Church and "calvaire" of Pleyben
Anyway, in this series of letters I will try to offer some insights about Brittany, on the reasons of its uniqueness and fascination on travellers from all over the world. I know that many readers from France, and some even from Brittany frequent this forum, so who am I, as an ignorant alien, that I claim the competence to report about this country?
Mont Saint Michel
Well, at first, my primary job as your forum moderator is to report about watches, even if I am not a watchmaker, so I am well trained in writing on things I have no idea about ...
And, second, sometimes enthusiast tourists know more about a country than its inhabitants themselves; a fact, that - as I have to admit with shame - is very common to myself when I speak with tourists who come to visit Austria. They prepare themselves reading countless books, and spend their time in the country visiting countless obscure places and landmarks even people born there never had heard about before.
Therefore, I have no bad conscience placing myself in the position of your (virtual) tour guide through Brittany. However, I beg all real experts and inhabitants alike, not to hesitate and to raise their voices, step on my toes and correct my errors!
Best regards,
Marcus
Letter from Brittany: What am I doing here??
As I am sitting here in a wonderfully tranquil rural scenery, with old granite walls behind me, a blue sky with some wind-chased clouds above me, and the smell of freshly baked “baguettes”, or French white bread, around me, my thoughts are miraculously ab...
