Talbert Pipes Life in France Places Where is Brittany? Where is Brittany? For those who are not familiar with the geographic landscape of Western Europe, Brittany (or Bretagne in its French name) is a peninsula on the western coast of France. Brittany is a fantastically old landscape. The countryside is dotted with legions of standing stones. There are more than a thousand stones of Kerzerho near the village of Erdeven (Slightly west of Vannes on the map below). The stones of Carnac are the oldest in the world, predating even the Egyptian pyramids. Most villages are 500 years old or much older, with architecture to match. The town of Paimpont (just north of Redon in the picture, and not far from our house) sits at the edge of seven thousand hectares of the wild Forest of Brocéliande, the site of Arthur's Grail quest, home to Merlin the magician, and now the haunted wood of Morgan Le Fay. On the maps below can be seen the locations of several of the towns, castles, and locales which I've described in the "Places" section. Pictured below is a much more detailed map of the coastal area where Herbignac and the Briere park may be found. I've marked Herbignac. The large green area cut with waterways is the Briere parkland and marsh, and most of it is inaccessible except by canal. Small cozy ocean towns dot the western coast. Toward the bottom is La Croisic, a thriving fishing town with a thousand tiny shops filled with arcane oddities. For those who prefer their beaches garish and tourist-carpeted, the resort town of La Baulle at bottom center boasts 11 miles of sandy beach and an endless string of hotels. In the lower right is the industrial city of St. Nazaire. St. Nazaire is almost entirely new as it was bombed flat by the Allies in WW2 due to its heavy use by the Germans as a submarine base for their North Atlantic operations. Today St. Nazaire is a center of ship-building for giant cruise ships. Here is a list of websites concerning the general area that might be of interest to potential visitors: http://www.herbignac.com/ The Briere Park Site Loire-Atlantique Regional Tourism The Famous Castle in the Water http://www.brittany-bretagne.com/ http://www.brittany-guide.com/ http://www.bretagnetourisme.com/ http://www.bretons.org/index-e.html