Brittany Arts

La Gacilly Artisans

La Gacilly is the palce to go for local arts and crafts. There's lots of small shops all run by specialised artisans and packed full of hand made gems from forged iron work and beautifully made leather goods to skillfully blown glass and artfully turned wooden ornaments. See at the Brittany 'Local Towns' page for lots more info. Below photo shows the La Gacilly african figures lurking by the side of the river

Cider Making

Oyster Farming

A trip to the stunning bay at Penerf is definitely recommended to see the fishermen there catching and farming their oysters. This is where they really come from to get to your plate. It's a ramshackle place with old oyster beds, some small machines and storage pens for the oysters. Try some and have lunch in 'Le Pecher' afterwards -see the restaurant page for more information

Pottery

The village of St-Jean-la Poterie near Redon (not far from our gites) is a good place to visit if you like a bit of pottery. See the potters at work then visit the exhibition and shop. There's also a pottery at Lizio and at Chapelle Caro but our recommendation is the one at Peillac which is open most days and sells an interesting variety of stuff: well worth a visit

Poul Fetan

This place is hard to categorize as it's part living museum and part 'arty and crafty'. In essence it's a large farm that is run as it would have been 100 years ago. You can have a go at things like butter making, baking, ploughing the fields and raising water from the well. See how the washing was done down by the river on old flagstones. It's actually a really interesting place and is a whole day trip for all the family. Children and adults alike will be fascinated to see the way things were before mechanisation. All the employees are dressed in period costume, plus there's a traditional lunch- spit roast pig over an open fire

There's a similar place near Quistinic, a traditional 16th century Brittany village with a farm, bakers, potters and an authentic restaurant

Sculpture Park

Located at Bignan near Josselin Kerguehennec Sculpture Park and contemporary art centre is definitely worth a visit. Basically it is a large chateau set in hundreds of acres of gardens with numerous sculptures dotted around. It's Brittany's premier centre of art

The sculptures are all by contemporary artists and range from the bizarre looking thing in the photo below to stone carvings and an odd creation of a thousand red plant pots. It probably sounds a bit alternative and indeed it is. In addition, there is a rolling art exhibition in part of the chateau, again of modern art

We recommend that you take a picnic, as the grounds are a beautiful place to sit and eat or if you prefer you could pop into the local town of Bignan which is really pretty and have lunch at La Chouanniere where there's loads to choose from in a really nice atmosphere

Poete Ferrailleur

This 'Metal Worker Extraordinaire' is located near Lizio and must be seen. Using recycled materials this local artisan creates moving, musical and even aquatic sculptures. He's also quite keen on building weird moving machines and bizarre games. There's over sixty moving works of art. The kids can push buttons, pedal things, turn odd looking handles and the 'sculptures' all come to life. It really is amazing. We reckon it's totally unique