Procession of Sailors, St. Jean du Doigt
Its name comes from its church (1440-1513), in which the index finger of the right hand of St. John the Baptist is kept. The churchyard has a fine Gothic entrance gateway and a funeral chapel of the sixteenth century. Within the same enclosure is also an elaborate fountain surrounded by a Renaissance construction of much beauty. It was planned by Anne of Brittany, who brought an artist from Italy to design the work. The Pardon of St. Jean du Doigt takes place on the twenty-fourth of June of each year. Decidedly it is not to be omitted from one’s itinerary, if it be possible to include it.
It is one of the strangest survivals of the belief in an ancient holy relique yet existing in France, and annually attracts great hordes of the devout from all parts of Brittany and France, to say nothing of strangers from oversea.
A good motor-car is indispensable to enable one to flee from the throng after it is all over, for the railway lies at least a dozen miles away, and local conveyances are scarce, poor, and expensive.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CÔTES DU NORD
THE north coast of Brittany, the present-day Department of the Côtes du Nord, is the great stretch of coast-line between Morlaix on the west to the Bay of Mont St. Michel at Dol. Its large towns are few in number, but the whole region is unusually prolific in the memory of deeds of a historic past, and accordingly it has become the favourite touring-ground of a great number of French and English summer visitors who, it is regretfully stated, have become responsible for a good deal of the claptrap and many of the catchpenny devices.