CHAPTER VI.
FINISTÈRE—SOUTH
AT Quimperlé one makes his first acquaintance with that part of the Armorican peninsula known to-day on the maps of France as the Department of Finistère. This charming little town is of itself of great importance, as marking the dividing-line between the dialect of Vannes and that of the western peninsula. There is no great difference to be noted by the casual traveller, since all of the younger population speak the French tongue,—sometimes exclusively,—but there is an unmistakable modification of manners and customs toward the more theatrical aspect which one best sees at Pont Aven, Pont l’Abbé, and the little fishing villages around the Bay of Douarnenez.
Of the women of Quimperlé much has been remarked by all who have ever lingered within its walls. They are “superb in type, elegant and gracious,” we were told by a French artist who had set up his easel on the quay. But there is no need to tell anybody; even a woman-hater would remark it. Certainly this is as good an entrance to a new and strange land as heart could desire.
Quimperlé lies on both sides of the little river Elle, which, like the other streams of the South Breton coast, is a special variety of waterway quite unlike their more pretentious brothers and sisters elsewhere. The country round about has been called the “Arcadia of Lower Brittany,” and so it will strike even the least observant of travellers—after he has recovered from the effects of the glances of those elegant and gracious females.
The most ancient part of the little city is that known as the walled town, grouped around the ancient Abbey of Holy Cross, on that tongue of land which separates the Isole and the Elle. The escarpment is badly built up, but withal it is ruggedly picturesque, abounding in old houses, some of which have stood since the thirteenth century.
Quimperlé