Ploaré, where is a fine church very late flamboyant resolving itself into renaissance, and typical of a style very general throughout Finistère. A singular feature is to be noted in the pinnacles about the spire. Two of these have tall crocketed spirelets, but taste was changing whilst the tower was approaching completion, and the two other pinnacles are truncated Italian lanterns. The tower was begun in 1555. The side aisles are gabled over the aisle windows, and as usual in Breton churches there is no clerestory. The buttresses are surmounted by pinnacles that are crowned with cupolas. The cusping has gone from the tracery, a sure mark of decay of the style. There is a fine porch with niches, but no statues. A fireplace and chimney for heating the water for baptisms, shows that this usage was carried on to the latter half of the 16th cent. As we shall see under [Le Juch] there is a later example.
PLOARÉ
Poullan. The church (S. Cadvan) is flamboyant verging into renaissance. It has a thin tower with two galleries, and a pretty porch. The side aisles are peculiarly narrow. The capitals of the pillars are quaintly carved. The octagonal vestry is of the 17th cent. Several dolmens. A menhir near the seamark at Kermenhir. P. 1st S. in September.
Le Juch. Renaissance tower. Fireplace in the church for warming the water for baptism, as late as 1710. The east window has in it 16th cent. glass representing the Crucifixion.
Guengat. A small late flamboyant church. Ossuary adjoining the porch 1557. Owing to the fall of the tower in 1700, the church was restored in 1706. It contains some fine glass of the 16th cent. representing the Last Judgment and the Passion. The date is 1571. The porch flamboyant. Curious uncouth and late tracery in two gabled windows beside the porch. The third has flamboyant tracery. A Calvary in the churchyard is of the 16th cent. In the presbytère are preserved a beautiful chalice, and a processional cross of 1584. P. de S. Ivy, 2nd S. in May. Patronal feast last S. in August.
Kerlaz. Church (S. Germain) picturesque and interesting. It has a crocketed spire with subsidiary turrets and spirelets partially detached. The church contains old glass in the east window representing scenes of the Passion and S. John the Baptist presenting the donor and a canon. Font of 1567, tower 1660, Calvary 1645, lychgate 1558.
Elven (M.) chl. arr. Vannes. The Chapel of S. Germain is of the 16th cent. At the door is a sarcophagus supposed to be that of S. Germain. This Germanus is probably not the Great Bishop of Auxerre, but the nephew of S. Patrick, who was tutor of S. Brioc, and finally apostle of the Isle of Man. Elven is a good place whence to explore the Lande de Lanvaux. This upland ridge is strewn with prehistoric remains, dolmens and menhirs, notably La Loge aux Loups, a dolmen; an allée couverte Le Léty, a menhir at Carhaix, another at Villeneuve. An allée couverte at Villepierre, two dolmens in the wood at Coetby and two menhirs called Baboun et Baboune at the outskirts of the wood of Lanvaux. At S. Guyomard a menhir 22 feet high. At Plaudren beside the road, La Quenouille, about 18 feet high. Near it numerous remains of dolmens and fallen menhirs. Another group at Plaudren, a fallen menhir, 16 feet high, and two others prostrate of less height, an allée couverte called Mein-gouarec near a curious rock shaped like a crouching lion.
Etaples (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc. A watering-place in some repute with good sands. The church is of the 15th cent., but with a tower of 1786. Etaples is in the ancient county of Goelo.