Brittany, the extreme Western promontory of the North of France, comprises the five departments of Côtes-du-Nord, Ille-et-Vilaine, Finistère, Morbihan, and Loire-Inférieure. It is distinguished into Upper and Lower Brittany. In the former the French language is spoken, in the latter the Breton, and French is an acquired tongue.
The back-bone of Upper Brittany is the chain of the Menez that runs from East to West, and then branches, forming on the North the Montagnes d'Arrée, and on the South, the Montagnes Noires. The system may be likened to a hay-fork or a pair of tongs, where the prongs of the fork form the above-named ranges. The whole rests on an elevated plateau that slopes to the sea North and West, and on the South dies down into the plain of the Vilaine and the Loire.
On the North this plateau is seamed by the rivers that have cut narrow valleys and ravines through which they make their way to the sea. Such are the Rance, the Gouet, the rivière de Morlaix, with the result that there is no coast-road, and the traveller passes along the main arteries of traffic at some distance from the sea, catching a glimpse of it only once at the Anse d'Iffinac, and has to branch off from it to the coast so as to make acquaintance with the bold and picturesque coast.
The mountain range is nowhere high, and rarely reaches a thousand feet. The highest point is the Mont Saint Michel which attains to slightly over 1200 ft. The freshman arriving at Cambridge asked where was the Gogmagog range, and was told that he might see it when an intervening cart got out of the way. Owing to the ridges rising out of an elevated plateau, they are almost as insignificant as the Gogmagogs. However, the Menez-hom most nearly attains to the dignity of a mountain, as it stands above the Bay of Douarnenez, reaches however only to 990 ft.
Along the Western confines of the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, the Menez spreads out into high tableland sown with lakelets acting as feeders to the Vilaine.
The Monts d'Arrée, starting from the Coat-an-Noz in Côtes-du-Nord, extend to the peninsula of Crozon, they attain their highest point at the Mont S. Michel, and decline as they approach the sea. They rarely rise 300 ft. above the tableland on which they are planted, and this prevents them from having an imposing appearance.
The Montagnes Noires flank the central plain on the South. Their maximum height is 1050 ft. After running S.W., they bend abruptly towards the N.W., and terminate in the Menez-hom in the Crozon peninsula.
In the Morbihan, the Lande de Lanvaux, running from W. to N.E., extends 50 kilometres, and rises to the height of from 240 to 320 ft. between the basins of the Claye and the Arz which unite at Redon to feed the Vilaine.
The North coast of Brittany is eaten into bays from which the sea retreats to considerable distances, and is fringed with reefs and islands. It is a favourite resort of Parisians, throughout its stretch, from Dinard to Plestin.
The West of this peninsula is torn into shreds of promontories with deep inlets between them. The promontories of S. Mathieu, Crozon, Sizun, and Penmarch are bald, but bold. Below the point of Penmarch the coast rapidly trends S.E. and alters in character; it loses its bleak desolation and ragged rocky nature, and forms landlocked seas, as those of Belz and the Morbihan; and the rocks make way for sand-dunes. The island chain that constitutes a natural breakwater to the bay of Quiberon is the wreckage of the barrier of another inland sea, broken up by the Atlantic surges. South of the mouth of the Loire the island of Noirmoutier stretches almost sufficiently far out to enclose another.