A spontaneous decision can sometimes turn up a gem, as we proved with the gorgeous village of Locronan in Brittany.
We were driving back from visiting Great Uncle Ray’s grave in Milizac on a gloomy June day when we decided to turn off the main road into the picturesque hills. And there it was, a village that the term ‘picture postcard’ was invented for. Only later, on reading our guide book, did we discover that Locronan is a regular stop on the Brittany tourist trail and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Fortunately we arrived after most of the day trippers had departed…
Situated in beautiful western Finistère, Locronan was named after an Irish Christian missionary, Ronan, who legend says settled there back in the Dark Ages. And his name kept turning up throughout our visit.
The afternoon may have been drab – matching the grey stone of the buildings – but there was no hiding the beauty of the place. As any visitor will tell you, Locronan looks like it’s been locked in a time long gone and walking around it is like visiting a film set, which is apt because it was used by director Roman Polanski as a stand-in for England’s Wessex in his film version of Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess. Small stone cottages sit alongside grander townhouses in the main square, where we filled ourselves with crepes, beers and Breton cider.
After lunch we took a walk around, taking in views across to the sea from high up in the hills. We found charming chapels and grand mansions, leafy lanes and cobbled streets. We discovered the parish church, a large Gothic building with a statue of Ronan, and the Locronan Museum, a basic affair with a little local history. Villagers tended their perfect gardens, flower beds and vegetable patches, while others kept busy pruning trees.
So how come Locronan managed to survive so intact when so many other nearby villages didn’t? It grew wealthy thanks to the efforts of weavers and merchants, who made and traded in sails for the French, English and Spanish. Fine properties were built as offices and homes for the village’s leading lights, many in the 18th century, but then sail gave way to the power of steam and Locronan’s income suddenly dried up.
The village went into a kind of hibernation. There was no money to make ‘improvements’, which can’t have been welcomed much by the locals at the time. However, it’s proved a bonus for us 21st century visitors.
Its fortunes only recovered with the advent of tourism. And now daytrippers in large numbers help to keep the locals in jobs, and the village locked in the past.