THIN PLACES TRAVEL PODCAST
#017 Brittany France Destinations with Wendy Mewes
Host – Mindie Burgoyne
Guests – Wendy Mewes – Brittany Expert
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Brittany France Destinations

Welcome to Episode 17 of the Thin Places Travel Podcast. This episode features Brittany France – an area with one of the largest collections of pre-Christian monuments in Europe. And these monuments are the run of the mill dolmens or passage tombs. The monuments in Brittany, in many instances, predate those in Ireland and the UK. Many believe the people who created the first of the monuments in Ireland and the UK came from Brittany. It was the Breton culture that established this pattern of erecting these ancient monuments.

We are so lucky to have the Brittany expert, Wendy Mewes on the podcast today. If you search the internet for guides in Brittany or books written on the ancient Breton landscape, you will find Wendy’s name and her website…. Wendymewes.com

She is a prolific writer and lecturer. On her website, she has a quote that reads, “My personal identity lies in the landscape.” Her books and writing speak to the concept that the landscape is alive and that there is an inherent “sense of place” unique to the Breton landscape. Wendy lives in Finistere – with its deep forests, sweeping shorelines and ancient stones – an amazing place for walking. 

Wendy has a background in ancient history, she is the author of numerous books about Brittany, and her articles have appeared widely in the press. In France, she has been filmed for TV and contributed to radio broadcasts on historical subjects. She has worked extensively in promoting Breton history and culture to English-speaking visitors through talks, courses, and guided visits.

Wendy now concentrates on landscape writing, most recently with Spirit of Place in Finistere (2017). She is currently working on two new books: one about the Breton saints and the other on walking ancient paths in the region.

Now … on to our interview with Wendy.

Interview with Wendy Mewes

1. What is it about BRITTANY that is most compelling?

Brittany has a very beautiful and unspoilt landscape, full of hidden sites beyond linear time where eternal elementals still share their presence. It also triumphs in economies of scale with a wide variety of natural surroundings – secret river valleys, open moorland, deep forest, wild coast – within a relatively short distance. Many point to the power of granite, a stone forged from fire, for the strong atmosphere – it seems to affect people both well and badly! There is nothing excessive here: the scale of Brittany is so in tune with human scale that one can perfectly identify with the environment.

2. What is the background – history of the site or topic?

Brittany was well-populated in the Neolithic period and has the greatest density of megaliths in Europe, with standing-stones and burial chambers widespread. These sacred places continued to be revered by succeeding Bronze and Iron Age inhabitants. The arrival of Celtic Christianity with evangelists from Great Britain after the fall of the Roman Empire saw many of these sites taken over and Christianised in the rivalry between Nature and God.

3. Are there any legends or mythology tied to the site or topic?

Brittany is the home of a vast treasury of legend, especially in the Celtic oral tradition. The megaliths in particular have their own stories of origin (usually involving giants or fairies), and there are hundreds of varieties of little people active in the landscape, as well as countless tales of the Breton saints with all their miracles and triumphs. One of the striking themes of oral culture here is the ubiquitous presence of Death (personified by Ankou, the Grim reaper).

4. Do you think those stories have a deeper meaning?

Stories inevitably spring from humans’ interest in themselves and our need for explanation and ‘certainty’. Many legends are self-referential and self-reverential. Often they resign us to our lack of control over life and death, making chaos less frightening. Here in Brittany they often reflect the early foundations of society as well as universal experiences. We look for intermediaries and intercession. Is it possible to pull back the curtain of culture and see a deeper state of being beyond? When you can reach out to landscape as a living thing rather than human being, magic can happen.

5. What surprises travellers about the site? …. something one wouldn’t expect?

Visitors to Brittany are often surprised by the continuing power of oral culture today and the manifest pride in local heritage at all levels of society. Native language and traditional costumes are distinctive. Sacred processions, pilgrimages and boundary-walking (based on legend) still tie people to the land, and memory is regarded as a vibrant tool to preserve the past and animate the future.

6. What are your thoughts on thin places or liminal places where the physical and spiritual worlds seem to cross?

For me personally these are usually places where the elements of earth (stone), air and water combine in a special harmony. Often it is necessary to get through the cultural filter to a purer state in order to feel oneself absolutely part of the natural world and truly alive.

7. What advice would you give to a traveler who is seeking out thin places or sites with spiritual energy?

The megaliths are a tangible target and for many people a conduit to spiritual energy, but don’t neglect places were there is no hand of man on display: the granite boulders in a wide forest, the changes on a tidal shore, the hill-tops on the heath…

Information on Wendy Mewes and her books

Wendy’s Books:

Spirit of Place in Finistere

Britany: A Cultural History

Discovering the History of Brittany

Walking the Brittany Coast

Legends of Brittany

 

FIND WENDY MEWES:

www.wendymewes.com   

www.wendymewes.blogspot.com   

Twitter: @brittanyexpert

wendymewes@orange.fr