Life in Lannion

Back from the States now for a week, we finally have time to post some photos of our apartment and Lannion, our home town for the next year. Now that we are settling in, we are even more impressed with our good luck in finding this flat above M. Faggi’s shop. Our apartment is spacious (by French standards), sunny, and right on le Léguer, the river that runs through Lannion and then empties into the sea about 5 miles from here. There are hiking paths along the river both upstream and downstream from us.

Our place is part of a row of stone houses, although our building has been completely renovated and stuccoed over on the outside. Windows run across the entire eastern side of our combined living room/dining room/kitchen and we have sweeping views of le Léguer. It is a delight to observe the river under constantly changing states of light, wind, and tide. From time to time, kayakers pass by; the other day a class of middle schoolers was out with their instructors. We expect to be out on the river ourselves soon. There is a fairly busy street on the far side of the river, but the windows are double glazed and shut out the traffic noise.

Our apartment has two bedrooms (hint to anyone contemplating a visit: you will have a bedroom to yourself) and the one large room for everything else. The kitchen is a distinct space, separated by the counter that is visible in the photo. The place is fully furnished, including a basic battery de cuisine, and has a fireplace for those chilly winter evenings.

Our location couldn’t be better. A right turn outside our front door takes us within minutes to the center of Lannion, where there is a 16th-century church, 400-year-old stone and timber-framed houses, a market two days a week, the butcher, several bakers, the cheese shop, etc. A left turn gets us into the countryside within 10 minutes, among stone barns and fieldstone fences, goats, cows, and sheep. Almost all farmhouses and barns are made from the wonderful local stone and are almost embarrassingly picturesque. The older farm fields are separated by stone fences.

Lannion is an interesting mix of old Bretagne and modern France. France Telecom built a major research lab here in the 1970s, which in turn has attracted a fair amount of other high-tech firms to the area. As a consequence, the population is significantly better educated and more sophisticated than one would encounter in the typical city of 20,000+.

Lannion supports a very good new bookstore and one decent used bookstore. There is also a pretty extensive series of concerts and recitals, which feature everything from classical to traditional Bretagne to jazz to African and Latin American music. We are eagerly awaiting a two-week organ festival in various churches in and near Lannion in August.
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Old town Lannion is built on hills, with many narrow medieval streets. The older houses have a stone first floor and then half-timbering above. Often the upper stories project slightly over the first story. (Many times we have been told that this was done so that the contents of chamber pots dumped from upper windows would land in the middle of the street not on passers-by walking close to the walls, but this sounds questionable to me.) Beginning about 3 centuries ago, almost all townhouses were made from stone. The place du centre has buildings from many periods and is full of life, especially on Thursday morning, when the major weekly market takes place. Saint-Jean du Baly, the major church in town, dates to the 1500s (its square tower is visible in the photo). L’église de Brélévenez, at the top of the steps behind Ellen and Martin, is in many ways more interesting. Portions of it date to the 12th century, and its construction is traditionally associated with the Knights Templar. It has some marvelous weathered stone carvings around the south portal.

The coast here is dotted with close-in islands (some set aside as bird sanctuaries), and half-day and full-day sailing excursions are offered. We have finally decided to lease a car or buy a used one, having learned that Brittany is full of country churches, roadside calvaires (stone crucifixes, often with carvings of Bible scenes as well), and stone-age archeological sites. Without a car to tool around in, we would miss many of these and many serendipitous discoveries, as well.

I have made a preliminary reconnaissance of my friend Gérald’s library and find that is full of the classics of French literature, mostly sets from the 18th century, all leather bound. There are many histories and religious tomes, but also the works of Voltaire, Rousseau, Boileau, Moliere, Racine, and Buffon, the great French naturalist. It will truly be a labor of love to catalogue the library.

This gives some idea of our milieu; we will add to the story as we get to know the place better.