Paris1972-Versailles2003

And continue my tour of traditional Bretagne in my belle France. I am on my road warrior trips in my beautiful Morbihan dept 56. I have written bits and pieces but feels deserves more so here is my new update and photos on the Church of Saint Pierre aux Liens in Plescop.

Plescop is surrounded by the towns of Grand-Champ, Meucon, Saint-Avé, Vannes, Ploeren, Pluneret and Plumergat. It is only 6 km from Vannes. The bus service is provided by Kicéo same as the network of Vannes and here served by bus line 8, St-Nolff / Plescop. My boys have taken the bus line 8 quite nice me always by car and again Plescop is a passing town very close to Vannes we do have eaten here at Les Trois Soleils (see post).

A bit of history I like

The bishop of Vannes had a residence there in the site Kérango. The bishops of the diocese of Vannes usually came to stay there in the summer. The Church of Saint-Pierre-aux-Liens parish church is located in the city/town center of Plescop. The oldest parts of this church such as the apse and south wall of the nave date back to the 16C. The rest of the church seems to date from the 18C, with the exception of the sacristy, built in the 19C.

In general is a 15-16C church which has been altered many times and without architectural character. There is a small stone holy water font dating from 1629. The three altarpieces, in stone and wood, date from the end of the 17C. The altarpiece of the high altar is decorated with a painting representing the Coronation of the Virgin: on either side of the altarpiece are the statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and the whole is surmounted by a Virgin with the Child. The northern altarpiece is surmounted by a Virgin, and the southern altarpiece is surmounted by a woman showing the sky to her son. The Virgin of Pity, in polychrome stone and leaning against the wall of the southern chapel, dates from the 16C. The painting entitled “Vision of Saint Francis of Assisi”, work by Vincent Lhermitais, dates from 1768. Another canvas, located in the north transept, represents the “Descent from the Cross and the Assumption of the Virgin”.

The Church of Saint Pierre aux Liens parish church is dedicated to Saint Pierre-ès-Liens which marks its day on August 1,and has the shape of a Latin cross. The windows are pointed. In the choir were buried the entrails of Mgr Fagon and Mgr de Bertin. The side altars are dedicated to the Rosary, to Saint Francis of Assisi and to Saint Anne. To the left of the south door, on the outside, is a small stoup with cut sides, embedded in the wall and dated 1629.

Inside, the church has four 17C stone and marble altarpieces. Its bell tower is made up of a slate spire, tall and slender, accompanied at its birth by four small arrows. Inside the very high-pitched cone, hide the three bells. The bells called to arms, announced the curfew, rang the tocsin, recited the Angelus. Their names are: Anna-Joachim, Maria-Joseph, and Petronilla. The entrance is through the south door and in the porch is a stoup with cutaway, decorated with a rose window and two twists. This font, which bears the date 1629, was once outside and was embedded in the wall.

The city of Plescop on heritage: City of Plescop on heritage

The city of Plescop on tourism information: City of Plescop on tourism information

And there you go folks, now i feel better to fully showcase this agglomation town of Vannes county which is full of history and pleasant city center enough for a rest stop and see the church monument of Saint Pierre aux Liens in Plescop.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!

And continue my tour of traditional Bretagne in my belle France. I am on my road warrior trips in my beautiful Morbihan dept 56. I have written bits and pieces but feels deserves more so here is my new update and photos on the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Pluneret.

Pluneret is close to the coast bounded in the west by the Auray river (le Loch), and to the east by the Riviére du Bono (le Sal) an extention of the Gulf of Morbihan. It is only 15 km from Vannes and 5 km from Sainte Anne d’Auray. The territory is bordered by the towns of Sainte-Anne-d’Auray and Plumergat, as well as Crac’h, Auray and Brech, also, Plescop and Plougoumelen, and finally Le Bono. The village of Sainte-Anne or Keranna, which has long been part of the town of Pluneret, was established as a town apart on February 26, 1950 under the name of Sainte-Anne-d’Auray. It is in what is now Pluneret that Yves Nicolazic was born , the seer of Sainte-Anne of which later a Basilica was built (see post).

Pluneret is very central and we passed by it several times as it comes very near Auray, even if admit not much in city center lately. It is bounded by the expressway N165 / E60, allowing rapid connections to Nantes , Vannes and Lorient and further to Brest. The SNCF Quimper-Paris line ,with passage of the TGV which stops at Auray (and have taken it here), that is to say 5 minutes from Pluneret. The traditional Sainte-Anne de Pluneret train station has long been the arrival station for pilgrims to Sainte-Anne d’Auray, hence the statue that surmounts it. It is served for travelers by the TER Bretagne, line 12 between Lorient and Vannes. The architecture is unique in Brittany. It is one of the few stations in France to be surmounted by a religious statue! The station was built in 1862.

You have a bit of history I like

Pluneret was part of the territory of Vannes and the Senechaussee of Auray. In 1790, it was set up as a town and even as the county seat of the district of Auray, and had in its constituency Plougoumelen and Plumergat. Pluneret, like all the neighboring towns, took part in the Royalist movement. Pluneret passed, in 1800, in the district of Lorient, and lost in 1801 its title of canton, to be part of that of Auray. In 1815, on May 25, the Royalists, gathered at Sainte-Anne, put to flight a column of federates and soldiers from Lorient.

What I came to see is the Church of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul from the 19C, built on the site of a former 11C church. The old church of Pluneret, whose nave dates back to the first years of the 11C, and the other parts of which date from the 14-15C, was demolished in 1876, to make way for a modern building, in Gothic style, completed in 1885 by the construction of a square bell tower in the same style crowned with a beautiful spire, and also, modern stained glass windows.

The old Church of Saint Pierre and Saint Paul was shaped like a Latin cross and belonged to various eras. The oldest part was the nave, separated from the aisles by five heavy semicircular arches, supported on massive square pillars, without any ornament: it was of primitive Romanesque architecture, probably dating from the 10C, after the expulsion of the Normans. On the four pillars of the intertransept rose a square turret, surmounted by a slate spire. The rest of the building had been retouched in the 15C.

The city of Pluneret on its history: City of Pluneret on its history

The tourist office of the Bay of Quiberon on Pluneret :Tourist office of the Bay of Quiberon on Pluneret

And there you go folks, now i feel better to fully showcase this agglomation town of Auray county which is full of history and pleasant city center enough for a rest stop and see the church monument of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Pluneret.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!

And sticking to my wonderful Morbihan breton no 56 of my lovely Bretagne and in my belle France. I like to take you back again to a village part of a town that I passed every day to work and shopping. Of course, have written before but briefly in my blog.

And now its time to tell you a bit more on Mériadec and its Church of Saint Mériadec!

The territory of Plumergat, which includes Mériadec which has an almost triangular configuration, is bounded to the north by Brandivy and Pluvigner, to the west by Brech, to the south by Pluneret, to the east by Plescop and Grand-Champ. Mériadec, whose territory extends over the towns of Plumergat and Pluneret,(see posts) was a parish branch of Plumergat. It became a parish in 1912. It is still part of Plumergat.

The chapel dedicated to Saint-Mériadec, bishop of Vannes in 659, located at the current location of the parking park, was built around 1383. Falling into ruin, it was demolished in 1938. The parish church was built in 1913, as Church of Saint Mériadec.

Mériadec has a long history since parish registers date back to 1607. In the past, Mériadec was famous for its horse fair on April 19, the largest in Morbihan! The Mériadec village was created in 1874 by the Administration with a special assistant responsible for performing the functions of registrar. There have been several attempts to create a town in Mériadec: the last one was in the 1930s.

Today, the western facade of the Church of Saint Mériadec ,still awaits its bell tower, the plan of which had been drawn up by the architect Caubert, but whose funding had been refused by the general council in 1923. The altarpiece-tabernacle from the 17C, in gilded wood, would come from the old Sainte-Anne-d’Auray Chapel. The primitive chapel was a rectangular building, quite archaic, completed in 1383, where one saw some Romanesque windows in semicircular and others in pointed arches. The sand pit of the choir bore an inscription, hardly readable today. A small square steeple covered with slates, stood at the entrance to the choir. To the south was a small square porch, very simple, with a stone bench on either side. The chapel was covered with a rather crude frame and had been enriched with beautiful 17C wooden altarpieces from the Carmelite convent of Sainte-Anne.

The city of Plumergat on the village of Mériadec in French: City of Plumergat on the village of Mériadec

An interesting story of Saint Mériadec , I like to tell for the history I like

The first name of Mériadec comes from both Latin and Old Breton: Merus in Latin, and iad, in Bretonic meaning  pure sang. This word is still in use in Welsh, although it has fallen into disuse, the synonym tal ,same word as in Breton, being almost exclusively used. It is however attested in the old Welsh dictionaries, so this name is made up of Mer-iad-oc, namely: The one whose forehead is pure.

We find traces of the cult of Saint Mériadec on both sides of the Channel, both in islands of Brittany and in mainland Brittany. He was born either in Great or in little Britain, in one case, he was born in Armorica (old Bretagne name), and would have gone overseas ; a sea that we still call today in Breton Mor Breizh, namely the Sea of ​​Brittany, (just out from the Gulf of Morbihan today) sea ​​which for centuries was more a hyphen than an impenetrable border. According to other traditions, it is the other way around; he was born in Great Britain and later came to Armorica. This is what is recorded in the Beunans Meriasek (life of Mériadec) written in 1504 in insular Cornouailles (Cornwall).

Like many Breton saints, his reputation as a miracle worker and his preaching attracted crowds, so much so that on the death of Hingwethen, Bishop of Vannes, he was chosen clero and populo (by the clergy and the people) as Bishop of Vannes. He is honored mainly at Stival, near Pontivy. He is also patron of Mériadec , in Bieuzy-Lanvaux and Baden, where chapels are dedicated to him, as well as in Saint-Jean-du-Doigt, where part of his skull is preserved. in a very beautiful reliquary.

The house of Rohan, one of the oldest and most powerful families in Brittany, maintains a very intimate relationship with Saint Mériadec, for better or for worse. This recovery of Saint Mériadec by the Rohans comes from a homonymy with the legendary Conan Mériadec, lieutenant of Magnus Maximus, (Macsen Wledig in Welsh) Roman general, who with his Breton legions, took Rome and became ephemeral emperor of the West in 387, having defeated the Emperor Gratian before being overthrown and executed in his turn by Theodosius, Emperor of the East allied to Valentinian II, legitimate Emperor of the West.

The megalomania of Maximus and a good part of the Breton aristocracy, by dragging the Bretons away from their homes and stripping Brittany of its best troops, will precipitate the fall of the Western Roman Empire as well as the invasion. of the island of Brittany by the Anglo-Saxons in the following century. So much so that his grandson, named Arthur, (1187-1203, posthumous son of Constance of Brittany, and of Geoffroy Plantagenêt, Duke of Brittany, brother of Richard Coeur de Lion(Lionhearted) and Jean sans terre (without lands) was considered by his subjects of both sides of the Channel as fulfilling the Arthurian prophecies. It must be said that Henri II was a scholar, a very good connoisseur of history and knew how to use it to unify all the peoples he governed.
The mythical king of the Bretons who is also according to legend, father of Saint Helena, mother of Constantine I, first Christian emperor and ipso facto ancestor of Saint Mériadec. This ancestry is totally fanciful and does not fit chronologically, however.

There you go a nice fanciful story and with many truths to it on the life of Saint Mériadec. I must say I live close to these towns sort of like my living area. Hope you enjoy and do pass by Mériadec on the D19 road !

And remember , happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!