Brittany 9: Landerneau

Thursday 23rd May 2024

The Town of Landerneau lies at the mouth of the river Elorn and is about 14 miles east of Brest. The town built wealth as a port in the 15th and 16th centuries via the trade in linen. Many of the buildings present today, date from that period.

A remarkable feature of the town, is the 16th century house-lined bridge across the river, the “Pont de Rohan”, which it is claimed, is the only such occupied structure left in Europe.

There has been a long-time association with the moon, dating from the time of King Louis XIV who took the sun as his emblem. The Lord of Rohan, whose emblem was the sun, replaced it with the moon in deference. Today, the town is sometimes referred to as “the town of the moon”. We found two references to this history. The first, a metal work of art mounted on a building on the Pont de Rohan and the second, a large inflatable moon, suspended from a tree outside the church:

There are old buildings on both sides of the river. To the south, a small church with a tower/steeple typical of the area, the “église Saint-Thomas de Cantorbéry”, who was Saint Thomas a Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury:

Across from this church is another old building. An ossuary, built to receive the bones of those unable to be buried in consecrated ground. It is consecrated to Saint Cadou (or Cadoc), a Welsh monk of the 6th century, who had a cult following in Brittany. Either side of the entrance are bays which made it possible to sprinkle holy water on the bones of those within, without entering the building.

Other old or interesting buildings on the south side:

To the north, on the other side of the Pont de Rohan, is a small shopping area and other historic buildings:

We also found a particularly attractive auberge (hostel), dating from 1662:

St. Houardon Church is at the centre of the northern side of the town:

A feature of this church is the elaborately painted murals either side of the nave and chancel.

Passing this boulangerie, we noticed bread on display in the window which looked so hard that you could knock nails in with it:

We retraced our way back to the aire along the riverside:

The aire was a short distance downstream, next to a sports complex. Another automated barrier system, which is fine and worked well. Quite a large area, with many quite nice “slots” on grass with trees around. Electric hook-up was quite erratic and some vans had long extensions to the nearest outlet. We had to take our power-lead through a hedge to the nearest point. No view to speak of and a few vehicles owned by what are obviously long-term residents, which are clearly in need of TLC.

Near to the entrance, there was a cycle service area, which I have never seen before. Facilities are provided to fully service your bike, with a pump and spanners on a stand.