Our Blog - Bretagne Trip - Summer 2021 - Locmariaquer, France

The ancient Romans knew of the existence of deposits of natural edible oysters (or flat oysters), but it was not until the late 19th century that oyster farming started. At that time, Locmariaquer was the home of the flat oysters and the town prospered until 1973. Similar to how Phylloxera destroyed French vineyards in the late 19th century, flat oysters in the Gulf of Morbihan were destroyed by parasites in 1973. They were replaced by cultivated Japanese oysters and even today, the main oysters cultivated here are Pacific oysters. A couple pictures of the small port.

The only real historical site in town is the church Notre Dame de Kerdro. This is a Romanesque church that was built between 1082 and 1120 by the monks of Quimperlé. In 1548, the town was attacked by the English fleet and largely destroyed, damaging the church. It was rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries with only the transept and the choir of the original building remaining. You can see the date 1835 above one of the doors.

No stained-glass pictures since all of the windows were replaced in 1960 with modern stained glass.

Inside, you can see the main nave with 2 aisles on each side, and the very common arched wooden ceiling that has been so common in Brittany (here, painted white). Being a port city, there are various naval decorations, including small boats on the walls.

There are 2 altars dating from the 17th century. The first one has the center painting showing Saint Anne teaching her daughter, the Virgin Mary, the Old Testament, with carved wooden decorations above.

The other, also with carved wooden decorations, shows the Annunciation with the angel Gabriel asking the Virgin Mary to become the mother of the son of God.

In Brittany, there is a pastry called a Kouign aman and we happened to see this sign for the recipe in the window of a bakery. For those who can't read French ... the recipe (recette) for this pastry is (from right to left): 1 egg (oeuf), a little flour (farine), a little sugar (sucre) and a boat-load of butter (beurre)! Our friend Phillipe has mentioned to us that it is "too rich" and has "too much butter" for him. Yea .... you can't eat many of them without going into a butter-coma!

There is also a megalith complex here, although it was closed (lunchtime) and we were only able to get pictures from outside of the fence. Here, there is a dolmen known as the Table des Marchand and "The Broken Menhir of Er Grah", the largest known single block of stone to have been transported and erected by Neolithic people.