Our Blog - Bretagne Trip - Summer 2021 - Day 9 (Walk in Saint-Thuriau and Gourin)

We started out this morning with a walk near the village of Saint-Thuriau that we found on the Office of Tourism website. The town itself was not really created until 1839, and it is named after a bishop of Dol-de-Bretagne from the 7th century. It was a Monday in August and it seemed like the few businesses that were in town (a bakery and a creperie) were closed today.

As we headed out, we took a turn on a path at this cross, which was installed along side the highway. The date on the bottom was 1936. The path headed out of the village and down between corn fields and along a stream.

The fountain of the Devotion of Saint-Thuriau, also known as the "Fontaine Blanche" (White Fountain) dates from 1772, which is inscribed on the back of the fountain. Legend says that it is a fountain of miracles, that the waters have medicinal benefits.

There is also a nice church in town (not open when we were there) and a few really nice old stone houses.

We went to the town of Gourin, which I must say was a little bit disappointing. The town has almost 3,800 people but the population seems to be declining every year and when we walked around, it felt like 75% of the businesses (or business locations) had a "For Sale" sign in the window. From the Wikipedia information, it seems like there are a lot of Manors/Chateaus and churches in the around surrounding the town, so perhaps another visit will be necessary next year. For this year, we stopped and had a bottle of cider and saw the replica of the Statue of Liberty in the main square, which references an exodus of the population of Gourin towards the American continent. The town is known for being the origin of many immigrants to United States and Canada during the first part of the 20th century.