Brittany (administrative region)
Brittany is an administrative region of Metropolitan France, comprising the departments of Côtes-d'Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Morbihan. Its capital and largest city is Rennes.
Bordered by the English Channel to the north, the Celtic Sea to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, Brittany's neighboring regions are Normandy to the northeast and Pays de la Loire to the southeast. It is one of two regions in Metropolitan France where all departments have direct access to the sea, the other being Corsica.
The region of Brittany is sometimes referred to as "administrative Brittany" in contrast to "historical Brittany" or "cultural Brittany", which also includes the Loire-Atlantique and whose potential reunification with the administrative region has been a subject of debate for decades.
History
Brittany, located in the west-northwest corner of France, is one of the historic provinces of France. The most Atlantic of France's regions, Brittany is noted for its Celtic heritage, which sets it apart from the rest of France. It enjoys a mild climate somewhat warmer though not necessarily drier than the climate of the Cornish peninsula in southwest Britain.The name "Brittany" derives from the Britons, an Insular Celtic people who inhabited most of Great Britain during the Roman and Sub-Roman periods. During the migration period of the Early Middle Ages the Britons were displaced from most of what is now England by the Anglo-Saxon invasions, leading many to settle in western Armorica, present-day Brittany. As a result the modern Bretons have strong historical, cultural and linguistic ties with those areas of Great Britain which remained Brythonic into the modern era: Wales and Cornwall.
Initially divided into several small petty kingdoms, Brittany as a united political entity emerged in the 9th century as the Kingdom of Brittany. In the early 10th century the kingdom was devastated by Norse raids and occupation and from the mid-10th century became a vassal state of France as the Duchy of Brittany. The level of control exerted by the French kings varied over time; at various points Brittany was either subject to, aligned with or heavily influenced by the English Kings; at others it was de facto independent.
Following the Breton defeat at the hands of the French army in 1488, the duchy was forced into a dynastic union with the French crown in 1491; in 1547 it was formally incorporated as a province of France.
Following the French Revolution the French provinces were dissolved and replaced with departments; what had been Brittany became the Côtes-du-Nord in the north, Finistère in the far west, Morbihan in the south, Ille et Vilaine in the east and Loire-Inférieure in the southeast.
When the modern regions were established, Loire-Inférieure, which includes the historic capital Nantes, became part of Pays de la Loire, while the other four departments became part of the Brittany region. The capital city of the modern Brittany region is Rennes, located in the central eastern part of the region; most of the major lines of communication between Brittany and Paris pass through Rennes, which is a large industrial and university city. Other important cities in the region are Brest, one of the two most important French naval ports, Saint-Malo, an imposing walled city on the north coast, and Vannes, the capital of the Morbihan, with an attractive old town centre. Quimper, the capital of the Finistère, and Saint-Brieuc, the capital of the Côtes-d'Armor, are less important. Lorient, in the Morbihan, was once a major shipping port trading with – as its name suggests – the Orient; but its shipping and shipbuilding industries have largely declined, and like other ports on the south coast of Brittany, is better known today for its yachting and yacht-building industry. It is also the venue for Brittany's annual Interceltiques music and culture festival.
Despite its limited size, Brittany is quite a diverse region; the north and west coasts, open to the force of the North Atlantic, are rugged and rocky, with sandy coves and beaches. The south coast, facing onto the Bay of Biscay, is flatter, much milder, and has a number of large sandy beaches. There are also many inlets on the south coast, such as La Trinité sur Mer, which in the past have been ports and commercial harbours, but today are more popular with yachtsmen and a dwindling fishing industry. The sea here is warmer in summer. The backbone of Brittany is a granite ridge stretching from east to west, peaking in the Monts d'Arrée. But most of inland Brittany is farming country, a region known for its milk and butter and its early crops.
As a holiday region, it is Brittany's coasts that attract the greatest number of visitors; the inland regions have attracted many second-home owners from other parts of France, and from Britain. In cultural terms, Brittany has its own language and Celtic cultural tradition that set it apart from the rest of France. The Breton language, though not much used in everyday life, and not understood by most of the modern population, has made a comeback in recent years, and is taught in many schools. Celtic traditions are reflected in Breton folk music, its Celtic festivals, and its prehistoric monuments.
Geography
Territory
The region of Brittany was created in 1941 from four of the five departments constituting the territory of traditional Brittany. The other is Loire-Atlantique, which is included in the region of Pays de la Loire, whose capital, Nantes, was a historical capital of the Duchy of Brittany.The capital of the administrative region is Rennes, although Nantes is considered the capital of historic Brittany and is located in Loire-Atlantique. The reunification of Brittany is supported by a majority of Loire-Atlantique and is considered a prerequisite to further autonomy of Brittany as a whole.
Part of the reason Brittany was split between two present-day regions was to avoid the rivalry between Rennes and Nantes. Although Nantes was the principal capital of the Duchy of Brittany until the sixteenth century, Rennes had been the seat of the Duchy's supreme court of justice between 1560 and 1789. Rennes had also been the administrative capital of the Intendant of Brittany between 1689 and 1789, and Intendances were the most important administrative units of the kingdom of France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As for the provincial States of Brittany, a legislative body which had originally met every two years in a different city of Brittany, that had met in Rennes only between 1728 and 1789, although not in the years 1730, 1758, and 1760. Despite that, the Chambre des comptes had remained in Nantes until 1789. However, from 1381 until the end of the 15th century Vannes had served as the administrative capital of the Duchy, remaining the seat of its Chambre des comptes until the 1490s, and also the seat of its Parlement until 1553 and then again between 1675 and 1689.
Although there were previous plans to create regions out of the departments, like the Clémentel plan or the Vichy regionalisation programme, these plans had no effect or else were abolished in 1945. The current French regions date from 1956 and were created by gathering departments together. In Brittany, this led to the creation of the new region of Brittany, which included only four out of the five historical Breton departments. The term région was officially created by the Law of Decentralisation, which also gave regions their legal status. The first direct elections for regional representatives took place on 16 March 1986.
Departments
Brittany comprises four departments: Côtes-d'Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Morbihan.Major communities
The following table is the list of communes in Brittany with a population over 15,000 inhabitants. Rennes is situated in the east of Brittany, being the capital of the region, the capital of the Ille-et-Vilaine department, as well as the most populous metropolitan area in Brittany with 700,000 inhabitants.| Commune | Breton name | Population | Department |
| Rennes | Roazhon | 225,081 | Ille-et-Vilaine |
| Brest | Brest | 139,619 | Finistère |
| Quimper | Kemper | 63,642 | Finistère |
| Lorient | An Oriant | 57,149 | Morbihan |
| Vannes | Gwened | 53,352 | Morbihan |
| Saint-Malo | Sant-Maloù | 46,097 | Ille-et-Vilaine |
| Saint-Brieuc | Sant-Brieg | 44,372 | Côtes-d'Armor |
| Lanester | Lannarstêr | 22,728 | Morbihan |
| Fougères | Felger | 20,418 | Ille-et-Vilaine |
| Lannion | Lannuon | 19,880 | Côtes-d'Armor |
| Concarneau | Konk Kerne | 19,050 | Finistère |
| Bruz | Bruz | 18,266 | Ille-et-Vilaine |
| Vitré | Gwitreg | 18,037 | Ille-et-Vilaine |
| Plœmeur | Plañvour | 17,853 | Morbihan |
| Cesson-Sévigné | Saozon-Sevigneg | 17,526 | Ille-et-Vilaine |
| Lamballe-Armor | Lambal-Arvor | 16,578 | Côtes-d'Armor |
| Landerneau | Landerne | 15,781 | Finistère |
| Hennebont | Henbont | 15,678 | Morbihan |