Newcomers with a heart of gold!

The Vannes Olympique Club has managed to claw its way into Ligue 2 for the first time in history. This is a boon for this unknown club from the Morbihan region who will be trying to walk in the footsteps of nearby Lorient.

Fans, on the other hand, aren't going to have the greatest expectations. They know that the number one goal, with so small a budget, will be to keep above the water level to stay in Ligue 2. Let's hope Stéphane Le Mignan puts his money where his mouth is! They dominated the "National" championship, let's hope they do the same in Ligue 2!

The best products for the best of celebration.

The New Year is just around the corner and you still haven't finished your shopping list!

Do not despair. The Marché de la Saint-Sylvestre in Arzon will gather shop-owners, producers and artisans to give you the best gift solutions or recipe ideas for the great end of year feasts. Make the most of the Christmas season, be prepared!

A poetic goldmine…

Ayo, the musical prodigy, seems to have been born at the confluence of a bohemian spirit and a sense of soul that we picture in big city underground clubs… Her first steps as a musician were in Hamburg where, with her guitar and a few instruments, Ayo put together her eponymous album: Joyful. At once melancholic and full of hope, at once sad and brilliantly joyous, her album is a poetic goldmine.

Her latest opus, Gravity at Last, has been out since September 2008 and only adds to the prestige of an already world-famous name…

Breath slowly…

The Organic & Well-Being Fair opens its doors to the public; this fair is a showcase organic products and services related to improving general well-being. For consumers to find what they need in this world of products, the fair has been organised around a theme.

Given the large number of stalls, visitors will be enlightened in many different fields: renewable energies, well-being, health-care, fair trade and making the most of natural habitats.

A top-class Celtic music festival.

Originally organized in Brest, the Celtic Festival now takes place in Lorient and remains THE major event for Celtic musicians and artists. Every year, 4 500 artists and bands from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Cornwall, Asturias, Galicia and Brittany come to Lorient to take part in this exciting festival.

The programme includes a range of Celtic styles - traditional, classical, folk, jazz, rock... This lively event also features dancers, painters, sculptors, writers, film directors and lecturers who will be giving visitors a glimpse of their skills at various venues all over town and providing the 500 000 spectators with quality entertainment.

Lyrics like no other.

Graeme Allwright has come out with a new album just for the sake of gathering his fellow musicians, those loyal friends that worked with him on stages, tours and in studios throughout the years. Allwright sings with the same fresh voice, the same need to share his musical magic… His performances are chock-a-block full, row after row of loyal fans from every generation. Today, aged 80, he still has that dissenter's edge, the same side of his personality which leads him to begin his performance with a very personal version of the French national anthem.

A painter among painters…

Pierre Tal-Coat was a famed 20th century painter, nomadic artist, a wanderer nevertheless respected by his contemporaries (Staël, Braque, Giacometti, Philippe Joccottet, Henri Maldiney…).

Born in the Finistère County, Tal-Coat always kept his heart in Brittany - his alias, Tal-Coat, means "Wooden Forehead" in his Breton dialect.

The alphabet of history…

Museum collections have often been put together by seemingly ordinary men who were no more than victims of circumstance; brought by chance to discover a field of research, they often became passionate scholars, archeologists or explorers…

For example, naturalist Frédéric Cailliaud came across egyptian civilisation during the Napoleonic campaigns. In 1882 he embarked on an expidition up the Nile to the antique city of Meroë - he returned with countless artefacts and a mine of information. There is also Louis Audemard who travelled to Carthage in 1889 and brought back a collection of funerary urns…

These botanists, mineralogists, doctors, printers, artists, preachers and explorers all shared a common culture - they worshipped curiosity and asked only to transmit what they had learned.

Punk lives on!

Guerilla Poubelle can be summed up in a few words: electric, punk, screaming, melodious, somber, deranged, absurd, accessible, urban, animal, coloured, urgent, morbid, marginal, natural, fun, sleepless, non-conformist, hardcore, industrial and bio-degradable…

Long live the newlyweds !

Getting married in France??? Or maybe you just like to plan ahead…

Make your wedding day the most romantic day of your life, perfect to the last detail. From finding the dress or tuxedo of your dreams to that most important of items, the rings… The Wedding Fair is the perfect place to start! Vendors can present you with ideas for honeymoons, reception halls, jewellery, flowers, cakes, entertainment, everything short of turning you into a princess! Fashion shows regularly present hairstyles and gowns throughout the day. So say "I do" to the Salon du mariage!

A timeless fairytale, a magical moment.

Little Mowgli is lost in the savage wilderness, alone, his parents vanished… He is alone and innocent in the terrible jungle.

He is taken in by Akéla, a motherly she-wolf, and under her guidance learns how to survive in the jungle, to feed himself, communicate with animals… He makes friends, Bagueera the panther and Baloo the bear, who teach him of the laws of the jungle.

Centuries of light.

Opened in June 2005, the museum's new presentation of its permanent collections of paintings offers a new outlook on the works of the 19th and 20th centuries.
For the most part, these are landscapes whose common feature is an attempt to grasp rhythm, colour and light and fix this impalpable illusion on canvas.
In the 19th century, painters began experimenting with outdoor painting.
Little by little, light begins to dissolve the subject and lead towards abstraction.
This progress towards modernity can be traced through the works of Elodie La Villette, Eugène Boudin, Claude Monet, Jean Le Moal and Geneviève Asse.

A tribute to valiant men.

Continuing its task of showcasing the Citadelle de Port-Louis, the Musée National de la Marine decided to create a new section, unique in France, dedicated to the extraordinary history of sea rescue.

Courage, self-denial, discretion, modesty... there is no lack of words of praise to heap on these men who, down the years, have risked their lives to save others.
Coxswains, second coxswains and crewmen have handed down their stories, and today's lifeboat men keep the tradition alive, united in the face of the universal danger, the pitiless perils of the sea.
The terrifying sight of storm conditions on the rocky coastline of Brittany or elsewhere compels each of us to ask ourselves, in our heart of hearts: would I have dared?

From the earliest days of sea-rescue under sails and oars to today's search and rescue helicopters, human courage is honoured in the precious mementoes of lifeboat crews, in touching pictures and photographs, model boats and specialised equipment.
Supplemented by archive pictures, films and sound recordings, the entire presentation centres on a striking exhibit: the Commandant Philippes de Kerhallet lifeboat (1897), the last survivor of its kind.

In the very heart of Brittany, which has known so many maritime disasters, the 350m² of the new citadel exhibition rooms, Naufrages et Fraternités, l'Univers de la mer (shipwrecks and brotherhood, the world of the sea), dedicated to sea rescue, pay a more than well-earned tribute to the dedication of the unsung sailor heroes who, as true men of the sea, seek no glory for themselves.

Stones ancient beyond belief.

Dating from some 6,000 years ago, the megalithic site at Carnac is one of the most important prehistoric sites in Europe. Around 3,000 menhirs (standing stones) are aligned over an area of 40 hectares and a distance of 4 kilometres.
The Kermario, Le Menec, Kerlescan and Petit Menec (La Trinité-sur-Mer) alignments, which together form the Carnac site, represent one of the first monumental stone structures in Europe.
Plans are under way to redevelop the site to improve facilities for visitors, to enhance the landscaping and architectural qualities of the site and, by creating pedestrian and cycle paths, to open up new ways of visiting the monument.

Inspired by a learned Scotsman.

The museum's earliest collections are owed to a learned Scotsman by the name of James Miln.
The furniture and the archaeological treasures discovered at Carnac are for the most part presented in the Musée de la Préhistoire.
Visitors will follow the adventures of mankind from the Old Stone Age (450,000 years ago) to the Gallo-Roman period (4th century B.C.), by way of the Neolithic period when the megaliths were erected. A total of 6,600 exhibits are on display.

Menhirs and dolmens of yore…

Locmariaquer's megalithic site features three structures epitomising Breton megalithic architecture: the great broken menhir, the dolmen known as the Merchants' Table and the Er Grah tumulus, all of which were erected between 4,700 and 3,800 B.C.. This was the Neolithic period, when man began to form settlements, to experiment with and develop animal husbandry, farming, pottery, weaving, etc.

A tour of the site is an excellent introduction to megalithic civilisation and architecture, featuring as it does the three types of monuments from that era. Also, the whole is ideally situated in a stunning natural setting overlooking the Morbihan Gulf and Quiberon Bay. In the Neolithic period, before the level of the seas rose, these expanses would have been not gulf and bay but expansive, grassy plains...