Catching a Rainbow

Roscoff or Rosko in Breton is a small town situated on the north coast of Brittany. It is located in the Départements of Finisterre, the arrondissement of Morlaix and the canton of Saint-Pol-de-Léon and has approximately 4000 inhabitants

A few hundred yards from the shore is the Île-de-Batz. This small island is reached by catching one of the small ferries, which leave the inner harbour when the tide is high. There are regular crossings all year long provided for by three companies. The island covers just a little over 5 square kilometres and has a soft climate benefiting from the effects of the Gulf Stream.
At low tide visitors have to use the impressive footbridge, which stretches from Roscoff harbour to the embarkation point, which then is over halfway to the island.

Roscoff is a bustling fishing port and is well worth a visit before one heads south. Many tourists are only aware of the ferry terminal and fail to take in the charms of this quaint town on their mad dash to somewhere else. Roscoff has numerous restaurants, bars and cafes and is a perfect stop off for coffee, lunch or a weekend before heading on to pastures new.

Roscoff was formed following the break up of the ancient parish of Plouénan. And was split between the two parishes of Saint-Pol-de-Léon and Toussaint. In 1790, Roscoff became an independent commune instead of merely being the harbour and port for the nearby town of Saint-Pol-de-Léon.

In 1375, the harbour was destroyed by the army of the Earl of Arundel, captain of the British at Brest. It was later rebuilt at its current location, at Kroas Batz.(The Cross of Batz).

In1539 the towns name changed from Rosgo to Rosgoff and ultimately the modern spelling Roscoff.

On the 15th August 1548, the six-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, having been betrothed to the Dauphin François (aged 12), disembarks at Roscoff. She had already been the Queen of Scotland since 1542 following the death of her father James V. There is a spot between the town and the old harbour where Mary was first supposed to have set foot on French soil.

Les capucins (Capuchines) an order of friars in the Roman Catholic Church and the chief and only permanent offshoot of the original Franciscans built a convent between 1621 et 1682 in the town.


In the 1960’s Roscoff was developed as a ferry terminal serving the UK and Ireland and Brittany Ferries have been using the port for much of that time which has boosted the local economy.


However, Roscoff is most famous for its Onions so much so that a museum opened in the town in 2004.
The original onions reportedly arrived as a single seed on a boat from Portugal sometime in the middle of the 17th Century. To begin with onions were cultivated in private gardens, but this soon spread to local farms and very soon a thriving onion industry had developed.
Roscoff was ideally suited for onion production with its light sandy soils, the warming effect of the Gulf Stream and an abundant supply of nutrient rich seaweed, which is essential to give the Rose de Roscoff their unique colour and taste.
However, the success of onion production in this region of Brittany was not just due to the soil conditions or the climate - there was a need for the onion in Roscoff.

Roscoff was a fishing port, Breton mariners and fishermen alike travelled the world’s seas in search of trade and fish. The onion was an ideal commodity in two important ways. Firstly it could be traded easily as the onion could be kept for long periods of time and so was ideal for slow wind powered transportation. Perhaps more importantly the onion was also good for the seamen’s health, as onions provide a rich source of vitamin C and was used to fend off scurvy, the scourge of early seafarers.

Before the onion, Roscoff was renowned for its linen canvas as well as salt, which it exported primarily to England via Plymouth, but in the 18th Century economic conditions changed, maritime exportation declined and the salt and linen markets crashed. The Roscovites were forced to find another way of making a living.

The British were great consumers of onions. From the coalfields of the Rhondda, to the Scottish highlands and the docks of London the British onions played a great part in British cooking. Their farmers however, produced surprisingly very few onions to feed this desire.

It was Henri Olivier who in an attempt to resolve the problem of falling local onion sales made the first successful trip to Plymouth in 1828. Hundreds were to follow Olivier over the next 178 years and became known as the Onion Johnny’s.
The Onion Johnny’s were Roscovites who transported their onions to Plymouth, usually in July, and then distributed them from door to door usually using a bicycle as their means of transport. Vast quantities of onions were transported to England, stored in barns and then delivered door to door by the Breton farmers. The farmers then returned to Brittany in December or January.
The trade in onions was not the only trade the Johnny’s carried out. Once they had sold their onions they returned to France taking with them considerable quantities of British clay peg tiles, which were not available in Brittany. The Bretons used slate as their principle roofing material. Even today when one sales up and down the north coast of Brittany remnants of this return trade can be seen by the red tiled roofs dotted along the coast.

The golden age was during the 1920s; in 1929 nearly 1,400 Johnnies imported over 9,000 tonnes of onions to the UK. The Great Depression, followed by the devaluation of the Pound in the early 1930s, ended the era as trade suddenly fell, reaching a low in 1934, when fewer than 400 people imported under 3,000 tonnes.
In the aftermath of World War II, onions, in common with other goods, were subject to import restrictions, and were obliged to trade through a single company. By 1973 the number of Johnny’s had dropped to 160 people and 1,100 tonnes, and had fallen again to around 20 Johnny’s by the end of the 20th century.
Although having declined in number since the 1950s to the point where only a few remain, the Johnnies were once very common, and with the renewed interest since the late 1990s by the farmers and the public in small-scale agriculture, numbers have recently made a recovery.
The last London based Onion Johnny, Jean Le Roux, died a short while ago.

The Rose de Roscoff, the official name of the onion, has been awarded protection under the French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée.

Rennes situated at the eastern most end of Brittany embraced by ancient rhythms of the world, is the regions current capital.

This ancient town, built at the confluence of two rivers, the Ille and the Villaine - was built by the Britons of Armorica in 57BC. These people, who also gave their name to the département of the Cotes d’Armor, joined forces in a lose coalition against the Roman occupation of the time. The rivers also lend their names to the département in which Rennes is situated - Ille et Villaine, one of the four counties of Brittany.

In 58BC several Roman emissaries were held captive in Rennes, which forced Giaus Julius Caesar to intervene and suppress the peoples of the region. Britons of Armorica had refused the customary tribute to the Roman Empire, and had subdued the neighbouring dioceses of Vannes and Nantes, thus forming a powerful, though vassal, state. Rennes had also received help from across the channel and this further persuaded Caesar to cross the channel and put down the uprising in Great Britain.

Rennes once again came under attack in 275AD when the Barbarians threatened to overrun the city. As a consequence a large brick wall, made from the local red clay, was constructed to enclose the town and Rennes became known as the Red Town.

In the Middle Ages, starting in the 5th Century, the Bretons had taken charge of the western end of the Armoricain peninsula calling it Little Briton which then became known as Brittany and eventually Bretagne – while the Franks populated the rest of the region. In 1851, when the Bretons were strong enough, they declared full independence from the rest of France.

In 1356 during the war of succession, the English under the command of the Duke of Lancaster laid siege to Rennes. The siege, which was finally broken by Bertrand du Guesclin, was in support of Charles de Monfort’s claim for the title of the Duchy of Brittany.

In 1491, it was the French army of Charles VIII, that once again attacked Rennes and although successful through out the rest of Brittany, Rennes alone resisted and refused to be brought to her knees. Threatened with total destruction the ruler of Brittany, Duchess Anne sued for peace. She married the King of France and thus ended the history of Breton independence.

Rennes has not always been the capital of Brittany or the four départements of Morbihan, Finisterre, Cotes d’Armor and Ille et Villaine. The traditional and some say more inclusive definition of Brittany also includes a fifth département, that of Loire-Atlantique.

Field Marshal Henri Pétain annexed the département of Loire-Atlantique, from the rest of Brittany in 1941. Pétain was the head of the puppet administration running France throughout the German occupation, of a good part of the country, during the Second World War.

The separation of the fifth county was for two reasons.
Firstly: it was done as punishment to the Bretons who actively supported the Free French National Council of Charles de Gaulle in exile in London.
And secondly: as an attempt to crush Breton Nationalism, which had long been demanding a Breton free state.
Thus ended the thousand-year rule of the city of Nantes, as the capital of the independent Duchy of Brittany… that honour moved to Rennes.

When the Duchy of Brittany become part of France via the dowry of Queen Anne’s daughter, in 1514. The right to have a separate parliament was negotiated and preserved for future generations.
The parliament in Brittany, founded in 1551 held sessions in Rennes until 1561 thus enhancing the towns importance. However, the parliament was not to remain in Rennes. Following the uprisings in 1675 caused by protests over high taxation imposed by Louis XIV, the parliament was moved to Vannes and there it stayed for fourteen years.
The parliament returned to Rennes, becoming the administrative centre of Brittany for the next two hundred years… until the great fire.

On 23rd December 1720, the centre of Rennes was ravaged by fire, which raged for six days and terrible nights. The fire devastated a good portion of the city, destroying nearly one thousand buildings in total and only stopped when it reached the firebreak made by the canal.
Present day Rennes is laid out using the same plans used for the re-construction after the great fire.
Although many of the timber framed building are built in the style of the Middle Ages, only a few, such as those in the Champs Jacquet remain. The others date from after 1720 and the reconstruction.

The French Revolution, (1789–1799) did not leave Brittany and in particular Rennes untouched. Although it did not see the same horrors as were experienced in Nantes, where thousands were put to death, a royalist uprising supported by the British was destroyed by General Hoche near Rennes.

The Second World War

During the Second World War, Rennes escaped the high intensity bombing and the Blitzkrieg experienced by others, leaving the city intact to act as the Germans operational centre for the occupation of Brittany. Although not destroyed Rennes did not go unscathed as the records of Bomber Command show,

On the night of the seventh May 1944
55 Lancaster’s of No 1 Group bombed the airfield and an ammunition dump at Rennes. The force was not able to locate and mark the target adequately and most of the bombs fell on a nearby village. No aircraft lost.

Eleventh and twelfth May 1944
105 Lancaster’s and 5 Mosquito’s of No’s 3 and 8 Groups attacked the railway yards at Louvain near Rennes but the main weight of the bombing hit the railway workshops and nearby storage buildings. 4 Lancasters lost.

Twenty seventh/twenty eighth May 1944
78 Lancasters and 5 Mosquito’s of No 8 Group attacked the airfield at Rennes in good visibility. The marking was good and the bombing was very accurate. Much damage to the airfield installations was caused and there was a large explosion, probably in the bomb dump.

As with many Breton towns such as Brest, the damage caused during the war was primarily but unavoidably caused by the allies in their build up to the Invasion of Europe on June 6th 1945. Bridges, major roads and railway lines and stations were all targeted as well as centres of communication and administration such as Rennes.
The American Third Army finally liberated Rennes in August 1944.

Rennes today


In March 2002 at the cost of €500 million, Rennes became the smallest town in the world to have its own designated Metro service…well the second smallest.
The Rennes Metro running northwest to southeast is 9.4 km long and has fifteen stations along its route. There is only one line with two tracks one in each direction, and is based on Siemens Transportation Systems of light automatic vehicle.
Running from J.F. Kennedy in the north to La Poterie in the south, via the city's SNCF station, thirteen of the stations are underground and have been constructed with very little damage to the aesthetic appearance of the older sections of the town.
The station, ‘La Poterie,’ as well as all the overland sections and their supports were designed by the British architect Norman Foster.
Services run every day of the week with trains every 3 and 7 minutes. The journey from one end of the system to the other takes 16 minutes, the trains averaging 32 Km/h.
The smallest metro in the world is hosted in the small Austrian mountain village of Serfausin Austria.



Le Parliament de Bretagne

On the night of the 4th February 1994 a tragedy befell the city of Rennes, Brittany and the Breton people. The regional parliament, the home of the Breton independent dream was destroyed by fire.
During a demonstration in the square outside the parliament, a marine flare was ignited. The flare became lodges in the roof space and set light to the ancient timbers. An ill wind fanned the flames and the fire soon spread to the whole building engulfing it in flame. Many firemen were injured tackling the blaze. Today the parliament has been fully restored.

Every Saturday morning, until 13h30, there is a large food market in the centre of Rennes where a vast array of fruit, vegetables, fish and other French delicacies can be bought. Rennes has a large shopping centre at Place de Colombier with the Metro stopping nearby. Being a University town there are numerous bars, cafes and restaurants particularly north of the river where the town has a patchwork of eighteenth century squares, large administrational buildings interspersed with quaint, intimate and alluring alleys of half timbered houses.

Rennes is a pleasant city, worth visiting for a stroll to admire the fascinating melange of different architectural designs ancient and new. Although it does not have a particularly strong or cohesive personality, Rennes is a great place for lunch in one of the many colourful squares numerous street cafes and restaurants. Followed by a stroll and some retail therapy a perfect springtime appointment, once the long monochrome of winter has passed.




left click on screen then press play

The Aquarium at Trégastel

Fifteen minutes north of Lannion, situated on the picturesque Pink Granite Coast one finds the hidden treasure of the Trégastel Marine Aquarium, if you look closely.

Situated in a side street between the sea and a car park the aquarium is not only hidden away it is also hidden from view. The main displays have been created within the confines of natural caves, some thirty or forty feet above street level.

Access is by way of the newly re-furbished visitor centre and hence to the three main displays. There are some steps to negotiate to reach the exhibits however; there is a lift for wheelchairs operated by a member of staff, but you will have to ask if you need assistance to reach the upper levels.



(To play the video, click on the screen and then press play)



The themes for the displays are: the shore, tidal margins and the deep sea, which are set out in that order. The numerous specimens are kept in beautifully arranged tanks which when combined with the cavernous location and the subtle lighting give the impression of actually being there, under the waves.

Trégastel Marine Aquarium is not huge and if you have been to Océanopolis at Brest or the National Marine Aquarium at Plymouth, then you may be disappointed by Trégastel. However, it is because Trégastel is so much smaller, more intimate that I found it so charming.

Many of the displays are open so children both small and grown-up can touch some of the exhibits and really feel close to the natural world, albeit contained.

I would recommend Trégastel Marine Aquarium to anyone as does my twenty-month-old daughter…we had a great time.



(I would recommend that children should not climb the stairs on to the top of the rocks. There are no barriers at the top and the drop is considerable.)




Adults €7
Children 4-16 years €5
2 Adults + 2 Children €20.00
Extra child €3

To get there
by road :
Follow signs to Trégastel-Plages and then the portPort
Parking is free and only 60 yards from the aquarium.
distances :
Lannion / Trégastel 10 km [ 15 minutes ]
Perros-Guirec / Trégastel 5 km [ 10 minutes ]
Pleumeur-Bodou / Trégastel 5 km [ 10 minutes ]
Trébeurden / Trégastel 10 km [ 15 minutes ]
Saint Brieuc / Trégastel 80 km [ 1h00 ]
Rennes / Trégastel 180 km [ 2h00 ]
Morlaix / Trégastel 60 km [ 50 minutes ]
Brest / Trégastel 150 km [ 1h30 ]
By train
TGV station at Lannion only 12 km away

By bus
Line 15
for further information about the bus, click here