Brittany (administrative region)

This article is about the French administrative region of Brittany. For the historical duchy and province of Brittany, as well as the cultural area of Brittany, see Brittany.

Template:Infobox French region Brittany (Template:Lang-fr) (; is one of the 26 regions of France. It occupies a large peninsula in the northwest of the country, lying between the English Channel to the north and the Bay of Biscay to the south. Its capital is Rennes.

Territory

Le Diben harbour - Plougasnou (Bretagne)

The region of Bretagne is made up of 80% of the former duchy and province of Brittany. The remaining 20% of Brittany is the Loire-Atlantique department which lies inside the Pays de la Loire region, with its capital Nantes, which was the historical capital of the duchy of Brittany.

Part of the reason that Brittany was split between two modern day regions was to avoid the rivalry between Rennes and Nantes. Although Nantes had been the main capital of the duchy of Brittany until the sixteenth century, Rennes had been the seat of the supreme court of justice of Brittany between 1560 and 1789. Rennes had also been the administrative capital of the Intendant of Brittany between 1689 and 1789. 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, which originally met every two years in a different city of Brittany, they had only met in Rennes from 1728 to 1789 (with only the exceptions of 1730, 1758, and 1760). Despite that, the "Chambre des comptes" stayed in Nantes until 1789. Note that Vannes (Gwened in Breton) used to be the first administrative capital of the duchy from 1381 till the end of the fifteenth century, keeping the seat of the "Chambre des comptes" till 1491/99, and the one of the "Parlement" till 1553, and between 1675 and 1689.

Thus, when French regions were created, it was decided in 1941 (when the majority of France was under Nazi German occupation, and the remainder under the puppet Vichy regime) to create a region of Brittany with Rennes as its capital, and another region created specifically for Nantes, which was called Pays de la Loire (i.e. "lands of the Loire"). Pays de la Loire is made up of a part of Brittany, but also several other historical provinces (Anjou, Maine, and so on).

People in Brittany and Nantes complain about the current division of Brittany and would like to see Loire-Atlantique joining the region of Brittany in order to reunify Brittany. However, reunification raises a couple of questions: first, what to do with the rump Pays de la Loire region, and second, which city should be chosen as the capital of this reunified Brittany region.

Language and culture

Bilingual road signs in Quimper (French on top)

Unlike the rest of France, Brittany has maintained a distinctly Celtic identity. Its name derives from the fact that much of its population is descended from settlers from Great Britain, who fled that island in the wake of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of England between the fifth and seventh centuries. Breton, a Celtic language related to Cornish and Welsh, was the dominant language of western Brittany (roughly, west of a boundary from St Brieuc to Vannes) until the mid-20th century. It has been granted regional language status and revival efforts are underway.

In eastern Brittany, the traditional language is Gallo, an Oïl language, which has also received regional recognition and is in the process of being revived.

The French administration now allows for some Breton or Gallo to be used by the region and its communes, in road signs and names of towns and cities, along with the official French version. The two languages are also taught in a few schools, and many folklore associations and clubs are trying to revive them.

Brittany has historically been a stronghold of the Roman Catholic Church, and its rates of church attendance have tended to be considerably higher than the national average. However, in recent years the influence of the church has declined.

Politics

Presidential runoff elections results

Year	National winner	Runner-up
2007	47.38% 921,256	52.62% 1,023,056
2002	88.56% 1,523,388	11.44% 196,712
1995	50.44% 858,100	49.56% 843,169
1988	55.10% 929,363	44.90% 757,417
1981	48.95% 796,769	51.05% 831,034
1974	56.54% 781,563	43.46% 600,678
1969	63.95% 692,280	36.05% 390,240
1965	63.15% 806,958	36.85% 470,839

The region is administered by the Regional Council.

Brittany was a traditionally conservative and Christian democratic region, with the notable exception of the department of Côtes-d'Armor, a longtime stronghold of the left. However, Brittany has been recently trending to the left, electing Jean-Yves Le Drian, its first Socialist regional president, in 2004, and voting for Socialist Ségolène Royal in the French presidential election, 2007. Centrist candidate François Bayrou also polled relatively high in the region and Fougères elected a MoDem deputy to the National Assembly (he has since joined the pro-UMP New Centre. The region was one of the few regions to vote yes to the European constitution in the 2005 referendum and Brittany continues, along with Alsace, to be a strongly pro-European region.

Brittany is one of the French Communist Party's weakest regions. Its only support for that party is concentrated in the southwest of the Côtes-d'Armor and northwest of Morbihan. The Greens and other environmentalist parties have traditionally been strong in the region, especially in urban areas, such as Rennes or Quimper.

The Socialist Party controls three general councils (Ille-et-Vilaine, Côtes-d'Armor, and Finistère), while the centrist MoDem controls that of Morbihan, in coalition with the right.

Transportation

House in Brittany at the Channel Coast (north of Morlaix)

There are several airports in Brittany serving destinations in France and Britain. TGV train services link the region with cities such as Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Lille in other regions of France. In addition there are ferry services that take passengers, vehicles and freight to Ireland, Britain and the Channel Islands.

Major communities

The following table is the list of towns in Brittany with a population over 15,000 inhabitants.

Town	Breton name	Population (2007)	Department
Rennes	Roazhon	207,922	Ille-et-Vilaine
Brest	Brest	142,722	Finistère
Quimper	Kemper	63,961	Finistère
Lorient	An Oriant	58,135	Morbihan
Vannes	Gwened	52,984	Morbihan
Saint-Malo	Sant-Maloù	48,563	Ille-et-Vilaine
Saint-Brieuc	Sant-Brieg	46,178	Côtes-d'Armor
Lanester	Lannarstêr	22,598	Morbihan
Fougères	Felger	20,678	Ille-et-Vilaine
Concarneau	Konk Kerne	20,280	Finistère
Lannion	Lannuon	19,773	Côtes-d'Armor
Ploemeur	Plañvour	18,509	Morbihan
Vitré	Gwitreg	16,691	Ille-et-Vilaine
Morlaix	Montroulez	15,605	Finistère
Douarnenez	Douar an enez	15,436	Finistère
Cesson-Sévigné		15,261	Ille-et-Vilaine
Bruz		15,031	Ille-et-Vilaine

External links

• Template:En icon Regional Council Official Website
• Template:En icon Official Touristic Website
• Template:En icon Bretagne.com : Leisure and tourism in Brittany
• Template:Fr icon lescommunes.com : List of the communes of Brittany
• Template:En icon Template:ODP
• Template:Fr icon Cultural Heritage