St Aignan Village

The charming church has a notable Tree of Jesse, a large low-relief carving in wood which displays the ancestry of Christ among moral themes.  The church surroundings are used for a variety of festivals throughout the year.

History of a much more recent era is chronicled in the Electrical Museum almost opposite the church, which covers the history of the Hydroelectric plant at the nearby dam, with dynamos from the original installation in 1932, weird and wonderful switchgear and historical household appliances and there is an annual 'Electro-jumble' !

Hidden in the forest above St Aignan is the Chapel of Sainte Tréphine. This is 19th century but built on the site of the Gaulish Castel Finans, where legend tells that the bluebeard Conomor killed his wife. Sainte Tréphine revived her and killed him!   It has its own Pardon, but as all attendees save the very old and infirm have to walk up, we have not made this one yet (you should see the contour lines on the 2½" to the mile map or 1:25000 as it's known).

To the west of the Lac de Guerledan on the River Blavet which fills it, is the Abbaye de Bon Repos.  This site, built  in 1184, rebuilt and ruined successively over the centuries, hosts a grand Son et Lumière around the second weekend in August, when hundreds of local performers, actors, horses and dogs re-enact  the factual and legendary history of the locality from Roman invasion to Revolution.  A daytime visit is also recommended as the setting is superb, with weirs and salmon stairs, former water mill, mediaeval stone bridge over the river, restaurant and fossil shop in the Abbey's dependencies, and a good bar opposite with draught screens made of vast sheets of local 'schist' or slate.  Deep turquoise damselflies and trout flit over and under the water respectively and there is also an eco marché on Sunday mornings - this is a market of Organic produce, not one of the host of small Supermarkets stocked by Intermarché!

Five hundred feet up the hill from Bon Repos lies a set of passage graves at Lisquis; great slabs set on edge with others on top to make a burial passage 20-30 ft long and originally covered with earth to form a tumulus.  There are jagged outcrops nearby which may have been the source of the stone, and at 1000 ft above sea level, the effort required for the construction must have been enormous.

Also to the west of the Lac de Guerledan, is the early metallurgic site of Les Forges des Salles with guided tours possible throughout the summer.  Artisans cottages and foundries on one side of the valley face the Ironmaster's Chateau opposite, with a terraced garden reminiscent of the Orangery at Sans Souci, Potsdam.  This is a typical pre-Industrial Revolution site, using charcoal rather than coal to produce iron as well as smaller quantities of rarer metals - there is a small amount of gold to be found in some local streams!

Closer to home, a Circuit des Belles Pierres includes the house of my neighbour to the rear, Le Ferme du Corboulo - houses great or unusually small which show the wonderful vernacular style of stone construction, leavened by occasional injections of cash from the old Lords of the Manor or Monastery.                   top