In Chateaubriand's footsteps in Plancoët (grand tour)

This church is one of the reasons for the young Chateaubriand's coming to Plancoët. His parents, having lost a newborn before him, decided, after a difficult birth; which followed him all his life, to take him to Nazareth. "I came to this world on [4th October] in the year [1768]. (...) [The] house is situated in a small street of Saint-Malo, called Rue des Juifs. The bedroom where my mother gave birth dominates the deserted walls of the city, and look on a sea spreading as far as the eye sees, breaking amidst the reefs; I had as godfather my poor brother and as godmother Madame the Countesse of Plouër, daughter of the Marshal of Condates: I was named François, after the day I was born, and René because of my father. I was almost dead when I exited the motherly breast, and the roaring of the waves beaten by an equinox tempest stopped my cries from being heard." (extract from Memories of my Life) "I was placed to a nanny in this lovely village of Plancoët. (...) The only brother of the mother, the Count of Bedée, had by this village a much agreeable castle he had named Mon Choix. The goods of my maternal grand-mother were nearby. My grand mother herself lived retired with her sister, Mademoiselle de Boistilleul in a hamlet that was only separated from the village of Plancoët by a bridge and which we called l'Abbaye since a Benedictine abbey was consacrated in this place to Our-Lady of Nazareth. (extract from Memories of my Life)

You are still on the church square. The fountain in front of you, called Ruellan fountain, is the place where masons, looking for water for a building site, found, in 1621, a roofed cross statue. It depicts the Virgin Mary and the Child on one side and a crucified Christ on the other (it is visible in the church). Venerated for some time by the locals, it was thrown back in the water by a simple minded man and therefore lost again. Since then odd occurrences came about. In 1644, three brave brothers of the Faguet family, looked and found the statue, however it was broken in 3 pieces. Miracles followed. Dominican friars were designated to take care of worship and built, in 1647, a convent and a chapel. They were expulsed during the Revolution. Easterly, on your right, is the old convent. The deconsecrated church was brought back to worship in 1818 and largely changed (façade in 1892).

Once inside, you find a richly decorated choir as it was fashionable in the 18th century. The altar on the right is consecrated to the Virgin Mary, you will see there the 14th or 15th century cross (extracted from the fountain). The pilgrimages take place on August 15th for the Assumption and on Septembre 8th for the Nativity of the Virgin. Chateaubriand quotes this sailors' canticle he heard in a shipwreck on the way back from America. " I place my trust Virgin, into your help; Be my defence, Take care of my days. And when my last hour comes to end my fate, Allow me to die From the saintest of death." (extract from Memories of my Life) Barely born, the young Chateaubriand is brought here. "The first nanny I was given ended up being sterile. It wasn't noticed at first. I felt dying. My odd destiny persisted keeping me alive; a poor woman, friend to my nanny and newly delivered, took me to her breast with her newborn. Believing I was to die, she vowed me to the patron of the hamlet or Our Lady of Nazareth, and promised if I pulled through, that I would wear blue and white until I turned seven in honour of the Holy Virgin. My mother agreed to her vow. I was saved." (Extract from Memories of my Life) Seven years later, he was brought back to Plancoët to be lifted from this initial vow. An ex-voto recalls this event. "The 4th of October of the year [1775] ... I went from my grand-mother with my mother, my aunt de Boistilleul, my uncle de Bedée and his children, my nanny and my foster-brother to be lifted from my nanny's vow to Our Lady of Nazareth. I had a brand new white outfit, with a blue silk scarf, shoes, white gloves and hat. It was the first time in my life I was properly dressed. The church was next to the path and was surrounded by great elm trees. The village of Plancoët and those of the area came running to this ceremony."

Going down the steps you arrive in a valley away from the main road. In Chateaubriand's time, these houses were the only ones in the hamlet. Nazareth district was an artisans' district. The façades gave out on the street; the shop was held at the ground floor (the old shop windows can be made out on the façades) and the people lived on the first floor. At the back was a back-shop, a work-shop, sometimes an oven, a garden for the food missing and at the bottom of the valley, water, the essential element to every and any activity. "My grand-mother lived in the only street of the hamlet de l'Abbaye, a pretty small house of which the gardens went down in terraces to a valley and at the end of which a small fountain, surrounded by willow trees, could be found. (extract from Memories of my Life)

In Rue de l'Abbaye, you go by, at n°43, Chateaubriand's grand-mother's house. You will be able to get a better view once you crossed protected rue de Velléda. "If ever I saw happiness on earth, it no doubt was in this house. (...) Madame de Bedée didn't walk anymore but apart from that she had none of the inconveniences of her age. She was an agreeable old woman, plump, white, clean, tall by looks, of beautiful and noble ways, wearing antique pleated dresses and a black laced headdress tied below the chin. She had an ornated mind, grave conversation, serious temper. She was being taken care of by her sister Mademoiselle de Boistilleul, whom looked like her only through her goodness. (...) My grand-mother counted on her sister for the care of the house: she dined at eleven o'clock in the morning, slept for two hours after her diner; at one she woke up, she was caried to her garden where she took the fresh air surrounded by her sister, her children and grand-children. At four she entered her salon, a gaming table was placed; Mademoiselle de Boistilleul knocked with tongues on the chimney plate, and a few moments afterwards we saw entering three other old maidens who exited the neighbouring house at my aunt's call. These three sisters of whom the youngest was fifty-eight years old, were called demoiselles Ville-de-Neuf. Daughters of a poor gentleman, instead of sharing his small inheritance, they enjoyed it together, never left one another, and never left their father's village; bound since their childhood, they lived next to each other, and came everyday at the agreed signal through the chimney, play a game of quadrille with their old friend. The game started, these old ladies quarelled. It was the only event of their life and the only moment when the equality of their temper was altered; at eight supper brought back serenity.' (extracts from Memories of my Life)

In his peregrinations in the nature, Chateaubriand may have come to quench his thirst to the water from this spring. It's only at the beginning of the 20th century that Doctor Chambrin's finding, then mayor of the village, on his patients lead to this water being categorised as natural mineral water (1928). A first water plant is created (granite house in front of you) helped by the birth of tourism and need of heatlth (already!). After the war, a second plant (white building) comes out of the ground to follow the growth of demand, linked to the birth of supermarkets and plastic bottles. The growth continues with the current plant. Plancoët's mineral water (still and sparkling water since 2010) and Ste-Alix spring water follow their watery path well anchored in their area. Caution: after this point the itinerary becomes harder. You can also read the rest of the document and go directly to the 11th point without being lost.

In order to breathe a little, we offer you this stop to enjoy, as a medieval cartographer did, the view given by the hillock. The old hamlet of Plancoët is easily spotted on your left, the hamlet of Nazareth on your right. Separating the two villages : the road, the railway tracks, the Arguenon River. Imagine two centuries ago the arrival of the young Chateaubriand by carriage, feeble newborn and weaken, to find the "good air of Plancoët". Following your path you enter into a natural sensitive zone, qualified by scientists as an "exceptional island of ordinary biodiversity", and is the house to over 795 animal species.

From this point, we can see, West of Plancoët, Monchoix manor, home of happiness which belonged to Antoine de Bedée, called Bedée the Artichoke. "My uncle's castle, the count of Bedée, was situated a league away from Plancoët, in an elevated and pleasant position. Everything breathed joice there; my uncle hilarity was endless. He had tree daughters, Caroline, Marie and Flore, and a son, the count of la Boistardais, adviser to the Parliament, who shared his heart fulfilment. Mon-Choix was always full of the gentlemen of the area. We played music, danced, hunted; we knew jubilation from dawn to dusk. My aunt Madame de Bedée who was seeing my uncle cheerfully eating away his funds and his income, got justly crossed, but wasn't heard out. On the contrarary, her bad temper increased the good spirits of her family, particularly as my aunt herself was prone to many peculiarities; she always had a quarrelsome hunting dog laying in her fold and a private boar which filled the castle with his grunts. When I arrived from the dark and silent paternal house to this home of party and noise, I felt like being in true paradise. This contrast became more apparent, when my family was based in the countryside. To go from Combourg to Mon-Choix, was going from the desert to the world, from the keep of an old Gaulish baron to the villa of a Roman prince." (extract from Memories of my Life) Going to step n°9 is going a long way on a rocky path. You can go directly to step n°10 without getting lost story-wise.

This manor is private and is not opened to visits. This is the native home to Chateaubriand's mother: Apolline de Bedée. François-René de Chateaubruand's parents actually married in Bourseul's church in 1753 and lived in this house for three years. The main house dates back to the end of the 16th, beginning of the 17th century. The chapel was built in the 17th century in place of the first one which was from the 14th century. They had as a servant, an Angolan nammed "La France" baptised and buried in Bourseul under the name of Eugène. "The good La France, my father's valet shared with la Villeneuve part of my affection." (extract from Memories of my Life)

You are arriving, after taking a path, by a stream in front of a rock. Imagine the young Chateaubriand coming here two centuries earlier to take a nap and let himself dream. Facing him, the marshes werein water which the warm summer days turned into mist, favourable to dreams. That's here that he had the vision of druidess Velléda, Romantic figure of the "martyrs". "Soldiers warned me that for a few days a woman exited the wood at the beginning of night, went up alone in a bark and crossed the lake, got down on the opposite bank and disappeared. Hidden amongst the rocks, I waited for a few moments without seeing anything appear. (...) I discover a skiff hanging on the top of a wave, a woman lead it; she was singing whilst fighting the storm, she looked like she was playing amongst the winds; one would have said they were under her powers, so much was she appearing to challenge them. (...) Soon she reaches the shore, soars to terra firma, goes deep into the woods. She passed by me without seeing me. She was tall of height, a black tunique, short with no leaves, barely served as a veil on her nakedness. She was carrying a golden sickle hung to a bronze belt and was crowned of a oak tree branch. The whiteness of her arms and of her skin, her blue eyes, her pink lips, her long blond hair floating freely, told of the daughter of the Gaulish, and contrasted by their softness to her proud and wilde gate. She sang with a melodious voice terrible words and her bare breast fell and rose as the waters' foam." (Extract from Martyrs)

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