Plancoët's grand tour

In need of information, of advice on a hike or a restaurant? The Office de tourisme’s team is at your service all year round for a personalised welcome. The building façade doesn’t lack panache; it is, however, a fake. The stones come from old houses from around and were put on a modest house of the village-centre. It obtained in 2005 the regional price for the most flowered office de tourisme.

Just to catch your breath! At the Brandefert Hillock you are entering a sensitive natural zone, qualified by scientists as an “exceptional ordinary biodiversity spot” where over 795 species of animals can be found. It’s the drainage basin of Plancoët Natural Spring Water and one of the reasons of its purity. Right at the beginning of the descent, on top of the field, you’ll have a beautiful panoramic view (as illustrated by the picture at the start of the itinerary), the Arguenon River facing you, and on either side: westerly: Plancoët, easterly: Nazareth, which became one single village in 1841.

The path that leads to this quarry reach the centre of the hillock through the moor and groves. After having used a steep path, remnants of the quarry's exploitation path, nowadays the kingdom of enormous ferns, we suddenly come accross some water at the bottom of a phtanite (jasp) cathedral. This siliceous rock emerges at the top of the hillock, at about 80m. It is one of the rare place of Brittany where it can be observed at the surface thanks to the surrounding gneiss' erosion. Very hard, it was exploited up to the 60's to road-bed the paths. The lake therefore formed by the meteoritic water, and as such according to seasons, becomes nowadays a favourable sport for observing Odonates, from the collared grass-snake to the aquatic insects. 14 species of odonates are identified there, 38% of the species commonly admited in Côtes d'Armor.

At the foot of the hillock, you can discover Natural Mineral Water of Plancoët Company’s water production plant. This thousand of virtues water contributed to Plancoët’s renown. The only mineral water of Brittany since 1928, the spring became a high technology company. The first stone building is the original production plant, built in the 20’s at the times of pharmacy’s stamps and the first tourists. It now houses a museum, punctually opened during occasional visits. The adjoining white building came to get the better of it after the growth of demand, parallel to the growth of supermarkets. Finally, the production plant of today testifies to the importance of the company with a production of over 50 million bottles a year. More info on: www.eau-plancoet.com . For supervised visits: http://www/valdarguenon.fr/balades.php4

The company makes light wooden packages, mostly for vegetables conditioning. It is an integrated unity; which means it takes care of the whole fabrication process: from buying the resources (poplar wood) to the finished produce and its commercialisation. The company is located in the Côtes d’Armor département, This rural presence is explained by the closeness of the garden markets produces, most notably cauliflowers. More details on: www.emballages-samson.fr/

This church is authentic, just as this popular village during the 19th century, full of artisans and shops. The fountain in front of you, called Ruella funtain, is the place where masons, looking for water for a building site, found, in 1621, a roofed cross statue from the 16th century, (visible in the church). Venerated for some times, it was thrown back in the water by a simple minded man. Since then odd occurrences came about. Three brave brothers looked for and found the statue, however it was broken in 3 pieces. Miracles followed and a small chapel would be built in 1644. Dominican friars from Dinan’s Saint Jacques Convent were designated to take care of the cult and built a church and a convent from 1647 to 1679 with stones from Montafilan castle, Corseul. They were expulsed by the Revolution. The church was disused and put back to the worship in 1818 and largely changed (front wall from 1892) A pardon still takes place there. Besides, an illustrious man would take part in said pardon in 1768. Right after his birth, the young François-René de Chateaubriand, would be taken to Plancoët, where his maternal family is from, to be placed under the Virgin of Notre Dame de Nazareth’s vow and wet nursed there. An itinerary on Chateaubriand is available on this website.

Two hillocks cut by the Rue de l’Abbaye; the hillock of la Janière is the smallest, the panorama it offers on the town is no less interesting.

Plancoët used to have two train stations! One for the tramway that went to le Guildo (brick-made building after the boule fields) and one on the train tracks from Lison to Brest, today developing.

Plancoët is also a port at the back of a ria. In the middle of the 19th century, the light boats were numerous to dock there and load or unload grains, apples, wood, « marne » ou « tangue » of the sea (mud to spread on the fields, used as a fertiliser on the crops) The arrival of the train in 1879 meant its decline.

You could say, while being in Plancoët that you are on the sea side, indeed, this dam marks the border between the river side and the maritime side of the Arguenon.

This humid zone, on the edge of the city centre was turned into a park It also allows one to reach the top of the town and avoid the streets.

Built on the « Champ des fougères » (Ferns’ field) between 1885 and 1892 in order to replace the old church on Place de la Mairie, Saint-Sauveur Church is built in an architectural style mixing neo-Romanesque and neo-gothic. It testifies of the economic success of the town, a subtle assembly of technical prowess (monolithic pillars) and rare materials (tufa, Chausey blue granite...).

This easily flooded zone of the river’s major bed was covered at almost each tide. At the start of last century it was the leisure place of a society that had so few. Indeed, wash houses and cloth driers could be found, the women of Plancoët were seen active from the rays of sunshine, never forgetting to keep a keen eye on their children who were very happy to find a place to play on this great grassy field. As for their husbands, they too, were happy (depending on their luck of the day), the place was used as a horse racing field and for bets. It’s only after a better management of the river, during the 1980’s, that the Pré Rolland became this nice park. The view is also remarkable. Chateaubriand named it his amphitheatre. On the hillside traces of old fortifications can be seen. During the middle Ages, Plancoët housed a castle (destroyed in 1379) and walls to defend the Arguenon River, that was then a much desired border.

The club is opened all year round. You can rent kayaks and canoes on the river part of the Arguenon, or try out a nature escapade, on the ria through a descent of the maritime Arguenon or at sea around the Ebihens archipelago. For more information, call the: 02 96 84 16 12

Plancoët was the safest ford down on the ria. It is also there that the strength of the river could be used. As early as 1223, writings mention mills, like those you can see on each side of the bridge, turned into houses today.

The Place de la Liberté has bourgeois houses of the 17th and 18th centuries. It was the old “cour du Morier” (Morier’s courtyard) where Liberty trees were planted during the Revolution. A short while before, the Grand Passage (Great Passage) was the place of a forge and an important farm machinery workshop.

Today it is the shopping street, as well as the flowers’street during summer. The rue du Pont is renovated under Napoléon III as well as the « Pont Neuf » (New Bridge) in order to facilitate circulation. The road is raised by 3 metres, thus the oddities seen on the façades.