Car Hire in Quimper, France
QUIMPER, capital of the ancient diocese, kingdom and later duchy of Cornouaille, is the oldest Breton city. According to legend, the first bishop of Quimper, St Corentin, came with the first Bretons across the Channel some time between the 4th and 7th centuries to the place they called Little Britain. He lived by eating a regenerating and immortal fish all his life, and was prepared bishop by one King Gradlon, whose life he later saved when the sea-bed city of Ys was destroyed. According to one version, Gradlon built Ys in the Baie de Douarnenez, protected from the water by gates and locks to which only he and his daughter had keys. But St. Corentin suspected her of evil doings, and was proven right: the princess's keys unlocked the gates, the city flooded and Gradlon escaped only by obeying Corentin and throwing his daughter into the sea. Back on dry land and in need of a new capital, Gradlon founded Quimper.
Today's Quimper is quite peaceful, active enough to achieve the bars - along with the atmosphere - making it worth hanging out café-crawling. Still "the charming little place" known to Flaubert, it takes at most half an hour to cross it on foot. The term "kemper" refers to the junction of the two rivers, the Steir and also the Odet, around that are the cobbled streets (now mainly pedestrianized) of the medieval quarter, dominated by the cathedral towering nearby. As the Odet curves from east to the southwest, it is crossed by numerous low, flat bridges, bedecked with geraniums, and chrysanthemums in the autumn. You can stroll over the boulevards on both banks of the river, where several ultramodern edifices blend in a surprisingly harmonious way along with their ancient - and captivating - surroundings. Overlooking all are the wooded slopes of Mont Frugy. There isn't any great pressure in Quimper to rush around monuments or museums, and the most interesting option could be to take a boat and drift down "the prettiest river in France" to the open sea at Bénodet.
The enormous Cathédrale St-Corentin, the point of interest of Quimper, has been said to be probably the most detailed Gothic cathedral in Brittany, though its neo-Gothic spires date from 1856. When the nave was being added to the old chancel in the 15th century, the extension would either have hit existing buildings or the swampy edge of the then-unchannelled river. The masons eventually found a solution and placed the nave at a slight angle - a peculiarity which, once noticed, considers it challenging to focus on the other Gothic splendours within. The exterior, however, gives no hint of the deviation, with King Gradlon now mounted in perfect symmetry between the spires.
On the other side of rue de Frout from the cathedral, the Musée des Beaux-Arts , 4 place St-Corentin (July & Aug daily 10am-7pm; Sept & April-May daily except Tues 10am-noon & 2-6pm; Oct-March Mon & Wed-Sat 10am-noon & 2-6pm, Sun 2-6pm;), houses remarkable collections of sketches by Cocteau, Gustave Doré and Max Jacob (who was born in Quimper), paintings of the Pont-Aven school and Breton scenes with the likes of Eugène Boudin. Just the Old Dutch oils upstairs let the collection down.
The heart of old Quimper lies west of St-Corentin, in front of the cathedral. This is where you will discover the liveliest shops and cafés, housed at the old half-timbered buildings, which includes the Breton Keltia-Musique record shop in place au Beurre and the Celtic shop, Ar Bed Keltiek, at 2 rue Grallon. The old market hall which was burnt down in 1976, but the light and spacious new Halles St-Francis in rue Astor, developed to replace it, is quite an excitement, not just for the food but also for the view beyond the upturned boat rafters through the roof to the cathedral's twin spires.
South of the covered market, on the opposite bank of the Odet at 14 rue Jean-Baptiste-Bosquet, is the exceptional
Musée de la Faïence Jules Verlinque (mid-April to Oct Mon-Sat 10am-6pm;). The museum tells the history of Quimper's long connection to faïence - tin-glazed earthenware - which has been created in and around the town since 1690, and shows that little has changed in the Breton pottery business since some unknown artisan hit about the concept of painting ceramic ware with naive "folk" designs and styles.
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