Roscoff Local Custom Tips by johngayton

Les Viviers de Roscoff

From the Table d'Orientation, looking northeast, you'll notice a set of industrial-looking water tanks and a row of warehouses. This is the premises of Les Viviers de Roscoff.

"Les Viviers" is a co-operative seafood merchant, owned and run by the workforce, who distribute the local fisherfolk's catches to markets in France, Spain and the UK.

Plankton-rich seawater flows through these purification tanks, which have a capacity of up to 50 tonnes of shellfish, which allows the animals to feed and rids them of any sand that they have ingested whilst on the seabed. Then they are ready for the eating!!

Website: http://www.viviersroscoff.com/english/index.htm

The Breton Language

From ancient times until the Middle Ages the west of Brittany was a Celtic-dominated region with its own language. Breton Celtic is very similar to the other Celtic laguages such as Irish and Scots Gaelic, Welsh and Cornish but has almost nothing in common with French.

Pre World War I it's estimated that 90% of the western Bretagne population spoke Breton as their first language. Today this figure is probably less than 20% and most of those are over 60 years old.

In the latter half of the 20th century the language seemed doomed to extinction but recently there has been a revival in interest in ensuring that it is not lost.

Schools and adult classes now offer courses and public buildings and services have begun to adopt bi-lingual signage and to produce written materials in both Breton and French.

The pic here is the dual signage at the Roscoff Tourist Office.

For an interesting article on the subject use the link below.

Website: http://www.breizh.net/icdbl/saozg/endangered.htm

When You Need To Check The Time

Provided the sun's out the sundial on the town centre church of Notre-Dame de Croaz Batz tells the time pretty accurately. However it doesn't take into account the seasonal changing of the clocks and so in winter it tells the time according to UK hours!

See pic #2