Last modified: 2005-03-05 by ivan sache
Keywords: finistere | fouesnant | foen | eagle: double-headed (black) | glenan | sardine |
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![[Flag of Fouesnant]](../images/f/fr-29-fo.gif)
by Arnaud Leroy
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Fouesnant is a city of c. 8,000 inhabitants, located on the southern coast of Brittany, on the mouth of a small river, thus explaining the origin of the name of the city (Foën, lit., "brook in the valley" in Breton).
Fouesnant is famous for its cider, which received the officially protected name (AOC) of cidre de Cornouaille. The city is also known for its traditional headdresses and costumes, which are still worn during the festivals such as the Fête des Pommiers (Apple Tree Festival) and St. Ann, St. Guénolé and Kerbader's pardons (religious festivals specific to Brittany). Fouesnant has a church built in XIIth century and modified in XVIIIth century. The municipal war memorial was designed by the Breton artist René Quivillic (1879-1969), who sculpted a woman wearing the local headdress.
Fouesnant is the most important sea resort of Finistère, since the municipal territory includes scenic places such as Beg-Meil, Cap Croz, Mousterlin and the Glénan Isles.
Ivan Sache, 4 April 2002
The flag of Fouesnant, as reported by Divy Kervella, is a banner of the traditional arms of the city, dated 1426, and blazoned as:
Sable, a double-headed eagle argent, langued, beaked and clawed gules.
Source: P. Rault. Les drapeaux bretons de 1188 à nos jours [rau98]
Ivan Sache, 20 March 2002
The Glénan archipelago is made of a dozen of islands
surrounding a kind of lagoon locally called la Chambre (The
Room). The area is protected and hosts an ornithological reserve. An
endemic (found only there) narcissus species flowers on the islands
for three weeks in mid-April. This flower was described in 1803 by a
Breton druggist. Fournier gives several names for the flower: N.
reflexus, N. calathinus, N. triander and N.
Loiseleuri, whereas Bonnier calls it only N.
calathinus.
The islands of Bananec and Grenec host the Centre nautique de
Glénan, the biggest yachting school in Europe. Island St.
Nicolas hosts an international scubadiving center. Penfret island
hosts a lighthouse, and Cigogne island hosts ruins of a XVIIIth
century fort and a laboratory of marine biology. In the past,
causting soda was produced from wrack on the archipelago.
The Glénan archipelago is located south of Concarneau, which