Brittany (la Bretagne in French) is one of my favourite regions of France. Situated in north western France, it was once a kingdom, then a duchy, and finally united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province.
Easily the largest French peninsula, it occupies about 34,030 sq kms and is bordered by the English Channel to the north, the Celtic Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Bay of Biscay to the south.
The Breton coast is rough and consists of many bays and cliffs, all of which add to its savage charm. Brittany has over 2,860 km of coastline and represents a third of the total French coastline.
Brittany is home to Asterix the Gaul and many megalithic monuments which dot the Breton countryside. In fact the words “menhir” and “dolmen” come from the Breton language. Brittany is closely associated with the story of King Arthur. Legend has it that there in the Paimpont forest, a dolmen is said to be Merlin’s tomb while Tristan and Iseult are also said to have lived in Brittany.
It was Jean Michels, a gendarme (French policeman) who worked at the French Embassy in Colombo, and his wife Annie, who introduced me to this beautiful region. I have since then visited Brittany on several occasions, more specifically the little bourg called St. Alban, a three hour TGV train ride from central Paris, where Maryvonne Lefebvre the matriarch of the family lives on her farm, “Les Bois Normands”, with her three daughters Annie, Marie Paul and Michelle in close proximity.
Such close links with Brittany inspired me to do a programme on this verdant region of France, the lives of whose people are centrally linked to the oceans around it.
How on earth was I to find a location around Colombo which even marginally resembles the savage Breton countryside? To my rescue came former IGP Ana Seneviratne and his wife Krish. They owned a house on the banks of the Bolgoda Lake and said we could have it. Yes it did resemble areas of Brittany and so Sulani Indraguptha and I set to work on this programme.
We sourced several video clips which featured different facets of Brittany and arranged them in a cohesive sequence. I remembered that on a previous occasion we had filmed Annie Michels making a Far Breton when she was living at Queens Road in Colombo. That too was included to cover the gastronomy part of the programme.
A Far Breton is a traditional cake cum dessert from Brittany. Its base is similar in composition to a clafoutis filled with dried fruits, even though the original Farz Fourn (“oven baked far” in Breton) recipe was a savoury flan served with traditional French meat dishes.
Far Breton as served in Brittany is often cooked to a much more “burned” appearance than online recipes indicate; the top of the custard appears nearly blackened rather than golden-brown. This rich Bretagne specialty rapidly became a traditional dessert for family meals and religious celebrations.
The authentic Far Breton dates back to the 18th Century. The savoury version of this fine pudding – made with buckwheat flour – was then highly appreciated to complement main meat dishes in Brittany. While this original recipe has been mainly adopted in this West region of France, the sweet Far Breton has known a great national success since the middle of the 19th Century.
Sulani and I presented this programme using different sections of the Seneviratne’s lake-fronted garden. I also noticed that some of the villagers had come to watch from a distance. It didn’t bother us since they were quiet.
The closing sequence had me in a boat (the Seneviratne’s) and rowing out into the lake. I said: “And so friends that brings us to the end of this week’s edition of Bonsoir from Brittany in France. I’ll meet you in Colombo next Monday night. Au-revoir,” and gallantly rowed into the lake in Brittany (the Bolgoda Lake in reality). Immediately came hoots of laughter from the onlookers. They were bent in two and laughing.
What I didn’t realise was that since I cannot swim to save my soul, a long coir rope had been attached to the back of the boat. It was slowly released as I rowed into the lake. Although the camera avoided this part, the onlookers saw our trick and hence their spontaneous reaction.
PS: I remember being “pulled” back to land in reverse mode much to my total embarrassment. In fact I avoid even thinking of such situations.