FranceFrance (fʁɑ̃s), officially the French Republic (République française ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz), is a country located primarily in Western Europe. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean.
FinistèreFinistère (ˌfɪnɪˈstɛər, finistɛʁ; Penn-ar-Bed ˌpɛnarˈbeːt) is a department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090. The present department consists of the historical region of Léon and parts of Cornouaille and Trégor, both parts of pre-revolutionary Brittany. The name Finistère derives from the Latin Finis Terræ, meaning end of the earth. In England, a similar area is called Land's End.
Gallo languageGallo is a regional language of eastern Brittany. It is one of the langues d'oïl, a Romance sub-family that includes French. Today it is spoken only by a minority of the population, as the standard form of French now predominates in this area. Gallo was originally spoken in the Marches of Neustria, an area now corresponding to the border lands between Brittany, Normandy, and Maine. Gallo was a shared spoken language among many of those who took part in the Norman conquest of England, most of whom originated in Upper (i.
BretonsThe Bretons (ˈbrɛtɒnz,-ənz,-ɒ̃z; Bretoned or Vretoned, breˈtɔ̃nɛt) are a Celtic ethnic group native to Brittany, north-western France. They trace their heritage to groups of Brittonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain, particularly Cornwall and Devon, mostly during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. They migrated in waves from the 3rd to 9th century (most heavily from 450 to 600) into Armorica, which was subsequently named Brittany after them.
NantesNantes (nɒ̃t, USalsonɑːnt(s), nɑ̃t; Gallo: Naunnt or Nantt nɑ̃(ː)t; Naoned ˈnãunət) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 320,732 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabitants (2020). With Saint-Nazaire, a seaport on the Loire estuary, Nantes forms one of the main north-western French metropolitan agglomerations. It is the administrative seat of the Loire-Atlantique department and the Pays de la Loire region, one of 18 regions of France.
MorbihanMorbihan (ˈmɔːrbiən , mɔʁbi(j)ɑ̃; Mor-Bihan moːrˈbiː(h)ãn) is a department in the administrative region of Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Morbihan (small sea in Breton), the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastline. It had a population of 759,684 in 2019. It is noted for its Carnac stones, which predate and are more extensive than the Stonehenge monument in Wiltshire, England.
Bay of BiscayThe Bay of Biscay (ˈbɪskeɪ,_ˈbɪski ), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay (Golfo de Vizcaya; Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (Golfe de Gascogne; Golf de Gasconha; Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Point Penmarc'h to the Spanish border, and along the northern coast of Spain, extending westward to Cape Ortegal.
BrittanyBrittany (ˈbrɪtəni; Bretagne bʁətaɲ; Breizh, bʁɛjs or bʁɛx; Gallo: Bertaèyn bəʁtaɛɲ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period of Roman occupation. It became an independent kingdom and then a duchy before being united with the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province governed as a separate nation under the crown. Brittany has also been referred to as Little Britain (as opposed to Great Britain, with which it shares an etymology).
Breton languageBreton (ˈbɹɛtən , bʁətɔ̃; brezhoneg bʁeˈzɔ̃ːnɛk or brəhɔ̃ˈnek in Morbihan) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language group spoken in Brittany, part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely in use on the European mainland, albeit as a member of the insular branch instead of the continental grouping. Breton was brought from Great Britain to Armorica (the ancient name for the coastal region that includes the Brittany peninsula) by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages, making it an Insular Celtic language.
Celts (modern)The modern Celts (kɛlts , see pronunciation of Celt) are a related group of ethnicities who share similar Celtic languages, cultures and artistic histories, and who live in or descend from one of the regions on the western extremities of Europe populated by the Celts. A modern Celtic identity emerged in Western Europe following the identification of the native peoples of the Atlantic fringe as Celts by Edward Lhuyd in the 18th century. Lhuyd and others equated the Celts described by Greco-Roman writers with the pre-Roman peoples of France, Great Britain, and Ireland.
