Locronan

Locronan wove hemp sailcloth for the French and other navies from the fifteenth century, and the trade paid for the granite merchant houses that fill its square, built in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries around a large church with a separate chapel attached. When the crown ended the monopoly and the trade collapsed in the eighteenth century, the village lost its money and stopped building, which is why nothing later intrudes: no overhead cables, no modern shopfronts, a square of dark granite that has served as a film set repeatedly. Every six years the village holds the Grande Troménie, a twelve-kilometre procession following an old route around the hill.

History

Locronan, a small town at the foot of a hill, was granted town status in 1505 by Anne of Brittany, who came here on pilgrimage. Hemp grew naturally in the area from the 15th century and was processed in the town into cloth exported far and wide for the rigging of commercial and naval ships from the ports of Brittany, and the prosperity it brought paid for the church of Saint Ronan and the small chapel of Penity built in this period (Wikipedia, Locronan).

What's there

• The granite square - sixteenth and seventeenth-century merchant houses.
• The church and chapel - the linked buildings on the square.
• The Troménie route - the processional path around the hill above.
• The absence of wires - no overhead cables or modern frontage.

When to go

April to October; the Petite Troménie runs annually in July and the Grande Troménie every six years. The village is very crowded in summer. Winter is quiet and atmospheric.

Things to know

The village is tiny and packed with day visitors in season, with most ground floors given to craft shops. Parking is outside and charged. It is seen in an hour.

Nearby

Quimper lies southeast; the Crozon peninsula is northwest.

Key facts