It rained virtually non-stop and continued to do so for a week!

Despite daily attempts by the regional newspaper Ouest France to convince its regular readers - and those tourists hoping to brush up on their French - that hot sunshine was just around the corner, a huge depression, of those familiar ‘just-off-the-Irish-coast’ dimensions,  put the ‘soft days’ of the Emerald Isle to shame.

However, when the hot days with clear azure skies did return, there remained daily reminders of how fascinated Bretons are by Irish culture, and how proud they are to belong to the ‘Celtic Family’ in which they see the Irish as their most influential siblings.

As you approach the pretty little town of Sarzeau in the Presqu’île de Rhuys peninsula on the southern edge of the Golfe de Morbihan, you pass a sign indicating that it is ‘twinned’ with Clifden, Connemara.

Stroll into a bar in the town square and Irish music is being played.  In the local bookshop, browse through a French-Breton dictionary and you will recognise words which are either identical to the Irish are similar enough to be understood.  Apart from such archaeological terms as cromlech and dolmen, you’ll find for example, inis (island), du (black), meur (big), skol (school).  But you won’t come across a word similar to Gaelige; the Breton for the Irish language is inwerzhonek! There are probably more words closely related to Cornish and Welsh, but it is not those connections which loom large in Breton consciousness.

Wandering around the old town of Vannes, about twenty miles inland, you could almost be forgiven for the somewhat heretical thought that at some stage in its history Ireland had been a colonial power.  The bunting fluttering in many streets contains more small Irish flags than Breton, and the French tricolour appears here and there almost apologetically.  The little shops crammed with Breton knick-knacks are awash with tin whistles, bodhrans, Irish CDs and song-books, Guinness bar-towels, glasses and T-shirts.  In the Irish bars there are pictures of Ireland on the walls and once again the Irish music flooding from the speakers.  Mention that you are Irish and it’s all smiles and handshakes.