"Voyage au pays de Galles"

Name of traveller

Anatole Le Braz (1859-1926)

Reason for travel

• visit to the Cardiff Eisteddfod 1899 as part of the Breton delegation

Date of travel

1899

Au fond, tous ces gens sont très anglais et ils ont raison, et ils ne sont nullement utopistes. (Le Braz 316)

Content

• customs:
  • description of Eisteddfod and Gorsedd and surprised that spectators are not bored by the ceremonies
  • compares initiation of new bards with Le Malade imaginaire and cannot take the peagantry serious
  • comparison of Llandaf and its cemetary with Breton villages
  • displeased by Welsh attention to social differences such as titles
• industry:
  • visit to Penarth motivated by his interest in industrial production
  • notes polution through industrial production
• people:
  • folklorist from Brittany travelling with Alain de Botmelas (1858-1946), Jean Le Fustec (1855-1910) and Charles Le Goffic (1853-1932); further delegates in the group are Le Gonidec de Traissan, Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray (1840-1910), René Grivart, François Jaffrennou (1879-1956) and Frañsez Vallée (1860-1949)
  • receives warm welcome from a Breton sacristan in Llandaf who does not want to appear English
• recreation: promenade and costal stretch at Penarth fails to compare favourably with Britanny
• terrain: sea, coast and area around Llandaf compared frequently compared to Quimper are
• transport: travels via bus and train
• compare these private, more candit notes with the officially published account

Nationality of traveller

Breton, French

Language of publication

French

Gender of traveller

Male

Type of publication

diary; travelogue

Citation

Le Braz, Anatole. Voyage en Irlande, en Angleterre et au pays de Galles. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 1999. 307-20. Print.