French divisions

IN THE run-up to the independence referendum, it is worth noting that France is today marking Bastille Day. This is a day for celebrating the values France always wanted to share with the rest of the world – and France did just that this year by offering the British people the most amazing start ever for the Tour de France and placing beautiful Yorkshire on the 
global map.

But tomorrow, the French National Assembly is to take the country on another kind of journey by creating a new regional map of France. This would result in the removal of Brittany, one of Europe’s oldest regions, from the world map for ever.

This new concept is called 
“fusion”. It consists of merging Brittany with the Pays-de-la-Loire region in order to annihilate any trace of Breton identity. 

Some 10,000 Bretons marched on 19 April in protest against the move, and another 15,000 
people marched peacefully on 28 June, under heavy rain in Nantes. They will march again on 27 September, probably in much larger numbers, in a final attempt to make their voice heard by the hugely unpopular Hollande government. 

Dominig Kervegant

Talgae

Tregarth, Gwynned