Visiting the Medieval Theme Park at Puy du Fou (Vendee, France) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Medieval Theme Park at Puy du Fou (Vendee, France) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget


My daughter Florence and I visited a French theme park with no rides called the “Parcours de Puy du Fou” in the Vendée region south of Nantes.

The Parcours de Puy du Fou was a recreated medieval town built using materials which would have been employed at the time.  There was no sewage in the streets, so it was not completely authentic, but the concept was a good one.

Florence touched the horns of an ox and pet a horse.  She liked the wooden shoe carver and ran her hand over the whittled wood surface without running into any splinters.  A blacksmith made horseshoes in a blistering hot shop.

From the village street, we walked to the medieval fort.  There was a defensive fence around the moat.  Florence touched everything she could and ran excitedly around the streets.  Florence liked history, and I believed childhood should be one big field trip.

After lunch, we went to the Old Castle and saw a show with trained eagles, vultures, hawks, and falcons.  They had been trained as hunting birds as they would have been in the Middle Ages.

I like the birds the best of everything here,” Florence said as she tried to catch a hawk that flew overhead.

When the show was over, a falcon flew up to us in the stands and perched.  I felt like a queen standing next to it.

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Walking amidst Celtic Menhirs and Dolmens in St. Just (Brittany, France) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Walking amidst Celtic Menhirs and Dolmens in St. Just (Brittany, France) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget


After participating in the Marian Procession at Rochefort-en-Terre, my daughter Florence and I went to see Celtic menhirs (standing stones) and dolmens (horizontal stones often tombs) outside St. Just, France. 

We climbed along the rocky side of a river trying to find the Celtic site before giving up.  We drove into town to the tourist office just as it was closing.

We received directions to the Celtic site.  The tourism agent insisted on staying open another half and hour, so the Americans in the group could read all about the their site in the well-documented exhibit they had up about the discovery and preservation of the site.

We took photos of Florence running through the stones, connecting with her French heritage.  The French venerate the past, because they have sites like this unwritten link to their heritage.  These Celtic sites also link this part of France to Celtic regions in Great Britain and Northwestern Spain.

Carnac is the most famous Celtic site in France, but there are many others such as this one at St. Just.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Attending the Marian Procession at Rochefort-en-Terre (Brittany, France) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Attending the Marian Procession at Rochefort-en-Terre (Brittany, France) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget


The next town on our Deep Brittany itinerary was Rochefort-en-Terre.  This town had carefully preserved its sixteenth and seventeenth century buildings – no television antennas, dishes, or electrical wires mar the town.

The American painter Klots lived here and created the “Villes Fleuries” (Most Flower-filled Town) competition in 1911.  I wished a French painter would come to the United States and start a similar competition.  I was surprised that American master gardeners had not come up with a similar idea.

The Church Nôtre-Dame-de-la-Tonchaye in Rochefort had an interesting story that is similar to many others throughout Europe.  The story relates that a peasant girl found a statue of the Virgin in a tree.  The statue was hidden from the Normans during their invasions of Brittany during the ninth and tenth centuries.

The statue that is found in the church today is the same one that was found by the peasant girl so many centuries ago.  I did not see the statue of the Virgin and thought nothing of it as we went out to the main street for a rest.

We were ambling along the rue Principale when we heard singing.  Earlier we had heard singing from a park and had assumed that there was an open-air mass.  We did not realize that the singing was part of the procession for the famous Virgin from the church.

A crown surged down the street singing hymns in Latin led by the bishop, who was dressed in purple.  People planned vacations around processions like these, and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time.  I like good luck.

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Visiting St. Gildas des Bois and Redon (Brittany) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting St. Gildas des Bois and Redon (Brittany, France) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget


My daughter Florence and I began our tour of deep Brittany, or le Bretagne Profond, in St. Gildas des Bois, France.

This town reminded me of Virginia with its beautiful gardens and pretty churches.  We arrived just in time for mass in the town’s gray, granite church that was cool inside despite the warm weather outside.  It is hard to carve a stone like granite, leaving church façades rather austere.

I thought this church would be desolate looking in winter, especially since it rains so much in Brittany.  Next to the church stands a convent that was built in the eleventh century.  We saw a couple of nuns leaving in their old and tiny, but immaculately clean cars.

This way-off-the-beaten-track church and convent made me think of how the church still organizes much of the life in this part of France.

After visiting St. Gildas des Bois, my daughter Florence and I visited Redon, which my Michelin Guide du Routard called a Breton Venice, because its many bridges span the Nantes-Brest Canal.  Several vacationers in canal boats floated by as we admired the scene.

The most striking feature about Redon when you arrive is its floral decoration.  Huge pots of flowers decorate every street, making Redon a contender for the coveted “Most Flower-filled Town of France” award.  The city hall had red geraniums cascading down its three stories.  Flowers framed the entrance to the building.  Even the suspended tracks for France’s high speed TGV trains were decorated with flowers.

Deep Brittany is a flower-filled path to follow!

P.S. I just learned from Michelet's History of France that Heloise and Abelard had a rendezvous in Saint Gildas according to the Bretons.

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Visiting the Dobree Museum in Nantes (France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting the Dobree Museum in Nantes (France) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget


One of the most interesting museums in Nantes, France is the Dobrée Museum.  The Museum houses the collection of Thomas Dobrée, who earned his fortune in the slave and sugar trade in the nineteenth century.

There were many merchants in Nantes who had shares in “ebony wood” as the slaves were described.  The merchants, who earned their profits from the slave trade and New World products, were called “armateurs”.  The luxurious apartments and homes of the armateurs make Nantes look elegant to this day.

Dobrée was particularly rich and had his own house and not an apartment.  His family was very international.  On his maternal side, his ancestors came from Guernsey and Germany.

My favorite piece in his collection was a thirteenth century reliquary chest from the Limousin that almost looks cloisonné, but it was really wood, stamped leather, gold, and colored glass.

Most of the work in the collection was from the Middle Ages.  A Flemish holy family triptych from the sixteenth century also caught my eye.  Flemish figures have such gentle gestures in paintings.  I never realized that carved that carved ivories of religious scenes were painted until I saw a sixteenth century diptych at the Dobrée Museum, featuring the Madonna on one side and a crucified Christ on the other.

The Museum’s real treasure is Anne de Bretagne’s gold, heart-shaped reliquary from 1514, topped with a crown signifying that she was Queen of France.

I was happy to be fluent in French in this lovely Museum, because French was the only language on the exhibit labels.  This reminded me of American museums, which only give information in English.  Both countries assume that you will read their languages when seeking out their art treasures.

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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