Cancale

Cancale ( Cauncall in Gallo, Breton Kankaven in ) is a common French, located in the department of Ille-et-Vilaine and the area Brittany. It is famous for its Huître S punts.

Its inhabitants is called the Cancalais and the Cancalaises .

Geography

Cancale is located on the coasts of the Ille-et-Vilaine, with fifteen kilometers in the east of Saint-Malo.

In the vicinity, the point of Grouin]]

In the past KONKAVEN, bret. KONK = the bay, and SWALLOW-HOLE = river. This name evolved/moved in CANCAVEN which one finds for the first time on the cartulaires of Brittany of the Middle Ages. The passage between the point of the Face mask and the island of the Moors, in the north of Cancale, names " passage of the Rivière" Old woman;. Would have been visited (inhabited?) by the Romans. The place was already famous for its oysters, whose Romans, during their stay in the area, were already fond of delicacies. This small village, undoubtedly rested by Saint Méen towards 545, obtained the statute of city in 1545.

It is a commune with the very anchored religious beliefs, as can still testify the ex-votos to them to the vault of the Orchard. A ritual of processions, going back to 1540, will be maintained almost until our days.

The local legend wants that Cancalais are downward surviving sailors of a vessel of Large Armada failed in this place. This legend, tough, rests on nothing, neither on the language cancalais, which is a variety of language gallèse, neither on toponymy, nor on onomastics, even less on the historical data. In the same way, if Cancale indisputably draws its name from the Breton one, following the example Conquet (KONK-LEON) and about Concarneau (KONK-KERNE, the bay of Cormouaille), the Breton language was not spoken any more there beyond the year thousand. To claim that Louis XIV and Richelieu would have made off-set Cancalais Breton-speaking (!) in the New-World to leave the place to Spaniards established in the Netherlands raises of highest imagination. To off-set nationals to make it possible the enemy to settle in what would have constituted a singular enclave, this assertion is completely unfounded, not to say grotesque.

Invasions

Many invasions, or attempts at invasions, on behalf of the English). A famous ball drawn by a boat anglais* flowering ash the small garden from the presbytery. Port considered for its sailors, engaged in fishing with Newfoundland on the cod-fishing boats of Saint-Malo and also of Cancale since existed building sites.

Cancale is the port from which in 1612 the ships left Daniel of the Key, Seigneur of Ravardière, for the Brésil: the Regent, the Charlotte and Holy Anne.
Daniel of the Key was the first founder of the town of São Luis in Maranhão in Brazil.

Delimiting by the West bay of the Mount-Saint-Michel, Cancale profits from a position advanced on the coast and owes the majority of its resources with the sea. But, less privileged than the ports close to the Coast of Emerald, its notoriety was harder to conquer.

Cancale and its neighborhoods underwent, like many communes of the coast, English attacks during the 18th century v

Fishing

Pretty fishing port, described by Roger Vercel in " the Caravan of Pâques" and painted of 1869 to 1908 per Jacques-Eugene Feyen with his types of fishermen and Cancalaises, this painter that Vincent van Gogh estimates like " one of some painters who depict the intimate modern life such as it is really and do not transform it into flatnesses with the mode". The port of the Swell, whose famous Bisquine was recently ressucitée, remains the place privileged for the tasting of the Huîtres.

Town of fishermen confronted since always with a hard economic reality, one can affirm that Cancale must much with the tenacity of the " Cancalaises" so often quoted for their courage. The Newfoundland fishing boats left indeed for half of the year at least, and left them the management of the sales of their fishing, until their return, even if shipwrecks were unfortunately often to regret.

The Caravan

Fishing in Newfoundland

19th century and 20th century

The borough comprised two sectors:

In bottom, the port of the Swell, insulated a long time, field of the fishermen, côtoyant the oyster beds, whose dam, protecting the houses from the tides, in 1836.
In top was built, the borough where the tradesmen and the ship-owners lived, until the great strike of the Newfoundland fishing boats in 1911, date on which they prefer Saint-Malo to him.

Tourism was far from being there as developed as with Dinard or Saint-Malo. Only one luxurious hotel, Of-Guesclin, could claim to receive the hosts of mark. Other establishments, as that was practiced at the time, folded back their customers by challenging them with the passage.

Cancale was touched by several dramas at this beginning of century. On the one hand, shipwrecks meaning the loss of tens of men endeuillant of many families, the work of several months being tiny room to nothing. In addition, of the difficulties directly related to the competition opened by certain traders of Charente-Maritime: a denigration campaign, showing the shell to carry the Typhoïde, which will harm the economy of the area seriously during several months.

Ice-barrier on the port of 1963

Because of the exceptional cold (- 16°C), in the night from January 19th to 20th 1963, the port of the Swell is found cold and taken by the ice-barrier which will last a whole week. The oyster beds were very touched, and, according to " Cancale, 100 years of life municipale" , 80% of flat oysters were destroyed at this period.

Nowadays

Cancale is from now on a pretty port combining all the pleasures of the coast: walks on the coastguard path, bathes, visit of malouinières and gastronomical restoration of shells in famous restaurants.

Demography

Administration

Economy

Activities

Agriculture (early products: cauliflowers in particular).
Breeding of the Oyster S or Ostreiculture.
Pêche whose port is managed by the Chamber of commerce and of industry of the Country of Saint-Malo.
Tourism, thanks to its presence in bay of the Mount Saint-Michel, its beaches, and its proximity with Saint-Malo.

Tourism

Ostreiculture

With the Shrimp S, the spider S, the trade of the Oyster S and their tasting remain the prerogative of Cancale. .

Tourist monuments and places

Landscapes of the coast (Rock of Cancale.

Twinnings

, partnership

See too

Internal bonds

Common of Ille-et-Vilaine

Notes, sources and references

Random links: