About BrittanySpring is warmer in Brittany than in the Paris area, and everything blooms three weeks earlier. The swallow, the oriole, the cuckoo, the quail and the nightingale, these five birds that herald spring, arrive with the breezes that are native to the bays of the Armorican peninsula.The forest clearings are adorned with tall, elegant ferns; broom bushes adorn themselves with flowers that could be mistaken for golden butterflies. The hedges, under which a dense profusion of strawberries, raspberries and violets sprout, are adorned with hawthorn, honeysuckle and blackberries, whose brown, curved shoots bear leaves and magnificent fruit. Everything is teeming with bees and birds, whose swarms and nests make children stop at every step. As in Greece, myrtle and oleander grow in the open fields; the figs ripen like in Provence; with its reddish blossoms, every apple tree resembles a large peasant bridal bouquet. Even today, the country has retained its original features. With tree-lined ditches, it looks like a forest from a distance and is reminiscent of England; this was the home of the fairies. Narrow valleys are irrigated by small, non-navigable rivers. These valleys are separated from one another by heathland and thick holly bushes. On the coasts, lighthouses and watchmen's houses line up one after the other, dolmens, Roman buildings, medieval castle ruins and Renaissance church towers: all of this is surrounded by the sea. François René Chateaubriand