Brittany's four departments (Ille-et-Vilaine, the Côtes d'Armor, Finistère Morbihan) with 2.8 million inhabitants, make it the seventh biggest region in France in terms of population, although many people have now left.

Locronan (Brittany)

Brittany is open to the sea (the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean) on many sides, and its jagged coastlines have created magnificent, often wild landscapes of rocks, moors, pastures, forests, beaches and harbours. It is also a land which has been inhabited from very early times, a land shrouded in legend and dotted with menhirs (standing stones) and dolmens (burial chambers), chapels and stone crosses.

Saint-Malo (Brittany)

But it is also a region with a thriving economy based on farming (for which it is the premier region in France), the food industry and small and medium-sized businessess, many of them hi-tech firms.