3-034-575 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Street in Morlaix, Brittany, 1871. 'The little sea-port of Morlaix, in the department of Finisterre, will...give a very excellent idea of Breton architecture, as well as of the habits and appearance of the simple peasantry...Morlaix possesses the lasting charm of position, which, happily, cannot be modernised or reduced to the utilitarian pattern. Situated in a valley, its two sides support themselves upon the rocky hills that form their background, or slope upwards, with terraced gardens, to the heights that look down upon the town. The houses, as the Engraving shows, are built with projecting stories, surmounted by the gables peculiar to this style of domestic architecture, which is common throughout Brittany. So far do the topmost stories project in the narrow streets that they almost approach one another and darken the footways below, where the townsfolk, not yet acquainted with the modes de Paris, add to the fantastic appearance of the houses by the characteristic quaintness of the Breton costume'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.