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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



BRETON PEASANTS Photo from Mrs Fail ' child 



career. It has sustained sieges, bom- 

 bardments, pillage at the hands of the 

 British, and was occupied more than 

 once by these hereditary enemies of the 

 Bretons. In 1377 it was held by a 

 British garrison, all of whom were put 

 to death by the great Duguesclin. 



In modern times the town has out- 

 grown the wall and moat that surrounded 

 it and has spread along half a mile of 

 water front, and it has become one of the 

 most attractive places in Brittany for the 

 tourist and artist. No art gallery is now 

 complete without "A Roadside Well in 

 Concarneau," or "A Street Scene in Con- 

 carneau," or a "Return of the Sardine 

 Fishermen" ; and some of our local art- 



ists have brought back some charming 

 sketches. It is, I believe, a fact that no 

 other fishing town in the world has, 

 through the faces and figures of its peo- 

 ple, been so extensively represented on 

 canvas. 



Perhaps the influx of Americans is 

 due in part at least to the fact that an 

 American woman wrote a novel with 

 Concarneau for its setting. Patriotic 

 feelings impel Americans to read the 

 book, and to accept with credence all 

 that the local guides are able to tell about 

 the characters therein, not the least inter- 

 esting of whom was the fair authoress 

 herself, who appears to have been the 

 autoheroine of the story. 



