Brittany

Brittany is part of which country and physical region?
What is distinctive about this cultural landscape?

Answers:
* Brittany is part of France and the Western Uplands
* bocage landscape: hedges delineate fields and roads, and scattered farmsteads

The rural landscapes of Western Europe, including of course France, are highly subsidized, called CAP, by the European Union (EU). About $47 billion, or 40 percent of the total EU budget, goes to agriculture each year (2005). France gets the largest amount (see "A French Feast" graph), but like the USA, the few largest farmers get most of these subsidies, not the smaller-scaled farms -- see "The big winners" graph. Market gardeners only get 10 percent of their income from subsidies, and wine growers get 8 percent. Over 25 percent of all payments go to 5 percent of farmers. In fact, the biggest 30 farmers -- among them, Prince Albert of Monaco -- get an average of over €390,000 each year. That is 217 times the average received by the 180,000 or so smallest farms.

Brittany is only one of many distinctive regions in France, based on language -- see the map.

Brittany shares with many parts of Europe the geography of discontent [Source: The Economist, 20 Sept. 1997, p. 53] -- regional devolution within nation-states, some of these movements have violent aspects but most are peaceful. Ironically, as the countries of Europe are forming stronger ties, such as a common currency (the Euro), people within these countries are increasing demanding more autonomy!

Optional:
1) Brittany is closely related to the British Isles. It is part of the Celtic culture realm; Ireland being the most famous in the English-speaking world. Take an optional tour of Ireland, particularly its famine landscape.
2) Read why thieves are stealing stones from cobbled streets and natural stone paving in England.
3) Read about multilingual France, where as late as the 1850s 20 percent of the population could still not speak French!

Created by Ingolf Vogeler on 1 February 1996; last revised on 05 February 2008.

Brittany is part of which country and physical region? What is distinctive about this cultural landscape?
Answers: * Brittany is part of France and the Western Uplands * bocage landscape: hedges delineate fields and roads, and scattered farmsteads
The rural landscapes of Western Europe, including of course France, are highly subsidized, called CAP, by the European Union (EU). About $47 billion, or 40 percent of the total EU budget, goes to agriculture each year (2005). France gets the largest amount (see "A French Feast" graph), but like the USA, the few largest farmers get most of these subsidies, not the smaller-scaled farms -- see "The big winners" graph. Market gardeners only get 10 percent of their income from subsidies, and wine growers get 8 percent. Over 25 percent of all payments go to 5 percent of farmers. In fact, the biggest 30 farmers -- among them, Prince Albert of Monaco -- get an average of over €390,000 each year. That is 217 times the average received by the 180,000 or so smallest farms.