Breton Dancing

I've had some family staying with me for a few days and one of the best things about that is the increased trips out to see new and interesting things in Brittany. Last week there was a Breton dance festival in the lovely town of Guingamp and at the weekend there was a parade of some of the dance troups. We were so lucky with the weather because it has been very rainy and cool of late but it stayed dry for the whole time the parade was going through town.

There were dance troups from as far away as Portugal and Spain and everyone was happy and smiling. I sometimes get quite overwhelmed with sentiment when I see these groups of dancers, the hours of practice that has gone into the timing of the feet, the making of the lovely costumes - it is something that has happened in generation after generation and it just seems to affect me quite deeply.