Pont-Aven River Walk

Pont-Aven is a small town in southern Finistère, at the point where the river Aven stops being a rushing stream and becomes a tidal estuary on its way to the Atlantic. It is one of the Petites Cités de Caractère of Brittany, and it owes its fame to the painters who gathered here in the late nineteenth century. In the fifteenth century the town was said to have fourteen houses and fifteen mills, because the river fell quickly over granite boulders and drove the wheels of many flour mills, a line that the local saying still repeats. Some of the old mill buildings remain along the water and make the riverside walk picturesque.

The walk follows the banks of the Aven through the town, and it is easy to do at a leisurely pace in an hour or two. From the centre, near the bridge that gave the town its name, you can take a path along the river toward the port, where boats rest on the mud at low tide and float at high tide, and then continue along the stream upstream into the Bois d'Amour, the Wood of Love. This shady wood above the river, with granite boulders and tall trees, is where the painters worked, and it is the setting of Paul Sérusier's small painting The Talisman, made in 1888 under the guidance of Paul Gauguin, a key work in the history of modern art.

Gauguin arrived in Pont-Aven in 1886 and returned several times, staying at the Pension Gloanec, where many artists lodged. He gathered a group of painters, including Émile Bernard, Sérusier and others, who developed a style with flat areas of strong colour and bold outlines, now known as the Pont-Aven School or Synthetism. Gauguin's Yellow Christ was inspired by a wooden crucifix in the chapel of Trémalo, a short walk from the town on the hill above. The Breton landscape and the costume of the local women were favourite subjects for the artists.

Today the museum, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pont-Aven, tells the story of the school with paintings, drawings and documents from the period, and it holds works by artists active in Brittany from about 1850 to 1950. Galleries in the town sell contemporary art, and shops sell the famous Pont-Aven butter biscuits, which are made locally. The Maison des Sculpteurs, the Croix du Cimetière and the Le Pouldu beach are other places to see in the area.

The walk is free and open at any time, and it is pleasant in all seasons, though it can be muddy after rain. Good shoes are advisable. Spring and autumn are the best times, with fewer visitors and soft light on the water. It suits art lovers, walkers and photographers, and it makes a gentle half-day.