Conférence “Bretons de Paris et d’Ile de France entre rejet, paradis perdu et (re)découverte des racines”

The Bretons of Paris and elsewhere form a diaspora. The term may come as a surprise. There are more Bretons than Savoyards, Basques, Alsatians, Auvergnats or Aveyronnais, but not as many as Irish, Poles or Portuguese. They mainly left from the middle of the 19th century, with the arrival of the train, until the 1960s. Their departure was forced by economic difficulties and poverty. In Paris, they were often ashamed of their origins and their poor command of French. Many gathered where there was work: Montparnasse, Saint-Denis, Versailles... At first, the Bretons rejected Brittany, even though most remained attached to their roots and wanted to return "to the country" one day. This is the (sometimes disappointed) dream of many Bretons in Paris. But today, the days of the despised and humiliated Breton, the "plouc" or "Bécassine", seem long gone. What's striking is the vibrancy of Breton culture in the Ile-de-France region. Its modernity too. The story of these migrants from the interior, their tragedies and their successes, is a universal story.