Duault

Home to the Central Brittany Journal, Duault is typical of many of the communes of Central Brittany, it has a population of just 300 people: which is considerably less than it would have had fifty or a hundred years ago when the commune would have been comprised  of hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of smallholdings each of which would have been only a few acres in extent. 

Duault is to the south-east of Callac, it is a rural commune mainly occupying very fertile farmland overlooking the valley of the Hyère but stretching to the forest of Duault and higher moorland in the east. 

The wash-house on the edge of the village has been recently restored and now provides a sheltered resting spot for passers-by.

 
Duault from over the hills. The forest of Duault rises up behind.

Nowadays the principle source of employment is intensive animal production - there are still a few dairy farms (which themselves are becoming increasingly intensive) but in recent years more and more of the commune has been given over to the production of pigs and poultry.

The current agricultural techniques are in sharp contrast to the methods traditionally practised.

The local countryside has been shaped by generations of smallholders who built hamlets from local stone, and divided the countryside into tiny fields each of which was surrounded by a bank topped with coppiced hazels, mature oaks, chestnuts, ash trees, and elms.

 
This is the reason why newcomers moving to the commune receive such a warm welcome. Over the past ten to fifteen years many people have moved from the UK and from other European countries to Duault. They have saved many of the old houses from collapse and brought life back to the countryside at a time when people feared that it would become deserted.

The village itself is composed of granite houses roofed in slate, mined in the neighbouring commune of Locarn.

 

Duault has managed to retain its bar/grocery store which provides a welcome break for walkers and cyclists passing through the village.

 

 In the heart of Central Brittany, Duault is exceptionally verdant. The enormous amount of rain that the region receives during the winter and spring keeps the water levels in the soil high for most of the year. This provides ideal growing conditions for all sorts of trees: Duault would naturally be covered in Oak trees and it seems, naturally, to be striving to get back to this condition all the time.

 All the pictures below were taken in the countryside around Duault:

In the Commune of Duault there are many beautiful old paths still remaining - when they are not too overgrown, they make perfect places to walk.

The swallowtail butterfly is the largest in Brittany, it is said to have a particular liking for purple and pink flowers.

December 2005

A Fly Agaric toadstool. In Autumn, it is one of many in the forests around Duault.

A young oak tree on the road to Duault.

Sunset over Carnoët, a village across the valley.

A blue damsel fly rests on a fern frond.

A traditional climbing rose.

A sunrise in December 2005

A sunset in December 2005.