Paimpont forest

The forest is an area of ZNIEFF and Natura 2000. It is mostly privately owned by landowners who maintain and exploit it for timber and for hunting; only a small part in the northeast (10%) is state-owned and managed by the National Forest Office. This situation prevents free movement in the forest, even on the outskirts of the village and its lake. However, landowners have signed an agreement authorizing hiking, although some forest paths are closed during the hunting season.[9] Forest guards watch for behaviors that threaten the forest and its flora and fauna.

Merlin and Viviane enter Brocéliande in Gustave Doré's illustration for Idylls of the King (1868)

Excalibur statue at the shore of lake Trémelin in 2019

The Paimpont forest benefits from its association, since the 13th century, with the legendary forest of Brocéliande, which has become the site of many stories of Arthurian legend in the French romance tradition. The identification with Brocéliande became institutionalized with the creation of the communauté de communes de Brocéliande, which was itself regrouped within a supra-intercommunal structure named the Pays de Brocéliande.

The area has been a tourist destination site since the 19th century, especially after 1945.[10] Since 1951, followers of Neo-Druidism also meet there periodically, including in organized ceremonies.[11] The Paimpont sites are implemented through signs and pedestrian trails designed to introduce visitors to Arthurian locations, with explanatory panels linking each place to a legendary tale.

Abbey Notre-Dame de Paimpont in 2014

The Abbey Notre-Dame de Paimpont is a tourist and cultural location at the edge of Lake Paimpont. It is built in medieval Gothic style (walls, openings, baptistery and the Blessed Sacrament chapel, vault) with an interior (pulpit, statues, altars, altarpieces) in the Baroque style of the 17th century.

The abbey was built in the 13th century on the site of a priory founded in 645 by Judicaël, king of Domnonée. It was originally a Benedictine monastery but was inhabited by canons from the 13th century until the Revolution, when the abbey was nationalized and sold as biens nationaux in 1790.

Forges de Paimpont in 2008

This historical industrial site has been listed as a historic monument since 2001,[12] and was restored before it was opened to the public. Located in Ille-et-Vilaine, it is actually closer to Plélan-le-Grand than to Paimpont.

The Château de Comper is a former castle and mansion located in northern part of the forest, two kilometers east of the village of Concoret. From the 13th century, Comper has been one of the strongest positions of Upper Brittany. The castle has been the scene of much fighting—including being badly damaged by fire in out-of-control riots in the forest during the Revolution in 1790[13]—and has passed into the hands of several families. The mansion at the site now houses the exhibitions of the Centre de l'Imaginaire Arthurien (Center of the Arthurian Imagination). Adjoining it is a pond where, according to a local legend, the Lady of the Lake Viviane lived in her underwater crystal palace.[9]

Château de Trécesson in 2007

Located outside the village and the forest, immediately in its extension to the southwest, this castle was rebuilt in its current state in the 15th century. The most famous of the legends associated with it is the one of the Mariée de Trécesson (of "white lady" type), which, unusual for the region, has no Arthurian connections but instead seems to be inspired by a true story.[14]

The biological station of Paimpont, under the University of Rennes, was built in 1966–1967; its buildings accommodate about 70 people. The forest and its varied environments provide a framework for university biology courses as well as student and foreign researchers. Although the first researchers extensively studied moor ecology, soils, and hydrology, other works concern subjects far removed from the local biotope, such as the behavior of primates.[15]

The Hotié de Viviane, also called the Maison de Viviane (lit. 'House of Viviane') or the Tombeau des Druides (lit. 'Tomb of the Druids'), it is a funeral circle of stones dating from about 4,500 ago. It is located near the Val sans retour and has been known under this name since 1843.[16]

The Tomb of Merlin in 2009

In the northern part of the forest is the "Tomb of Merlin", a remnant of a Neolithic covered dolmen structure. The site was largely destroyed with dynamite by treasure hunters after it became associated with the Arthurian figure of Merlin in 1889.[17]

Merlin and Vivien, an illustration for Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang

According to the legend, having seduced Merlin, Viviane imprisoned him in an invisible prison, and then locked him in a tomb: Merlin, having lain down in a pit, had two enormous stones cast down on him. Today, it is an important site of Neopagan pilgrimages. Visitors to the site might leave flowers and a note to Merlin, often with a wish,[9] or some kind of devotional object.

The Fontaine dite de Jouvence (lit. 'Fountain of Youth') is a water hole near the Tomb of Merlin.[18] Also nearby there is an old tree known as the chêne des Hindrés.[19]

This tumulus consists of four Neolitihic menhirs originally erected some 5,000–4,500 years ago, each over four meters long and one meter wide. Three menhirs were reused in the Bronze Age around 2,000–1,500 BC as a funerary vault; the fourth is on the ground about ten meters away. Formerly covered with a mound of earth, the site is by its impressive dimensions nicknamed "Tomb of a Giant".[20] According to local tradition, it is the tomb of a giant defeated by the Knights of the Round Table. The Tombeau du Géant was reported as completely destroyed by the 2022 fire,[21][22] but was in fact saved by firefighters, along with the first few rows of trees surrounding it.[23]

The "Garden of Monks", located in Néant-sur-Yvel, also called Jardin aux tombes (lit. 'Garden of Tombs'), is a megalithic tumulus dating from 5,000 to 4,500 years ago.[24] It is one of the many such mounds present in this region.

An overlook of the Val in 2017

The Val sans retour (lit. 'Vale of No Return'), is the most famous tourist place of the forest, located near Tréhorenteuc, west of Paimpont. It is a steep valley dug deep in red shale, the color resulting from the oxidation of the iron ore it contains. During the 19th century, there were two competing locations of the Vale in the forest, the other having been in the vallée de la Marette near the Tomb of Merlin and also including the initial location of the Tomb of Viviane. In 1896, Félix Bellamy decided that the Val sans retour was the place that inspired the anonymous 13th-century author to write the episode of the Vale in Lancelot-Grail.[25]

According to the French tradition of Arthurian legend, Queen Morgan le Fay, half-sister of King Arthur, betrayed by her lover, decided to keep all the unfaithful knights as prisoners in a vale of that name. Only Lancelot, faithful to Queen Guinevere, was able to break the spell, escape, and free the captive knights.

High above the Vale, the rocher des Faux-Amants (lit. 'Rock of False Lovers') is the spot where Morgan le Fay is said to have turned her lover who betrayed her into stone. Another location is the Siège de Merlin (lit. 'Seat of Merlin'), a rock overlooking the valley.[9]

A lake that since the 1940s has been known as the Miroir aux Fées (lit. 'Fairy Mirror') marks the entrance to the Vale.[26] Nearby stands the Eglise du Graal (lit. 'Church of the Holy Grail'), a Catholic church featuring imagery of Morgan and other Arthurian characters associated with the Vale reimagined as Christian-themed scenes, painted by two German prisoner-of-war artists after WWII, as commissioned by eccentric local priest Father Henri Gillard.[27][28][29]

The forest of Paimpont contains several special trees. One of them is the hêtre de Ponthus (the beech of the Ponthus), being associated with the tale of Ponthus and Sidonia.[30]

The chêne à Guillotin in 2013

The most famous is an old oak about 1,000 years old and more than 9 meters in circumference: the chêne à Guillotin (the oak of Guillotin), located between Concoret and Tréhorenteuc. According to a local legend, a refractory priest named Pierre-Paul Guillotin took refuge there during the French Revolution, continued to administer sacraments and blessings in the region, and wrote a valuable journal of revolutionary events.[31]

The Fountain of Barenton (also known as Berenton, Belenton, or Balenton) is located west of the forest, near the hamlet of Folle-Pensée, and is quite difficult to access. As quoted in medieval literature, and retained to this day, this fountain occasionally has rosaries of bubbles rise to its surface. The site first become associated with the legendary fountain of Brocéliande by Auguste Brizeux in 1836.[32] A local custom made young men and women visit the fountain in search of marriage.

It is here that Ywain, as described by Chrétien de Troyes in Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, challenged the Black Knight, guardian of the fountain. According to a later legend, this is also where Merlin met Viviane, and the water of this fountain had the power to cure mental illnesses.