Lorient, the name says it all, or almost. Steeped in the history of the East India Company, a company whose trade with the Indian continent and China exploited the town's geographical situation to the full. Nestled on the west bank of a long inlet of the Atlantic coast of Brittany, behind which lies a land full of promise waiting to be discovered - inland-waterways, castles and charming Breton villages - all just a stone's throw away. At the end of the Second World War, the battles for the "pocket of Lorient" between a strong German garrisson, firmly entrenched, in the town, and the Americans raise the town and the surrounding area to the ground. The vast submarine base, unique in the world was an attractive target for Allied Forces. Another point of view on the Lorient area In going with the flow, you will go back in time, where you will come face to face with the history and the men who have formed the paysage literally "the wise country", of the harbours, riverbanks and shores of the Breton islands. Another way, full of poetry, calm and passion, of discovering the Lorient area through its port-based activities. From the Island of Groix to the Ria of Etel. Wind-beaten, lashed by sea-spray, Lorient is forward-looking, a figurehead of the department of Morbihan, with its successive ports along the harbour, an exceptional platform for the most diverse maritime activities, where even sailboarding is never lacking for wind. You sometimes have to distance yourself from the coast to discover the moorland of broom and gorse and to chance upon rivers and castles. A land which is dotted with pleasant villages and old churches full of memories, with soft hills brightened up by the sparkling waters of ponds and running waters of the Scorff and Blavet rivers. The scars with it. Badly wounded during the last world war, in oder to heal its injuries, Lorient has made several intersting attempts at modern architecture. These pediments remain, some highly original, always colorful and which go together to make the town's heritage a rich one. "From the golden age of the East India Company, only two things remain in Lorient: the coquetry of its women and its love for festivities" wrote Irène Frain, the Lorient novelist, in one of her works. On the subject of festivities, to be exact, the Interceltic Festival is a great one ! To unwind, in the first fortnight of August, it would be difficult -not to say impossible- to find better.