Saint Tyrnog

Landerneau is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France. It lies at the mouth of the Elorn River which divides the Breton provinces of Cornouaille and Léon, 22 km (14 mi) east of Brest. The name is from Lan Terneo and can mean "(religious) enclosure of St Ténénan (Welsh: Tyrnog)": allegedly a Welshman who also had llans in the Vale of Clwyd in North Wales and in Somerset, and who moved to Brittany in the 7th century. Lann means a religious sacred place. The town has been founded by Saint Arnoc, some times called Ternoc and confusion can occur with Saint Ténénan. Some sources point Saint Arnoc and Saint Ténénan as the same person. It was an important centre of the flax and linen industries in the 16th and 17th centuries. Landerneau is also the hometown of Édouard Leclerc, a businessman and entrepreneur who founded the French supermarket chain E.Leclerc in 1948. The town is actually the heart of the agricultural market in northwest Brittany with several agribusiness companies headquarters located in the town. The town is also known for its moon, La Lune de Landerneau (the Moon of Landerneau). This nickname is supposed from a noble visiting Versailles court and was not impressed by the luxury of the Château de Versailles. He was contemplating the moon with others in the Versailles gardens when he said "the Landerneau's moon is bigger", that made the assembly laugh. The Breton noble made reference to a big silver metal disc on top of the Saint Houardon Church, well known in the surroundings as "the moon of Landerneau". It was at Landernau that the painter Eugène Boudin painted "Landernau, Mouillage à l'Embouchure de la Rivière" circa 1870-3. A picturesque feature of the town centre is the sixteenth-century house-lined bridge (the Pont de Rohan) across the Elorn. The Pont de Rohan was the most downstream crossing of the Elorn River until 1930 and the construction of the Pont Albert Louppe near Brest.