Unfortunately I didn’t manage to go to ‘Broceliande’ on this trip
but I remember it well from my ‘Arthurian odyssey’ many years ago. Broceliande features in many of the knights’ adventures and heroic deeds in the legend. The Foret de Paimpon (to give it its proper name) has many different sites dedicated to aspects of Arthurian legend, my favourite being ‘Merlin’s tomb’ – a huge boulder set in a clearing. At first I thought the site was a rubbish dump – litter everywhere, until I realised that the ‘litter’ comprised poems and prayers and offerings to Merlin. (There was also a pair of underpants hanging from a holly bush nearby!) I was so touched that people still had so much faith in Merlin’s power to help them. I’ve now written the chapters where Marie and Guinglan, abandoned in our world by Morgana, venture into Broceliande, hoping to find their way back to Camelot – a magical journey, but with unforeseen consequences. From there, Marie makes her way to Angers, ready to tell her stories in the hope that, somehow, they may lead her home.
But first she goes into the Cathedrale St-Maurice to pray (far left.) Left pictured (but rather far away, I’m afraid) is the font in which Geoffrey of Anjou and also Henry II were baptised.
