Rothéneuf is a village in the north west of France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, situated north-east from Saint-Malo

Saint-Malo

Saint-Malo is a walled port city in Brittany in northwestern France on the English Channel. It is a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine.-Demographics:The population can increase to up to 200,000 in the summer tourist season...

, about five kilometres alongside the coast. Administratively, it is part of the commune

Communes of France

The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 of Saint-Malo, in the département

Départements of France

The departments of France are French administrative divisions. The 101 departments form one of the three levels of local government, together with the 22 metropolitan and 5 overseas regions above them and more than 36 000 communes beneath them...

of Ille-et-Vilaine

Ille-et-Vilaine

Ille-et-Vilaine is a department of France, located in the region of Brittany in the northwest of the country.- History :Ille-et-Vilaine is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...

.

The village is a seaside resort but is famous for its sculpted rocks, "rochers sculptés". Abbé Fouré (1839-1910), having suffered a stroke at the age of 30, which left him paralyzed on one side, retreated to a life as a hermit in the cliffs of Rothéneuf. He carved over 300 fascinating, grotesque and bizarre faces und figures into the rock.

The navigator and explorer Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier was a French explorer of Breton origin who claimed what is now Canada for France. He was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big...

, who is credited with being the first European discoverer of the St. Lawrence River and the first European to make a map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, was born in Rothéneuf, where he spent the last years of his life as well. His estate, Limoëlou, in Rothéneuf, was turned into museum.

External links

• Rothéneuf Beaches, Cliffs and discovering Jacques Cartier