bridge over the port of the cité des peintres at low tide

Pont Aven - All you need to know about the city of painters on the banks of the river Aven 

Pont Aven is a village in the Finistère region of southern Brittany.Névez, known for its beaches and thatched cottage villages, and Riec sur Belon. The village is also close to Concarneau and its walled town. Pont aven is nicknamed "the city of painters". Many painters, including Gauguin, have stayed in and around the village.

How do I get to Pont Aven?

From the north of Finistère, you can reach Pont Aven by taking the N165, and exiting at Kérampaou. From south Finistère, you can also take the N165 - which crosses Brittany from north to south - and exit at Quimperlé Nord.

Pont Aven - location

The town is only a few kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean. The Aven, whose mouth is at Port Manech, flows through Pont Aven, and the city of painters is bordered by this river. Canals and tributaries run through the middle of the village. The heart of the village lies in a valley, surrounded by wooded hills. This is why the village had several mills, of which a few traces remain today. The small port of Pont Aven depends on the tides and is a port of refuge for small boats.

Where to park in Pont-Aven

Parking is difficult in the village center. However, there are several parking lots where you can park and visit the town: Coming from the north of Pont Aven, you'll find the Bel Air parking lot, rue des Abbès Tanguy, and the Pontic Malo parking lot, 64 rue Emile Bernard. Coming from the south, you'll find the Bois d'Amour parking lot on the D4.  

10 things to do in the village

Eating crepes by the water Stroll along the port Visit the art galleries Visit the Pont Aven museum Ajonc flower festival

Les Glenans - Discover the Glénans archipelago at Fouesnant in south Finistère

Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin was a French post-impressionist painter, considered one of the greatest French painters of the 20th century. He was born in the 19th century, on June 7, 1848, and died in the Marquesas Islands in 1903. Gauguin has a link with Pont Aven because he is considered one of the founding members of the Pont Aven school.  Before coming to Pont Aven, he traveled and settled in Copenhagen, then Rouen. His first visit to Pont Aven was in 1886, when he met another painter, Emile Bernard. He returned to Pont Aven in 1888, after a stay in South America and the West Indies. His first known work is the painting ‘La Belle Angèle’, depicting a Breton innkeeper. This work was loaned to Pont Aven by the Musée du Louvre in 1953, and is now on display at the Musée d'Orsay. Gradually, his style evolved towards synthesism, as seen in the painting ‘The Vision after the Sermon’, a painting that would influence other illustrious painters such as Picaso and Matisse.

Pont Aven Museum

The museum is a recent addition, dating from 1985. It presents the history of art in Pont Aven from the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. After the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Paul Gauguin, where the Belle Angèle painting is on loan to Pont Aven, In the mid-1970s, renewed interest was shown and initiatives were launched, such as the creation of the ‘Association des amis de Gauguin’, which later became the 'Société de peinture de Pont-Aven' in the 1970s. The museum will be renovated between 2013 and 2016.

Museum description

The museum has 3 levels. The 3rd level houses the permanent exhibitions:  a film entitled ‘From Landscape to Work’, a presentation of the artists‘ inns and guesthouses in Pont Aven, a chronological frieze, the Paul Gauguin cabinet, two presentations of the painters of the Pont Aven school, a film on ’synthetism', and two presentations on jamonism and printmaking techniques. The 2nd level presents temporary exhibitions. The first level includes reception and services. The museum is open from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm in low season, and from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm in high season. Prices range from €5 to €8 for full admission.  Lockers and checkrooms are available for visitors, as are audio and video guides. The museum also caters for disabled visitors and young children.

Gorse Flower Festival

The Gorse Flower Festival has been held almost every year in Pont Aven since 1905. It was founded by Théodore Botrel.

Description of the Gorse Flower Festival

Here's a description of the second edition of the Gorse Flower Festival: “Flags, banners everywhere; inscriptions: Restons chez nous, Vive Botrel. It's Botrel who's organizing this second fête des fleurs d'Ajoncs, and really this time a magnificent success has crowned his efforts. We're at the foot of two hills in a beautiful setting. The river Aven rolls its waters through the pretty little town, a nest of greenery strewn with large boulders. This morning, the processions of the two queens, the one from Dinan and the one from Pont Aven, go to the solemn high mass at ten o'clock, led by Botrel. Two hedges of spectators form: Bretons from Upper and Lower Brittany, foreigners too, but sympathetic foreigners attracted by the splendor of a pretty Breton festival.” This festival consists of a procession in which a chariot drawn by two oxen ‘carries’ the village queen to the quay where the coronation takes place, and then to the church where the solemn mass is held.

Théodore Botrel

Théodore Botrel was a French singer-songwriter born in Dinan, who moved to Pon-Aven in 1905. He settled in the town of Castels-Brizeux, then built his own house. It was he who created and gave impetus to the Fête des fleurs d'Ajonc or Pardon des fleurs d'Ajonc: “Bard Botrel and Madame Botrel are to play Doric and Lena, a gracious call to stay at home. “ The festival also included shows and bini contests: ‘The binious competition showcases the diverse talents of the different players. One player enchants us with his skilful trills; another, above all, with the originality and freshness of his improvisations; yet another, with the accentuation and tender sentimentality of his song, that dreamy song so singular and so characteristic of the Breton biniou’.’ The second edition of the festival, organized by Botrel, also featured a costume contest:  ‘Everyone crowds around the fence, and fortunate are those who, like me, get to enter the enclosure and admire at close quarters the marvellous costumes of the Bretonnes competing.  The competition helps to differentiate between the different headdresses: “The Pont-Aven girls have a narrow headdress with a high band rolled around the bun on a colored transparent, winged, graceful and light; they have a large ruff, boldly removed and embellished in a thousand ways, an over-embroidered bib and apron, a dress so rich, with velvet reaching halfway up the skirt...”. Excerpt from Renaissance provinciale de France, société...
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