Saint-Méen-the-large

Geography

Saint-Méen-the-large is to 43 km in the west of Rennes on the axis Rennes-Saint-Brieuc (66 km), to 62 km in the south of Saint-Malo and to 20 km in the north of the forest of Brocéliande.

The town of Saint-Méen-the-Large that by preoccupation with a simplification one calls Saint Méen locates in the middle of Brittany and occupies the center of the Western edge.

Just at the end of the department at the border of the Coast-with Armor and the Morbihan.

Country of Brocéliande

Saint Méen has a strategic position, in the center of Brittany, thus allowing the development of industry and goods transport.

Access

By the road:

Of Rennes towards Méen Saint the Large one: fast track NR 12, direction Brieuc Saint, exit Holy Méen the Great NR 164 (43 km).

Of Valves towards Méen Saint the Large one: fast track NR 166 Ploermel direction, left Ploermel/Mauron D 766/D 166 (79 km).

Of Malo Saint towards Méen Saint the Large one: fast track NR 137 Rennes direction, left Dinan fast track, left Valves D 766 (62 km).

By the train: Line FOR THE THIRD TIME Rennes - Lamballe - St-Brieuc: Stop with Quédillac.

Park TGV of Rennes with less de40 minutes.

By the bus: Line Rennes - Loudéac. Center Coach station of Rennes.
Airport of Rennes Saint-Jacob to less than 40 minutes.

History

Saint Méen (Mewen) was born in Ork in the county from Gwent (today county of Monmouth) which is in the South of Wales in the United Kingdom. Belonging to a noble family, Mewen requires her admission in a monastery which Samson (holy) in Cambrie directed then. The Celts under the pressure of Pictes and Scots left in mass the island to join Brittany. Making way, Méen arrived at the edge of Meu, between Loscouët and Gaël, where a soft Caduon lord reigned. This one invited it and they sympathized. So that our traveller promised to stop a long time when it would return from his mission. Méen saint deceased on June 21st, 617 and appears in the calendar of the Breton saints. The first tomb of Méen Saint was deposited in the cemetery, under the stained glass of bedside of the Southern vault of the transept in a granite tomb. Méen saint, with the Roman railway crossing, is one of old the stronghold ecclesiastical whose site was selected at the 11th century by the Hinguethon abbot. In 1918, the official name of common was modified of Saint-Méen-the-Large Saint-Méen in .

Administration

the Mairie was built in 1934 and was renovated in 1992. This town hall with its pinnacle, inspired of the town halls of Gouda (Netherlands) and Vichy, offers an astonishing architecture (night illuminations). Inside the Town hall, a engraved plate recalls the years of childhood of the Breton bard Theodore Botrel (1865-1925) lived to Saint Méen in Parson, in his/her Fanchon grandmother.

public Nursery school: 1
private Nursery school: 1
public Elementary school: 1
private Elementary school: 1 (St-Joseph School)
public College: 1 (College Camille Guerin)
private College: 1 (Notre-Dame College)
private Hotel college: 1
Rural Family home: 1

Demography

Economy

Large surfaces general practitioners (supermarkets): 2/
specialized Distribution (piece of furniture, do-it-yourself, gardening…) : 6/
Great and average surfaces of discount: 1/
Food, grocers: 1/
Butcheries, pork-butcheries, delicatessens: 2/
Fish shops: 2 (supermarkets)/
Bakeries, pastry makings: 4/
Press, school stationery and of office: 2/
Mode, clothing, shoes: 4/
Banks, insurances: 10/
Bars, tobacco: 14/
Restaurants: 10/
Hairstyle, hygiene, esthetics: 9/
Computer material (sale, maintenance): 1/
Driving school: 3/
Art of the table, gifts: 2/
Jewelry, clock industry: 1/
Automobile (sale, maintenance): 6/
Motor bike, cycles, mechanized farming (sale, maintenance): 2/
Containing hydrocarbon: 2 (supermarkets)/
Wines and spirits: 1/
Pharmacy, Optics: 3/
City medicine, ancillary medical, veterinary: 8/
(sale of material, photo development): 1/
Radio-television, electric household appliances: 2/
Shoe manufacture, steam pressing? saddlery: 3/
Flowers, nursery gardeners: 1/
Real, architecture, temporary work: 4/
Undertaking: 2/
Articles of fishing: 1/

Market Saturday morning in front of the place of the Town hall

Basement

The Armorican basin has under varied ground and in Saint Méen, there is more especially of the gneiss in North and the argillaceous schist elsewhere.

Agriculture

Formerly, agriculture was primarily based on the culture of corn, the apple tree and the fodder cultures for the milch cows and the porcine breeding.

A very important cooperative dairy was established for the transformation of milk. It was born thanks to obstinacy from the senator Marcel Dauney. The C.O.L.I.V. (Cooperative dairy of Ille and Vilaine) is located at the Fauvel Moor, with the accesses of the city, in the industrial park. The C.O.L.I.V. received in 1983 a medal with the open competition of Paris. Grouped since with Entremont Alliance, the factory will close in a few months, not by money worries because the factory was very profitable but by the group which saw many reorganizations and which from now on is combined with UNICOPA.

Personalities related to the commune

Louis Bobet, known as Louison Bobet, racing cyclist, born the March 12th 1925. The museum Louison Bobet, located street of Gaël, the museum recalls the career of the champion cycle Louison Bobet, native. Various objects of time are exposed there: books, testimonys, models, vidéos, photographs, reviews, medals, shirts, flags, scarves, bicycles… Louison Bobet is buried in Saint Méen.

Tourist monuments and places

Abbey of Saint-Méen.
Abbey classified Historic building (XIVe frescos recalling the life of Méen Saint and the rise with the Paradise), guided visit on request. The abbey of Méen Saint, in the old one éveché of Malo Saint, is the oldest abbey of the department. It crossed the centuries by occupying
Abbey church of Saint Méen (XIe): marked by the history and the rebuildings, the abbey one of Méen Saint is far from to have delivered all its secrecies. Relics of the monk founder " Méen" saint; there are preserved. The church also contains fragments of stained glasses cash among oldest of Brittany, the XIII and 14th century. Several years of restoration lately made it possible to update true treasures, like a splendid wall dating from the 11th century and a forgotten vault (of the 12th century): the vault Vincent Saint. Classified Historic building, the abbey one of Méen Saint is regarded by much as one of the most beautiful churches of the area.

The foundations of the church go back to the construction of the monastery of Méen Saint, between 1024 and 1028. The transepts would have been built at the 12th century, the two vaults seeing their current form, just like the principal nave, only at the beginning of XIVe. Only the tower and the vault Saint Vincent thus preserve today traces of " pure roman" , the remainder of abbey mixing absolutely all the styles. The last and more important transformations were operated at the XIXe century. Following the collapse of the antique nave of the church (prolonging the building formerly), the lazarists undertook to reverse the orientation of the place. As wants it the tradition, the axis of the church was directed before towards the East. Today, it is it towards the West. The old chorus of the monks became the current nave and the new one took seat under the tower. One moved finally the porch of entry by boring the bedside.

Twinnings

Halwhistle (England)

Places and monuments

The abbey church of Saint Méen (XIè)

The Vault Vincent Saint of the abbey of Saint Méen (XIIè)

The Vault Méen Saint in Saint Méen the Large one (XXè)

The Cross of the Abbey of Méen Saint the Large one (XIVè)

The Fountain Méen Saint

The museum Louison Bobet

The Town hall of Méen Saint the Large one

The Head office of the sisters of the Immaculate Conception

See too

Common of Ille-et-Vilaine

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