Travel Talk
' Middle Europe'
1-'The Breton Fisherman '
E. M. STÉPHAN
Schoolboys and girls who listen to broadcasting must know M. Stephan's name and voice as well as they know most things. Hasn't he taught them
French over the air as long as they have been at school ? But they have probably never associated him with a travel talk and may wonder if he is giving it because he has just spent a holiday in Brittany.
The fact is that he knows Brittany as well as they know their own part of Britain ; for he was born there, in a small town called Guingamp, not far from the sea. The things he is going to tell listeners about today-the rugged coasts and tiny islands, the Breton people, the fishermen, the blessing of the fishing fleet-he was familiar with when he was no older than his listeners. And so he can talk at first hand about the fishing schooners leaving St. Malo for their annual voyage to Newfoundland, and about the Breton fishwives, and the fine-meshed nets of the sardine fleet at Douarnenez.
He grew up and he was still at
Guingamp, teaching arithmetic to little Breton boys and girls. If, one summer, he hadn't taken a holiday in England he might still be teaching them now.