Fréhel: “Sables d’Or deserved a book on its own”

» During my research for the three books ‘De Pléhérel à Fréhel’, I said to myself that after ten years of research it was too much information, and that Sables d’Or deserved a book on its own. ”

Unpublished photos

That’s done. Two new volumes, with a preface by the mayor of Fréhel, Michèle Moisan, trace the resort’s hundred-year history. Rich in texts, archives and unpublished photos, these two new opuses cover in about fifty chapters constructions, sports, shops, events, in short everything that happened in Sables d’Or-les- Pins over of the last hundred yearsfrom the purchase of the land on which the resort was built, to the inauguration of the Nautical Center last July.

Jean-Yves Chatellier self-publishes with Éditions Le Barachois, supported by local sponsors. » Profits will be donated to charities including the SNSM, which I have been part of for 25 years now. ”

10 years research

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For the author, these ten years of research and writing, it is only pleasure. In Fréhel, everyone knows Jean-Yves’ attachment to the peninsula. The former sailor has traveled the planet, but Fréhel is at home. And nothing that happened there should be lost.

A journalist once asked me why I got into this. Simply because I am interested in the history of the peninsula and I couldn’t find these books anywhere else.. So I wrote them down! And I put everything I find in it.”

To document himself, Jean-Yves consulted the articles of Ouest Éclair, up to 1944, those of Ouest-France, from 44 to the present day, the municipal and parish newspapers since 1927, the deliberations of the municipal council, about 10,000 reviews !

reference books

“I went to the departmental archives of Saint-Brieuc and those of Dinan, where I went every Friday for two years. I inquired with the families of Fréhel, Pléhérel and Sables d’Or. I had access to very interesting documents. Jean-Yves Chatellier wants his works to become dedicated reference books to future local historians.

What marked the author during his research? They were two to buy the land, Rolland Brouard and Bernard Launay. But he left the project. It was said that he had gone to the United States. I found during my research that he died in Créteil in July 1968. History has mistakenly forgotten him. ”

The western Corne d’Or

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As for René Brouard, he had a real vision of the development of the resort and the Emerald Coast.

“He was avant-garde, a great communicator, with relays everywhere. He had been impressed by the Golden Horn, in Turkey. For him, the coast, from Saint-Cast to Pléneuf, was the Western Golden Horn. Moreover, the rue de la Corne d’Or, above the station, in the town of Plurien, still bears the name, continues the author. He implemented gigantic means to complete his projects: roads, large sidewalks, grassy places for horse-drawn carriages.

Yet at the time, the project was not well regarded by the locals. Jean-Yves’ grandfather was born in 1882, his grandmother in 1889. They therefore knew Rolland Brouard and Bernard Launay well.

“Many people at that time were dumbfounded, very shocked to see the construction of the station on these magnificent coastal spaces. We disfigured their coast, explains Jean-Yves. But we built this place of parties and frivolities. However, decades later, our town has been enriched by this village of high tourist interest. ”

Cindy Giraud (CLP)