Cape Settlers I: from the Loire to the Channel
CHAPTER FIVE Cape settlers I: from the Loire to the Channel Before discussing the Cape colonists who came from this north-western part of France a closer identifica tion of the region concerned will not be out of place. Its natural maritime boundaries to the north and west extend from the mouth of the Bresle, north-east of Dieppe, to Bourgneuf Bay below the Loire estuary. The borders of Normandy and the Orleanais, together with that segment of the Ile-de-France, exclus ive of Paris of the left bank, lying west of the Seine, represent the eastern limit of the region, while the Loire forms a rough demarcation to the south, more accurately delimited by the southern borders of the ancient provinces which straddle that river: Brittany, Anjou, Touraine and the Orleanais. The region therefore comprises these four prov inces, Normandy and the western Ile-de-France, and Maine with the county of Perche. In physical features, the rocky coast and forested interior of Breton- 104 CHAPTER FIVE speaking western and north-western Brittany stand apart. For the rest the region is largely an extension of the central European plain, broken by the hills of Upper Normandy and those of Perche. A part of France predominantly agricultural, it is principally watered to the east and north-east by the Seine and its tributary the Eure, in the north by such rivers flowing into the Channel as the Orne and the Ranee, and to the south-west and south by the Vilaine and the rivers of the Loire system, among them the Sarthe, the Loir, the Mayenne and the Cher.
[Show full text]