Kerjean castle's carders legend
And also
The tops
René Le Barbier, the owner, had been through a lot… but here’s the funniest story about him.
One day king Louis XIII invited René in Versailles. Happy, he packed his bags and let his wife in Brittany.
Well, he’d come back soon! There, in Versailles, René dazzled.
He described his wife, Françoise de Quélen, like the most beautiful woman on earth!
4 gentlemen, a bit jealous, suggested a little game to René: to test his wife’s virtue, who was alone in her castle…
René laughed: “Well, if you want, you can go: it’s the best, the most virtuous lady!”
The husband accepted the challenge: he trusted Françoise, so what was the matter?
But he didn’t know our 4 noble men were real don Juan…
Well, anyway, the 4 men left for Brittany, and René started to realize: he started to stress!
Few days later, he received a letter from Kerjean, signed by the first gallant: inside, a silk ribbon, the one his wife put in her hairs.
Pooh, a common ribbon, that was all… that meant nothing!
Then, a second letter from the second gallant: he get the pins which held her dress.
Then he received a curl from her hairs and finally, one thing that really scared him: her wedding ring.
Completely panic-stricken, René left for his Breton castle, emerged suddenly and found his wife.
He talked about her all the “gifts” he get.
Oh, those 4 men came to visit her, and she gave them some intimate stuffs.
“But what about the ring??” yelled René.
“This, said she, serves you right! It’s because you doubted about my honesty and my fidelity!
Then Françoise took him in a tower where she locked our 4 don Juan! Tired, she locked them here and gave them wool to spin, for poor people… and they had to work hard, or else, no food!
René set them free: let’s shake hands and forget it!
Gentlemen recognized the great virtue of the lady of Kerjean… phew!
Few years later, king Louis XIII raised the fief to a marquisate and appointed Françoise queen’s first lady-in-waiting.
Since that, a Breton proverb says “the first carder was born in Kerjean”!