The Rothéneuf rocks of Saint-Malo

As you might guess from his name, Abbé Fouré, the man behind these sculptures, was a religious man who was forced to retire to Rothéneuf at the age of 54 as a priest, following a stroke that left him almost completely deaf. During his health problems, these rocks were a refuge for him, allowing him to express himself by depicting local legends, which he engraved in stone.

But apart from the religious stature of L'Abbé Fouré, it is also important to know that these rocks have many other religious inspirations, and in particular a strong influence from the life of Saint Budoc, supposedly the patron saint of shipwreck salvagers, and whose tomb the Abbé is said to have discovered at Rothéneuf before finally deciding to settle there to end his life.

A key figure in outsider art, Abbé Fouré's life ended like that of a hermit, due to his deafness and his seclusion in the small district of Rothéneuf, but it should be noted that his incredible rock sculptures largely retrace the lives of the inhabitants of 16th-century Saint-Malo, These include pirates, smugglers, sailors, farmers and fishermen, half human and half animal, sculpted in stone and filled with symbolism that is both fantastical and moralising.

During his retirement in Rothéneuf, the Abbot was nourished by local legends told by parishioners, and recounting the stories of buccaneering families, sometimes leading him to sculpt nightmarish faces and bodies, including sea monsters, demons and freebooters.

But the influence goes even further than religion. It is also based on reading about missionaries in French colonies such as China, Russia and Japan, as well as the French explorer Jacques Cartier, who claimed to have discovered the St Lawrence River in Canada, and whose house in Rotheneuf is now a museum. Among the faces carved in stone, you'll also find those of Cleopatra, Napoleon, the Queen of Sheba, Queen Victoria, and even Merlin or Gargantua.

We know that Jacques Cartier was presented to François I in 1532, with the task of discovering routes to the West via the North and "leading ships to the discovery of new lands in the New World". Unfortunately, when Cartier returned, he realised that his voyage had been full of failures: he failed to find the Northwest Passage, mistook pyrite and quartz for gold and diamonds, and even caused a deterioration in relations with the Amerindians.

15 years before the start of the Rothéneuf rock sculptures, construction began on a fantastic palace in south-east France, now known as the Palais du Facteur Cheval. The project bore many similarities to the rock sculptures, which explains why Abbé Fouré was nicknamed the "Facteur Cheval Breton".