We sit in cafe “Ty Pierre” overlooking the harbour, coffee on hand, with the almost long forgotten smell of cigarette smoke wafting in our direction. We have spent a relaxing and enjoyable 24 hours in the town of Roscoff before our ferry to Ireland tomorrow. We have decided to continue to Ireland and take our chances with the weather.

I have to confess that Roscoff is a pleasant surprise, I had imagined the town would be just a working ferry port with little architectural or historical interest similar to some others we have seen in the past, however wandering around the town, reading the signs outside buildings, helpfully in both French and English, it is so much more. The size and construction of the buildings indicate that there was a level of prosperity in the town in the past. Part of this prosperity may have been driven by the humble onion, well, distinctive pink onions.

“Onion Johnnies” is a term I had never heard of till now. It relates to Breton onion sellers who started to travel to the UK from Roscoff in the late 1820’s to sell their pink onions. In part this was due to higher prices obtained in the UK, but also back then it was easier to sail to the UK than travel by road and rail to Paris. Taking their harvest in July or August to the UK and into storage, the Onion Johnnies would then sell the onions on bicycles around the UK until the end of the year. At their peak in the 1920’s over 1,300 sellers would come to the UK each year. Wearing their distinctive blue and white stripped Breton shirts and berets it is possible they became the image of Frenchmen in the minds of those who met them, probably to the bemusement of the French people who do not dress like that.

I realised I had seen one or more Onion Johnnies in my childhood in England in the 1960’s when my parents would buy onions from a man on a bicycle wearing a beret. How interesting to learn this which recalled a forgotten memory.

Roscoff is also the home to the “Station biologigue de Roscoff” (SBR). Established in 1872 by Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers due to the diverse marine environment here, SBR is now linked to the Sorbonne university: the facility provides for research and advanced education in marine biology and oceanography. Over 1,000 students and staff work or visit during the year.

Ireland next

– Anthony