{"id":31717,"date":"2025-08-24T05:00:40","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T04:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eden-saga.com\/en\/?p=31717"},"modified":"2025-10-10T06:06:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T05:06:59","slug":"erquy-the-ancient-rekinea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eden-saga.com\/en\/erquy-the-ancient-rekinea.html","title":{"rendered":"Erquy, the Ancient Rekinea"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My house is perched – I am too, necessarily. Both perched on the cape of Erquy, overlooking the sea, the port, the sculptural rock point and some of the ten beautiful beaches of my eternal town. Yes, eternal. No chauvinism in that, as you will see.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Etymology<\/h4>\n

Yes, eternal. No chauvinism in there, what do you mean?<\/p>\n

Eternal, Erquy is in more ways than one. This pretty fishing and yachting harbour has its origins in a small Gallo-Roman counter, Reghinea or Rekinea, according to the official version of local history. Moment please! Rekinea? The name is not Roman, but Greek. In Latin we would have said Rekinova, The new reki. We dropped the news, and Reki became Erquy. Which should be written Erki or Arki.<\/p>\n

Which would be more Breton, by the way. Or more Arab? Arki reminds me of the Harkis, those Algerians who fought alongside Colonial France against their independentist compatriots.<\/p>\n

Ar, Breton definite article. Ki is Ki or Chi, the subtle energy<\/a> of the Chinese. Arki, land of subtle energy<\/em>, I have known it since childhood. I lived it deep inside. When my parents moved here, I was 4. With Papa, I planted a pine tree –\u00a0today venerable. A half-buried dolmen, the Devil Stone<\/a> which gives its name to my street, makes the whole hill vibrate, echoing the powerful emissions of Guihalon.<\/p>\n

My life is in Erquy. My liquid roots. My fine sand flowing between my fingers like a silk scarf. My land forever, my wild almost-island, my heather moors, my pink cliffs. This is why I chose to baptize my bio-energy with a famous name, reiki, which I spell reki, yes, the reki of Erquy. The name is certainly famous, but the technique is usurped. It has its origins right here, in Reki Nea, Reki Nevez, New Reki.<\/p>\n

The etymology is not fanciful. It was inspired in me by a lover of Erquy, Herv\u00e9 K\u00e9rivel. His father was keen on local history. A few decades ago, he unearthed this Greek etymology which tightens the link between the current name, Erquy, and the ancient name, Reki. Discovery which interested no one, neither then nor today, I suppose. No one is a prophet in his own country, they say.<\/p>\n

I got hooked straight away. There is the language of the birds<\/a> in there. I did some research. Here are the results.<\/p>\n

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Roman port<\/h4>\n

The presence of the Romans in Erquy is no secret. On the center beach, near the pointe de la Hussaye, you can see the trace of a small pool. This is all that remains of the ancient Roman port. In Gallo-Roman Brittany, the port of Erquy was the resort of the rich bourgeois of Condate<\/em>, now Rennes. A Roman road connected the two towns via Corseul, the ancient Coriosolis where the remains of a temple of Mars are found. Condate-Coriosolis-Rekinea<\/em>, such was the service of this via Romana<\/em>.<\/p>\n

My garden clings to the slopes of Cap d’Erquy, where archaeologists discovered the remains of a Roman camp in the last century. Is it Laudanum, Bibendum, Babaorum or Petibonum?<\/a>Names of Roman camp in Asterix adventures<\/span> I don’t know, but it’s here. The Gauls who resist the Roman invader, a well-known story … Joking aside, did you know that Erquy is the model of the Gallic village of Asterix?<\/p>\n

The cover page of the Asterix albums shows a glass onion magnifying a detail of the C\u00f4tes d’Armor. This detail represents the village of Asterix. It’s right at Erquy’s location. Uderzo has endowed this village with a cape extended by three reefs. At the end of Cap d’Erquy<\/em> line up Les Trois Pierres,<\/a>the Three Stones<\/span><\/em> well known to local sailors.<\/p>\n

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Youth of Uderzo<\/h4>\n

Before becoming a successful cartoonist, the young Albert Uderzo lived the war here in Erquy. When his friend Ren\u00e9 Goscinny suggested that he draw the adventures of the teigneux little Gaul, Uderzo naturally chose to locate him here, in Erquy. In my village. Today the invader is no longer Roman… But the Celts are still resisting!<\/p>\n

Spicy detail, when Uderzo drew his Gallic village surrounded by the four Roman camps of Laudanum, Babaorum, Petibonum and Devinette: what is the name of the last one? , he was unaware that Cap d’Erquy once housed a Roman camp. Surprising, isn\u2019t it? I love synchronicities, coincidences that are not. On this point, Erquy has always served me the lion\u2019s share. I let Osiris<\/a> guide me, he filled me so often! Also, I praise him at all times under his real name:\u00a0 Ousir al Hazar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is no such thing as chance. Everything that happens is wanted.<\/p>