AURAY HISTORY
Which people lived in the « Gaul » territory ?
To know that, we have only monuments as menhirs, cromlech, dolmens, built between the 5th and the 2th
millenium. Then, during the 4th century B.C., the Celts, who came from beyond the Rhin river, moved and
mingled with the population who lived there. Some of them will go away to win Roma (in 380 B.C.) an loot
Delphes (in 279 B.C.) and will go until Anatolia (in Turkey) to found the Galatia.
Moreover, the roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus said that, according to the druids, some strangers,
come from the northern seas, had immigrated in Gaul too, or, Trojans people, fleeing the Greeks after the
Trojan's great fire. He told too that Hercules, in another version, came through Massilia and had a lot of
children in Gaul. So what amazing stories!
Finally, we can think that legends explain that people move a lot for milleniums...
On the other hand, according to Julius Caesar and Plinius Maior, we know that people of Gaul, named
Gallics, Celtics or Galatians in Antiquity, were really numbered and very various (they counted more than
a hundred). They had not the same language, neither the same laws.
Then, Romans, Francs, Normans, Saxons, Moorishes, spanishes and many other yet, had peopled this
territory. Our ancestors are very various, aren't they ?
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a principal figure in
the American Enlightenment and he is known for the lightning rod, and bifocals among other inventions.
In 1776, in aim to be an unofficial diplomat in France, he crossed the Atlantic ocean and accosted in the
Morbihan, in the Port of Saint Goustan, in Auray. He was sick and malnourished. As people of
“Bretagne” didn't know to speak english, neither french, he spoke in latin with the priest , and then he
could be helped and hosted.Then he went to Nantes, and Paris.
Today, one embankment in the St Goustan area is called “Quai Benjamin Franklin”
In 2012, to commemorate the creation of our school, built for 32 years now, one original picture was
made, collecting all faces of students and showing Benjamin Franklin himself.
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