Les Cahotiers de Vilaine

Le Cahotiers of Vilaine – Songs of sailors and waterways, the men and boats from the south of Rennes in the valleys of the Vilaine in Brittany.

The group was established to develop the songs of fresh and salt water sailors; to bring to life a heritage of Brittany with songs of traditional sailors and songs of the canals, accompanied by social and environmental themes.

“It is in memory of these illustrious sailors and these amazing boats that we chose to name our group Les Cahotiers de Vilaine. Thus, beyond the songs of sailors, the group wishes to transmit a lesser-known heritage: that of fresh water, canals and waterways of Brittany. They therefore evoke boating and the work of men, the road of slate, lime or salt, without forgetting the road of the humps from Pont-Réan, from Boël to Rennes.

Transport along the Vilaine developed massively in the 18th Century order to meet the need to rebuild Rennes after its disastrous fire in 1720. Only the waterway and the many quarries along its banks were able  meet these urgent requirements. 

“Cahotiers” is the name of those associated with the dealing in and transporting the stone of “Cahot,” a village located at the confluence of the Seiche and the Vilaine in the municipality of Bruz.

The sailors of Redon nicknamed them “The convicts of the Vilaine”, pack-horses and sailors at the same time! Victims of the weather and their exhausting efforts, their life expectancy was very low: they manually loaded and unloaded up to 60 tons of materials with just a wheelbarrow.