Tales of Rural Life in Europe | European Journal

France: Erquy - the village where the Gauls really livedThe home town of Asterix and Obelix in the famous comic strip series has no name - and it's fictitious anyway. But some amateur archaeologists couldn't leave it at that. They're convinced they have actually identified that small village in Gaul as the fishing community of Erquy in Brittany. For René Goscinny, the creator of the Asterix stories, the important thing was that the small village in Gaul was on the coast, to enable Asterix to embark on sea voyages. Apart from Paris, Britanny was the only part of France that Albert Uderzo, the illustrator was familiar with, so he placed the heroes of the story there. And the 7,000 residents of the village of Erquy are sure that theirs is the village he chose. They have combed the comics to compare the drawings with the actual topography of Erquy. Naturally the village boasts a stonemason specializing in menhirs, the upright stones Obelix