I came across this town while I was looking for a certain chateau. There was something charming about this little town. Read how it's described in Wikipedia.
The village of Elven is located about 15 km from the Vannes-Rennes junction on route nationale 166 and is the capital of the canton of Elven which also includes Saint-Nolff, Monterblanc, Sulniac, Trédion and La Vraie-Croix. Elven is near the Lanvaux moor, surrounded by several woodlands: Helfaut wood, Coeby wood, Kerfily, and la Boissière.
The Kerbiler stream leaves the land of the Château de Largoët and crosses la Boissière where it encounters the ruins of the Bragou mill (where it is still possible to see the mill wheel) and then flows down to the village via another old mill (the Elven mill) before emptying into the river Arz a few kilometres later. The terrain is mostly granite which is quarried in several places, one of which is the Parc quarry near the chateau Largoët.
The town centre spreads around the imposing church of St. Alban.
The church of St Alban is dedicated to Alban of Verulamium, patron saint of Elven, this ddication refers to the martyrdom suffered by Alban in Britain in AD303. The Normans burned the first wooden church. In 1121, a Romanesque church was built, but was destroyed by fire again in 1525. A Gothic church was subsequently built, of which only the choir now remains. In 1536 a neo-Gothic nave was built and a bell tower in 1642. In the nineteenth century, the time-damaged structure was restored and the nave and transept were rebuilt. The bell tower was completed in 1877 and the church was consecrated in 1879.
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