A considerable amount of research has analysed the sociolinguistic situation in Brittany, most of it concentrating on Breton, the Celtic language of western Brittany which is strongly associated with a Breton ‘national’ or ‘regional’ identity (Hoare 2000; Le Coadic 1998; Broudic 1995; McDonald 1989). This paper will discuss the results of fieldwork in Upper Brittany, the eastern part of the region where Gallo is spoken. Gallo, the historical language of Upper Brittany, continues to be replaced by French, and is even under threat from the Breton language revival which provides a more obvious vehicle for regional identity (Blanchet and Walter 1999). From both a language revival and shift perspective, Gallo has both the advantages and disadvantages of being a langue d'oïl, with a consequently close linguistic relationship to standard French. There is wide confusion in public opinion as to whether it should be termed a patois, a dialect or even a deformed variant of French, or as a language in its own right. Unique amongst the langues d'oïl, however, Gallo is recognised as a regional language by the French Ministry of Education and is taught in many secondary schools in Upper Brittany. This paper draws essentially on research on the ambiguous presence of Gallo in the school system and its effect on the life of the language in the community.