The west of Brittany, Finistère, the end of the world, is characterised by a long, rugged rocky coastline. Not only the rocks and cliffs, but also the sea currents of over 16 km/h make the coast the most dangerous sea area in the world. It is therefore understandable that the density of lighthouses here is also the highest in the world. 52 out of 148 French lighthouses are located in Brittany and 20 of them are on the west coast alone, the Côte Iroise. You can take a lighthouse tour along the Breton coast on the Route du Phare, but we didn't do it.
In the Middle Ages, monks began to light open fires on the towers of their abbeys to guide boats - the first lighthouses, so to speak. It was not until the end of the 17th century that buildings were explicitly erected as lighthouses. Since then, technology has developed from open fires and oil lamps to today's special lenses that focus the light. Today, such a light has a range of up to 35 kilometres.
The lighthouses stand proudly on the edge of cliffs, on deserted islands or sometimes even on a single rock far from the mainland. The most extreme example is the Ar Men lighthouse in the middle of the Atlantic, 24 kilometres from the mainland, which took 14 years to build and was completed in 1881. Such almost inaccessible towers were called ‘hell’ by the lighthouse keepers, which brings us to the profession of lighthouse keeper.
It was only in 2010 that the last lighthouse keepers were replaced by fully automated towers with electric light sources. This reminds me of the need to transform our society today. Professions will also disappear as a result of the current transformation. When you look at the towers, you realise pretty quickly that lighthouse keeper was not an easy job and, above all, a very lonely one. In a „hell“ like Ar Men, it is also an arduous daily routine. The keeper has to use a winch to haul himself up to the tower when the sea is too rough to moor his boat. In 1922, a keeper was ‘trapped’ there for almost 3 months because he could not be relieved due to the raging sea. It is stories like this that probably increase the fascination for lighthouses even more.
We have seen the following lighthouses. (Photos in this order):
The Phare de Quiberon stands in the centre of Quiberon.
The Phare de Port-Halliguen stands in the harbour of Quiberon
In Le Conquet, we found the Phare Saint-Mathieu, which stands out with its red spire and right next to it are the ruins of the former monastery La Fontaine et le Lavoir. Nearby there is another ‘little brother’, the Petit Phare.
On a short hike in the bay of Saint-Cava, we saw the highest lighthouse on Île Vierge, Phare d'Île Vierge, from a distance, which is 82.5 metres high. On another island stood the Phare de l'Îlle Wrac'h, also with a red roof. From the bay of Saint-Cava, we were impressed by the fantastic view, not only of the two lighthouses, but also of the small islands off the coast.
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